Another week one player here, though I never took a break. Been here all along. And you're right in your observations. EA is a living nightmare. Respawn is not much better, though I'm sure that in many ways that's the fault of their EA overlords.
The matchmaking in the game is broken and for a lot of different reasons. But you can find a lot of newer, higher-population games that are as bad or worse. I've been playing shooters since 2001, and online multiplayer since Halo 2, and I've never seen one single game get matchmaking right, or really even anything like what I would call high-functioning. If the dev doesn't F up the matchmaking then the player base will. Apex currently is suffering from both problems.
But you pointed out the player distr. curve. I'm assuming you're calling it by that name intentionally and that's the name it has in unranked trios. Where, imo, there should not be a leave penalty. And you're right that a lot of players, myself included, look carefully at that data and will exit the match without compunction before it's even started. As they should. If Respawn can't or won't take matchmaking seriously then I applaud them at least for giving me the information I need to manage it myself. You're also right to point out that people will quit on a knock almost 90% of the time.* It is what it is. If you need to get away from that then you need ranked or Wildcard. And take it from me when I say that Wildcard's free and unlimited respawns (which are the only thing that will stop people from quitting) are on their way to the main game. Next season? The one after? I don't know. I don't know when they'll come, but they're coming. And yes, people will stay in matches. But it's also the final dumb-down of the game and when it finally does happen I'll shake my head at how far downhill this game has gone since season zero. I can list off dozens of changes from 26 seasons, none of which have made the game better - and I struggle to think of even one single change that I thought was an improvement.
*And here's where I defend a good chunk of the knock quitters. Yes, I know a lot of them are just poor sports, but also: a lot of the blame goes once again to the developer. Last season or this, can't remember which, they removed 70% of evo harvesters and probably just as many replicators. And replicators are the only feasible way (90% of the time) to get a downed player's banner. People know this, and they know the second they're knocked that the odds of a successful reentry to the match are almost zero. So they quit. That's Respawn and their new "engage or screw you" mentality. They've removed any viable non-combat option to advance in a match. So the question isn't, "Why do knocked players quit?" The question is, "Why would they bother to stay?"
When they added the abandon penalty the player leaving problem just about went away, that was an issue since launch and that fixed the problem with leaving players, that was the time the game was the best too, all of sudden games did not end up with one player and there were not banner crafters then either. They did not add crafting banners till 2023 and i think that is when they got rid of the abandon penalty. That is years after and the game was great before then. Either way the game was the best when they had the penalty.
No matter how you look at it, a player leaving a team after drop or death is bad for the match, it sabotages the match for the rest of the team that stay. Countless games won with only two players left. More often than with a full squad.
Push comes to shove it does not even matter they trashed the game and many other issues like matchmaking. BUT them adding that abandon penalty back would make matches more fun for those the do not quit. Even if they allowed a certain number of matches before you even got penalized and made the penalty shorter. like 1 mins 2 mins 3 mins, add a min each time. People would be more thoughtful before leaving, instead of being dropped and leave.
EA owns respawn now too, they bought the company for 315 million. A lot of people do not realize that because technically they did not change the name. Its no different than a company that buys out apartment complexes and keeps the names of the apartment complexes. They still own and control them.
The only leave penalty this game ever had is in ranked. Where there should be a leave penalty. In unranked trios or ltms like wildcard... not needed.
And while I agree with you in principle about the penalty in ranked, I have to add this: Don't believe for one minute that a player who stays in the match to avoid the penalty is somehow a credible and committed squadmate. Most players who would have quit, would have done so because something happened in the match that caused them to be done with the match. Forcing them to stay doesn't motivate them to take on the cheater who just killed them, or to grab the banner of a dead teammate who soloed off to the other side of the map, or etc. etc. etc. A lot of the time people "stay" in the match because "penalty" if they don't, but they loiter, do nothing, fly out of the circle on respawn, you name it. There are so many counter productive behaviors an unmotivated player can indulge in. And we haven't even got to the most basic "put down controller and walk away." Which seems to happen less. There used to be an afk penalty. Is there still? That would explain it if there is. At any rate, I'm glad for you if you don't see a lot of these kinds of squadmates. I don't see a lot of them anymore, but then I don't play a lot of ranked. Anymore. It's a sewer. With or without quitters.
Nope they added it a couple seasons in and was in for a while. You are not a week one player.
They had abandoned penalty for a long time in base game and there are plenty of old reddit posts about people complaining about it. You lack logical thinking.
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