[STAFF] How does the server decide who to penalize when a random disconnect occurs?

@Sirlin @SG_Staff
There have been several situations where I randomly lost connection to my opponent in a Ranked match and the server went on to count it as a loss, which particularly cost me stars in Diamond. There have also been a few such situations where I got the win and it gave me stars I didn’t deserve. Besides, Black Screens of Death (BSoDs) have persisted, where the only way out is to exit the game. Sometimes this may result in a loss.

So, how does the server decide who to penalize?

Side note: The online experience for me has been unpleasant ever since the game became free-to-play. Things seem to have improved lately but BSoDs and random disconnects still occur occasionally.

making that knowledge public seems like it could open up abuse

My suggestion is the opposite. In the last days, I’ve ‘won’ twice in Ranked for opponents disconections. In one of them I had a big advantage and the system gave me the victory; but in the other one, I had just a slight advantage and the game was not considered.

So I’d prefer to give lose to quiters unless they had a clear advantage in the match.

As a matter of fact, in Casual Matches about 99% (perhaps 100%) of times where my opponent disconnected I was winning. When I am losing my opponents never disconect (fortunately, they are the most interesting games).

So I suspect that the most often reason is because rage quiters, not real disconections. Apart from that, if your internet is not stable, you should play just Casual Games.