Sprinting is fine, nerfing it will cause more issues

@ToastedSarnie It's too late! People had already bitten your head off violently in a PEGI-18 way inside their minds xD.

To all people who complain about "others keep sprinting away" what heroes are you playing exactly? And what heroes are escaping, anyway?

If you're playing Super Brainz, you jumped into someone dealing damage to them, and then they just sprinted away... Well, that's because they made a wise decision... Their heroes aren't designed to counter you, so why not sprint at all? They know that you have OHKO abilities too...

If you're playing Snapdragon, you sprayed fire all over people, and then your victims just sprinted away... Why is this a wrong tactic? You suddenly jumped into their faces and you set them on fire obstructing their vision with your flames...

If you're playing Foot Soldier, shooting someone near a cover and they sprinted away... So what? They could have been healed by others behind that cover even if you chased them, you'd be at a disadvantage. That's on you for miscalculating and judging the situation. If you were a better Foot Soldier, you would have foreseen them escaping and engaged them in a different manner.

Even if they removed sprinting... People will ditch heroes with shaky escaping abilities in favor of those who have reliable ones.

[Cat A] Escape Artists:

• Scientist
• Nightcap

[Cat B] Heroes that can escape with abilities:

• Rose
• Engineer (Using his speed boost) (He also has an upgrade that boosts movement speed once damaged, good luck shooting him!)
• Electric Slide
• Super Brainz
• 80s Action Hero
• Chomper (Burrow to escape rather than swallow)
• Deadbeard (Barrel, can be speed boosted as well)
• Acorn (should we count that as an escaping ability?)
• Space Cadet (Can be considered "shaky" but the ability can be buffed and works on all directions while having higher speed than usual.)

[Cat C] Heroes with situational escaping abilities:

• Foot Soldier (with the rocket leap that can be buffed) (Situational)
• Kernel Corn (would leap once panicking, low ceilings might obstruct proper escaping.)
• Imp (Being small, having longer double jump time? nah he'd be a victim of sprint reduction)
• Cactus (Highly situational)
• All-stars (Sprint Tackle isn't really the best escaping ability but it can work in certain situations, they have to increase aim sensitivity for it to work properly)
• Citron (Same as above, but at least both heroes have shields)
• Snapdragon (Not a reliable way to escape but his ability might work)
• Peashooter (Can just reach higher places with minor speed buff. He is a harder target to shoot overall.)

[Cat D] Heroes with no escaping abilites:

• Sunflower (Has no escaping abilities at all. But can be buffed using upgrades, wasting precious slots.)
• Imp (Being small, having longer double jump time? nah he'd be a victim of sprint reduction since he has 75 HP only and there are too many splash damage weapons or damage sources.)

If they added a sprint penalty for getting damaged... Sunflower will be the main victim alongside the Imp, perhaps. The best winners will be Scientist and Nightcap because they will be able to chase slowed down targets easily as well as evading any danger better than any other heroes. All Engineer's turret victims will be punished severely by being unable to sprint after getting damaged. Once Crater Maker hits you, you will get annihilated since you won't have the chance to escape. Snapdragons would thrive as well as Chompers with their Grody Goop. Because of those 2 heroes only, capturing objectives would become a true nightmare ...etc. (Sorry, won't be talking about all heroes here)

The thing is... Most of the heroes I usually pick are from [Cat A] and [Cat B]. They have the best escaping abilities because this game has too many OHKO abilities and you can't do much without escaping.

At the end of the day, people will always find ways escape. Regardless if they implemented sprint penalties or not. Players who would hate the new system would most likely pick Scientist or Nightcap or just pick long-range heroes. 

In a game that has too many OHKO abilities, I don't really think it would be a wise decision to remove sprinting at all. It would further increase players' frustrations rather than ease them. There are too many posts in here about OP abilities. I think if they wanted to implement this system, they should inspect OHKO abilities and tune balance heroes first. Otherwise, it will be a major buff to certain heroes and a nerf to others. And the overall balance would crumble.

Sorry for the long post...