Remove abandon penalty from Mixtape mode

Back when Mixtape came out, it didn't have an abandon penalty.
But this definitely was not great in my opinion.

Once a player left, a chain reaction started, until every single player left the lobby, causing the match to be canceled.
This kept happening to the majority of matches, resulting in a large portion of mixtape games ending too early & without result.
A lot of complaints kept rolling in about it, there were a decent chunk of players that wanted an abandon penalty.

I don't see any reason for players to leave a game early, unless other players are leaving as well.
Though in such cases Respawn/EA should look into other solutions, for example backfill

Totally agree with XHelperZ​ I would even go further and add it in all modes.

Pubs (especially trios) are notoriously known for not so smart players hotdropping time after time to get their lobbies easier (due to repetitive instant dying) to then go get that 4k or 20 kill badge basically playing in bot lobbies. Would be so much more time consuming if abandonment penalty would be present in this mode as well -> making gameplay for normal people much better.

Also people would not develop stupid "reflex" if dropping whatever they are doing to rush to pick up someone who died in fear that he/she will insta-leave. Believe it or not had this case yesterday in P3/P2 lobbies for 3 games IN A ROW and people kept doing that despite me calling out not to pick me up and fight instead or relocate instead to save the game / RP.

People should work not only on their skill but also ethics and time management in this community!

No, with Mixtape mode's current **bleep**ty team balance and overflowing with cheaters, where there are almost no decent matches, a ridiculous feature like an abandon penalty is nothing more than a hindrance.

The only reason people are still saying "we need abandon penalties" given this **bleep**ty current situation is because they've never played Mixtape mode, which is completely ruined by the current garbage team balance and cheaters, and if you've played the current garbage Mixtape mode even once, you'll immediately understand how much of a hindrance the abandon penalty is and how it's nothing more than a ridiculous feature.

The opinion that abandon penalties should be implemented in all modes is too ridiculous. In ranked matches, the number of squad members themselves has a big impact on RP and ranking, so abandon penalties should be there, but they don't affect points in other modes, and it's completely wrong to choose pubs and then complain about hot drops and the state of the lobby. If you hate it that much, just play ranked matches. There are badges for 4000 damage and 20 kills, so it's natural that there are players who aim for them, and pubs is a casual battle and play where you hot drop from the first move and just fight, and if you lose, you move on to the next match, and if you want to play something like an ALGS simulator where a lot of squad members remain until the end, you can just play ranked matches, or create your own community, gather people, and hold a custom match.

Also, even though the current Mixtape mode has almost no effect on match results, there is no tracker for Mixtape mode, and unlike pubs it has almost no effect on game ratings, it is clearly wrong to force players to leave by imposing a penalty for leaving. If they were to give in and implement an abandon penalty to tie players down to matches, they should do so after they are able to provide matches with good team balance and which actually work. It certainly shouldn't be implemented in Mixtape mode, where team balance is completely broken and cheaters are allowed to run wild, resulting in broken matches.

Though in that case the problem would be the state of the matches themselves, the matchmaker and the amount of cheaters.
Getting rid of the abandonment penalty will not solve those problems, it would be a bandaid fix that would not solve any of the problems at hand. The abandonment penalty is not the root cause of the problem.

Not only would you be introducing the previous problem of matches just ending prematurely because of the domino effect where everyone leaves  one by one, but the original problems of poor matchmaking & a lot of cheaters would exist.
Personally I can't see how that change would be helpful to the game, if you need to get rid of the abandonment penalty because most of the matches aren't worth to be played, at that point there is a larger problem at hand.

In such case, we should be complaining about poor matches or the cheaters, as that is what's causing the problems.

True - I have not played basically at all other modes vs ranked where I have like 10k+ hours out of mine total 12, 13, 15 idk at this point tbh.

At the same time I have played I guess all of modes except new 1v1 and there was one with coins and respawning where most got 4k and 20bomb badges recently - skipped that too. Yet your mentioned issues - matchmaking, skill gap, hackers - are present in ranked at all levels as well. So you can't say that this is only Mixtape issue, quite sure system for matchmaking is the same for all modes.

On the other hand how I view gaming online and especially in team games = it is not about "what I want to do" it is finding balance between "what I want to do" and "what others want to do" and how the game is suppose to be played.

