Are you bored? Is your computer acting up? Has your home been hit by a power surge? Or was the level of play not cutting it? None of this matters when you’re in Competitive Play mode in the hit multiplayer FPS Overwatch. In a new added feature, Blizzard Entertainment penalizes players for bailing out mid-game. While the Competitive Play mode is only available to users beta testing it right now, a user on an Overwatch subreddit posted a screencap showing the potential new penalties from the game.
“Warning, penalties for leaving,” the screen alert reads. “Repeatedly leaving games will result in a 75% penalty to XP earned.” Additionally, you can be suspended from competitive play for increasing periods of time, up to receiving a ban for the entire season.
In the game’s Quick Play mode, users who leave mid-game simply receive a warning, and upon each mid-game exit after that occurrence, they’ll get a 75 percent XP loss. But if users continue playing to a “threshold of Quick Play games played vs. games completed,” the penalty is removed, Polygon reports.
The more serious penalties in Competitive Play mode mark a pretty strong stance from Blizzard against those who consistently break the rules. After launching the game, more than 1,500 cheaters were booted permanently worldwide. The video game developer/publisher even went so far to publicly list the Battle.net names of the users who had broken the Terms of Use through hacking programs or alternative cheating methods.
While Blizzard will continue tweaking Overwatch’s Competitive Play mode, expect its strong stance against those who break the rules to continue. It will likely keep developing new methods to either prevent or punish, in an attempt to put an end to unfair play in its game.
