Dota 2 players have maintained a proud history of never surrendering – unless, of course, they’re getting absolutely trounced and open mid. The popular MOBA game’s rigorous comeback mechanics mean that pretty much any game is winnable, no matter how doomed the position. However, developer Valve is now implementing an in-game forfeit mechanic, but only for five-stacks who really just want to go next.
As part of the latest matchmaking update, full parties can now all chat ‘gg’ to surrender a game. The mechanic can only be activated after the 30 minute mark, and when the surrender is called the same ten second countdown and cancel UI seen in pro games will pop up. Should the surrender go through, the game will naturally be scored as a loss.
But this isn’t the only change being made for full parties, which will now no longer be restrained to matching against other five-stacks in ranked. Valve has subsequently tweaked its matchmaking system “to make finding a game as a full party faster”.
So far, the response to the patch has been mixed. While many support the new forfeit feature – “thank god”, says Reddit user ‘trubaduruboy’ – there are those who feel it’s against what DOTA’s about – “game’s gone”, replies ‘jMS_44’. Even among those who feel like the mechanic is positive, there are hopes that Valve won’t roll out the change to solo queue.
Today's update commandeers the seasonal Dota Plus refresh to introduce the Battle Report, Weekend Spotlight, Unlocked Immortal Spell Effects, and more including the 7.31d Gameplay Update. https://t.co/yBPIngENsv pic.twitter.com/42lOB9fsTS
— DOTA 2 (@DOTA2) June 9, 2022
As for the second change, there are far more concerns being raised over the competitive integrity of five-stacking against smaller groupings of players. Contrary to Valve’s reasoning behind the move – which is to promote playing with friends – ‘eddietwang’ says “all Valve is doing here is discouraging playing with one or two friends” as coordinated five-stacks are likely to have a major advantage.
If anything, players wish Valve would work on implementing features to encourage group play. ‘qwertz_guy’, for example, suggests a party finder “that shows other people with their rank, preferred role, favourite heroes, behaviour score, language, communication options, etc.”
Though it appears that the forfeit mechanic is being implemented in the right way, the five-stack queue change could be a swing and a miss – though only time will tell.