Typical example from my first experience online - Need for speed. Players line up, 8 cars, 4 lap race. One dude rages after first corner where he failed, turns around and starts driving in opposite direction creating head collisions with other 7 players => that affects other players and they lose their racing lines, positions.
Player is just sore loser imo. Came for easy win, lost in first 10 seconds, did not bother to try and even more so spoil the experience for others.

Same with Apex. Each mode has its own goal around which game mechanic is built, balancing done etc. So you say in your example that dropping hot and leaving is fine and don't agree with that as pubs = ranked just without RP on the line, a bit less stressful but overall its goal is to mimic ranked game scenario or at least main goal should be winning the game because again we can make an argument that there is no point in getting kills/assists as in pubs you don't get RP for it vs ranked where in higher levels you can't even get positive outcome just by winning the game, you require to have certain amount of kills/assists.

There was this mode with respawns so people would not basically need to leave the game to requeue - cool, there you can do all you want how you want, that is just a meat-grinder type of play, mega damages, mega deaths, non-stop running and gunning basically for the sake of pressing buttons and getting dopamine rushes for all the numbers and kills and what not.

Apex community unfortunately consists of 90%+ very egoistic players = you come into team game to achieve PERSONAL goals. It's like going to play football and just ignore other 10 players on the team. Only difference in football you would be rolled over like a b#%@ nice and fast while in Apex with all assists and cheating and balancing you actually have a fake feeling that you can make it / in lower skilled lobbies you can make it without a team.

Which results in people being super selfish, my way or high way mentality, unable to talk and reach agreements with other people to go for the same goal, bending rules is viewed as normal, anyone better than you = hacker without even looking at their footage (unfortunately limited also by the game)...which all creates environment what we all so well know = pretty much it is impossible to play, mostly negative emotions unless you find some "weird" goal like dropping fragment and dying 100 times in a row at which point your sanity should be questioned and question "is this game really for you" asked.
The fact that we can do whatever we want on internet does not mean automatically that we should -> abandonment penalty is just a strict (10min or whatever) reminder about it for people who think they are better than others and others must do what they deem necessary.

p.s. Valorant also has similar system - queue skipping - and imo it works really well, it makes you learn how to play with good and bad players, how to be along for the ride and how to take the lead, how to endure being rolled over while still winning as a team, be happy that your teammates did so much better and carried you as well as remain humble when you get into "bot lobby" and just roll over others. Much more valuable time spent vs what is happening in Apex where even at so highly praised Masters level in ranked people go Fragment with 6 teams and couldn't care less about anything than their ego.

That's why I'm saying it's wrong to try to force players into matches when those issues haven't been resolved!

Don't you understand why I'm saying that if you want to implement abandon penalties to stop players from leaving, then do it after you're able to provide decent matches that are playable?

You say that everyone is dropping out one after the other like dominoes falling, causing the match to end early, but the matches themselves are already full of things that don't work properly because of cheats and **bleep**ty team balancing, so why can't you understand that forcing players into something that isn't even a match and trying to make them play to the end is wrong in and of itself?

There are so many low quality matches and matches full of cheats, so before you complain about them, stop wasting your time by binding yourself to those rubbish matches!

As I have said many times, only once we are able to provide properly functioning matches should we introduce systems such as abandon penalties to prevent players from leaving.

As things stand, we are only able to provide low-quality matches, so I am saying that we need to first build a system that can provide matches that are close to fair, rather than a system that forcibly prevents players from leaving!

I simply cannot understand why they don't realize that the number of people playing Mixtape mode and Apex itself is plummeting because people are sick and tired of the system offering only crappy matches, and then have to waste their time on those crappy matches because of the abandon penalties.

I completely agree that Valorant has a much better matchmaking system. In fact, I don't think any other big title has a more broken matchmaking system than Apex.

And if you want that kind of good matchmaking then you shouldn't bother using Apex pubs.

This is because pubs should not be a strict and rigid match like a ranked match, but a place where each player can play freely and with their own goals and objectives of their own choosing.

Your argument that you want to impose abandon penalties to create the state you want because you don't like people leaving in the middle of your game or lobbies decreasing too quickly sounds like an extremely selfish argument that you want to force your play style and ideals on players who have other goals (for example, players who want to complete challenges for daily challenges or event rewards, players who simply want to fight, players who want to check things that can't be checked in the shooting range, players who want to warm up before ranked matches, etc.).

