Does Valorant need to rethink its punishment system for disconnections?

Valorant players have been suffering from playing at a disadvantage in games with disconnected players. The community largely feels that Riot Games probably should rethink its punishment system.

The current system in place sees punished Valorant players with specific queue penalties for disconnecting from a game, even if the player is disconnecting from a 5v3 scenario where two players have already abandoned the game. However, some believe that Valorant needs a punishment system that is similar to the one in Dota 2.

Would be nice if a player has a lot of afk's that he'll likely get matched with people who afk too for a while until the system realizes he doesnt anymore

— 𝖙𝖚𝖒𝖚 (@tumutree) December 10, 2020

The present system in Dota 2 starts a timer from the time of disconnection which runs for five minutes. If the disconnected player fails to reconnect within those five minutes, they are handed a ban for a short period while also placing them in the "low-priority" matchmaking pool. However, every other player in the match is offered a chance to quit the match without any penalty from a loss being recorded.

Bro can you not pair normal players up with people that just leave the game if they’re bottom fragging and shit it’s annoying pair em up with other people that do that shit

— sleekwtf (@sleekwtf) December 10, 2020

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Valorant's punishment system for disconnections

According to Redittor u/NewRedditLayoutSux69 on the r/Valorant subreddit, Valorant should implement an updated system which does not require players to forcefully waste their time. The present system can be brutal at times, especially in situations where players find themselves playing at a numbers disadvantage.

u/NewRedditLayoutSux69's post on the r/Valorant subreddit

Some might object to the "no punishment" policy suggested by the redittor. However, they went on to clarify that players leaving would still count as a loss and even affect their rank if the player was playing Rated mode.

This system of allowing players to leave a match instead of being forced to play with a numbers disadvantage seems like an extremely viable one compared to the present punishment system present in the game.

Fortunately, given that the developers at Riot Games are hard-focused on creating one of the best FPS games with a near-perfect admin-system, Valorant might soon witness an upgrade to the existing punishment system present in the game. Nevertheless, until that happens, players have to play out each and every round even if someone disconnects without any intention of reconnecting.