Apex Legends‘ Senior Systems Designer Eric ‘Ghost’ Hewitt has confirmed that the development team will be handing out widespread punishments to those who have been abusing a glitch in Ranked Play that lets them leave games without facing matchmaking penalties.
Ranked Play is a way to test your skills against opponents of a similar skill level, with your performance earning a rank which can vary from bronze all the way up the to the top level – which is known as Apex Predator.
Winning matches or placing highly can earn points towards improving your rank, while getting eliminated early sees them taken away from you. Abandoning games early offer the biggest punishments, though, as not only will you lose Ranked Play points, but you’ll be hit with a matchmaking penalty that will stop you from joining matches for a length of time dictated by your past.
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Unfortunately, some Apex Legends players have found that while quitting from the in-game menu causes these penalties, closing the entire game and starting it again negates these punishments.
This practice is known as ‘dashboarding,’ and means that should players join a Ranked Play lobby that looks difficult, or if they find themselves with teammates who they don’t want to play with, they are able to abandon the game with no consequences.
The loophole looks set to be closed in the near future. When asked by a player about ways to report those who dashboard the game, Hewitt confirmed that there was “no need to report it manually,” as the development team can see it on their end. The Senior Systems Designer ended the tweet with a warning to those who have been using the trick too, writing: “Judgement Day will be coming.”
hey, no need to report it manually, we can see it on our end. Judgment Day will be coming 🙂
— Eric Hewitt / Ghost (@GH057ayame) January 7, 2020
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On top of the upcoming wave of penalties, Hewitt also confirmed that the Respawn Entertainment team are working on a system that will hand out “immediate punishment” in the future, explaining that they needed to get “everything lined up appropriately.”
He concluded: “We care deeply about the ranked experience, so things will be handled soon.”
there will be more immediate punishment in the future, just have to get everything lined up appropriately. We care deeply about the ranked experience, so things will be handled soon
— Eric Hewitt / Ghost (@GH057ayame) January 7, 2020
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What punishments “Judgement Day” will entail remains unknown, but it seems Respawn are aware of those who have been abusing the system and will be handing out retrospective penalties.
There’s currently no confirmed date for when these will be issued to players, or for when the system that immediately punishes those who dashboard the game will go live in Apex Legends.