Therefore, if you want to play with other players after sharing and agreeing on the same goals and playstyle you desire, you should play ranked matches, which have a clear goal of defeating enemy forces, increasing your rank, and surviving until the end, rather than playing PUBS, a mode where you can act freely within the match, and you should never try to impose your desired playstyle or ideals on other players who play PUBS by saying that penalties should be introduced.

Keep in mind that this is just your ideal and may be far from ideal for another player who plays pubs.

I don't know about you but from most people who complain about matchmaking all I see is following:
- they come into competitive game with only one goal = not to lose, EVER. As soon as they get into situation where they are losing or even are best player on the team and has to IGL, carry most of the weight = BAD MATCHMAKING.
- they expect all in case of Apex 60 players to be basically the same skill, which I am sure is not possible. Adding to that in team game be it Apex or more so Valorant (5 instead of 3 players per team) there are team roles which most DO NOT ACCEPT. Most people want to just frag, have highest damage, kills, RP and eventually not only / not so much win over the enemies but internal team battle

Getting back to my selfish point above.

If players would accept / Respawn would be more open about their matchmaking e.g. Valorant has really good tracker available, you can easily review your teammate's performance before the match / during pick phase -> and if players would accept that not everyone will get 4k 20 bomb and nor they should for team to succeed, to play their legends to their strength (talking to supports who initiate pushes or skirmishers who are passive or dib out mid fight) - maybe you would see that matchmaking is not THAT bad as it looks.

Currently the only argument for people who complain is the fact that 60 players are not copy/past type of lobby.
While my only complaint since season 7 was about:
1. don't put 3stacks in the same lobby with 2stacks and soloqers
2. don't put anyone below D2 into Master lobbies -> below Masters into Pred lobbies
Why? Because difference is just too huge and even pros / TTV have admitted the fact.

As for your point about warming up - how can I warm up for ranked in pubs if people are allowed to do whatever?

I view the game like: first I come to play like this game is intended to be played -> all the challenges, badges, cosmetics come along as byproduct of it. E.g. if I have a challenge to play 20 games as X legend I just play 20 ranked games be it 20 min or 5h in total and eventually get it done.
How I see other players like you / your mentality do it: they go to pubs and just hotdrop / disconnect / repeat 20 times to get challenge done in like 5 min...
Have you asked yourself what's the point?
Do you really think that someone really cares about your badges, skins, achievements, stats?
Is your player profile some sort of business plan (to be sold later) or museum piece (put on display to be gloated upon)?
In my experience noone cares, people who came to play BR game appreciate the most: willingness and ability to teamwork, communicate and compete. As Michael Jordan said "nothing unites people more than victories/win".

At the same time I can accept the fact that some people have their own weird goals, but my point is that people like that should play those 1v1, multiple respawn modes not other modes where emphasis is on mimicking BR competitive game environment (warm up for ranked), teamwork, synchronized pushes and defenses, resource sharing, tactics. Getting back to my Need for speed example = I don't think it is ok to allow and more so encourage players to drive the opposite way and create collisions.

You seem to be misunderstanding something.

Skins, badges, achievements, etc. are not something you get just to show off or brag to someone, but rather for your own satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.

You say that in your experience no one cares, but that's your own subjective opinion and values, and it's clearly wrong to assert that as if it were a general statement.

And as I've said many times before, you shouldn't try to force other players to follow your expectations and values ​​for the game. In the first place, not everyone is doing pubs with the sole aim of winning, and if you want to only aim for winning, as I've said many times before, you should just play ranked matches.

And you claim that what people who come to play BR value most is teamwork, communication, and the desire and ability to compete, as if your values ​​are common to all players, but that's also wrong. That's your personal value and what you personally want, and some players don't think they're that important an evaluation point.

As I mentioned earlier, there are players who play PUBs for various reasons, such as enjoying combat more than winning, or understanding the map structure and movement routes, and there are also players who value challenges, badges, and cosmetic items that you think are just by-products of the game and don't have much value. As I've said many times before, stop forcing your personal thoughts and values ​​on others and insisting that they are general sense.

If you want to realize what you talk about, instead of trying to force it on players who play PUBS with other purposes, you should just play ranked matches that are based on your values ​​and are rewarded with points. In the end, you're just playing the wrong mode.

It's clearly wrong to ignore that and insist that other players' play styles behave as if they're wrong and conform to your personal values ​​and way of thinking.