‘Apex Legends’ Appears to Have a Leaver Penalty Now

Apex Legends’ latest update appears to have added an undocumented change that penalizes players for leaving too many games in a short period of time, according to accounts from players who’ve been hit with the penalty. The new update that’s the first notable patch to release since the start of Season 1 doesn’t currently have a leaver penalty listed in the patch notes at the time this is being written, but players have shared screenshots of the penalty in effect as well as lines from the game’s files that reference the change.

The full patch notes that are seen here don’t include anything about the leaver penalty, but that doesn’t mean players haven’t seen it themselves. The patch also caused some players to have problems with their account progress that resulted in quick action from Respawn Entertainment. In both of those posts on Reddit, players shared the news of the new leaver penalty as some figured out how it works.

“There is a new leaver penalty, if you leave 3 matches in a row before time out or squad wipe, you’ll get a 5 minute penalty and won’t be able to search a match,” one player said on Reddit after they were presumably hit with the penalty.

Players leaving once they’ve been eliminated has been a problematic occurrence in Apex Legends since launch seeing how it leaves a team down a player when there was still a chance for them to return. The notification before leaving a game would previously tell them that there’s a chance teammates could revive them and would ask if they’re sure they want to leave, but the new notification tells players they run the risk of triggering “a delay in matchmaking” if they leave games.

Other examples of the leaver penalty in action that were shared on Twitter show that a player was penalized for around five minutes with a notification that said their matchmaking was delayed due to them abandoning teammates.

Respawn does not appear to have commented on the new penalty yet, so it’s unclear precisely how it works or if the penalties escalate over time.

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