Should there be penalties for leaving Pokemon GO Raids?

Pokemon GO's Raid Battle system can be hard for solo trainers to participate in. Not every player lives in areas filled with other trainers or Raid Battle spawn points. As such, it can be annoying when a user joins a Raid Battle, just for half of the lobby to disconnect as soon as the fight starts.

With this in mind, some players feel that Niantic should implement a penalty for players who leave these Raid Battles. However, it might not be the best idea to issue such punishments at the moment, given how many environmental factors can contribute to a trainer disconnecting outside of their control.

There are other options Niantic could implement that would help resolve this disconnection issue.

Note: Some aspects of this article are subjective and solely reflect the opinions of the writer

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How should Niantic handle Raid Battle disconnection in Pokemon GO?

With Raids being one of the biggest selling points for the newest season in Pokemon GO, Niantic may have to address the issue of frequent disconnection soon (Image via Niantic)

To solve this problem, Niantic should first fix the server connection issues in Pokemon GO. Several times throughout the game's history, in-person renditions of large-scale events have been ruined due to the servers not being able to handle so many players in one place.

While most sessions for the average player will not involve huge numbers of trainers, this issue can still rear its head from time to time, particularly when users interact with one another.

This problem is not restricted to Raid Battles as the Battle League is also plagued with disconnection issues. Despite the game being out for eight years as of writing, simple server issues are still impacting a large portion of its playerbase.

The next thing Niantic could do to address the problem of raid disconnects is to refund Raid Passes if players leave. Compensating users when others disconnect is a practice in many online games, most commonly seen in ranked modes, lessening elo loss.

This refund system could easily be exploited by players in groups, which is likely why Niantic has not implemented it already. To minimize this, the developer may only implement these compensations for those who use Remote Raid Passes to participate in raids since they are the variants that cost money. These refunds should also not be given to those who voluntarily leave these raids.

Also check: Pokemon GO Evolution Calculator

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Should players be punished for leaving Raid Battles in Pokemon GO?

Considering the frequency of players leaving Raid Battles due to factors beyond their control, and Niantic's perceived hesitation to address server-related issues, penalties for leavers should not be enforced. However, this stance could change if the developer enhances the game's servers to minimize disconnections.

Once the mobile title is in a more stable state, it would be prudent for Niantic to introduce a timeout system for players who leave raids, banning them from participating in the encounters for approximately an hour following their disconnection.

Also check: Pokemon GO CP calculator

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For more information on the game, check out the articles below:

• Ditto disguises
• Sierra counters
• Cliff counters
• Arlo counters
• Giovanni counters
• Team GO Rocket Grunts