Published , by Chris Jarrard
Published , by Chris Jarrard
Rocket League will see the release of its anticipated Season 4 update this week and some early news about changes to matchmaking penalties for those who leave multiplayer matches early have ruffled some feathers in the Rocket League community.
Historically, penalties for quitting matches early in Rocket League were confined to players who participated in Ranked playlists. Leaving competitive online matches currently carries a sliding scale of penalties that adjust based on how many matches are abandoned in a 24-hour period. One match drop results in a five-minute matchmaking timeout then rises to ten minutes, twenty minutes, forty minutes, one hour, two hours, and twenty-four hours (should you quit seven times in a 24-hour period).
Players who participate in Casual playlists have not been subject to any penalty for quitting. This will change on Wednesday when the Season 4 Update arrives. The new penalties for those who abandon games Casual playlists are similar to the existing Ranked playlist penalties, though much more relaxed. The first quit in a 24-hour period carries no penalty at all. A five-minute matchmaking timeout applies for the second drop and so on.
Rocket League developer Psyonix has mentioned that steps are being taken to prevent players from being placed into blowout matches already in progress and to prevent being placed into the same lobby multiple times. Predictably, not all players are happy about the coming changes, but that would apply to most video game updates and there is nothing preventing Psynoix from reversing course should this Casual playlist penalty system fail to work as intended.