Rejected Preventing VGC Bo3 Players from Rage Quitting by Leaving Tab Open

[caliro]

I primarily play VGC Bo3 formats and have had an issue with other players rage "quitting". Instead of forfeiting, they leave the tab open and let the turn timer run to 0 so the game auto selects their moves. This is a problem in Bo3 because it forces the other player to sit for 60-180 seconds each turn, over the course of 2-3 games because their opponent either doesn't want to play or wants to cheese a forfeit out of them.

In this set, my opponent left after turn 4 of game 1 and I ended up spending 12+ minutes waiting for their moves to be autoselected:
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9vgc2024reggbo3-2143338052-aldrobep1oehx6x2gfrb6xd6gp9mvhxpw
https://replay.pokemonshowdown.com/gen9vgc2024reggbo3-2143343569-5y06cikv83obuh0lq81qn05ieut5b0lpw

I think this would probably reflect the game behavior in Battle Stadium Doubles. However, by official VGC rules, walking away from a match before both players’ game systems have recognized the results of the final game is a Warning (if it causes disruption to the other player), and is grounds for a game loss penalty. If done intentionally, manipulating the outcome of a match by distraction is a Major penalty with the recommended penalty being a game loss.

I think that ending the battle after a X number of consecutive turns of inactivity would be fair to the player who does not have to wait 15-20 minutes from a QoL perspective, and reflective of a ruling that could take place in an official VGC match.

 

[DaWoblefet]

I don't viably see a way to do this without punishing players who naturally run out of Your Time. If you punish players who run out of Your Time with a set loss, rather than just a game loss, then you need to have some way of determining when a player "took too much" time, or timed out "too many" times. Imagine, for example, a player with bad internet who timed out naturally turn 2, who starts having trouble turn 3, and when their internet reliably comes back, it's turn 7 and they lost naturally. Is that "too many" turns? Moreover, there's nothing stopping a player who is trying to troll / spite you from just selecting their moves at 1 second remaining each turn. They could delay the match in this way. They will eventually lose to running out of Your Time, of course. But realistically, players timing out across games like this aren't doing so maliciously; they are much more likely just pulled away irl and didn't have the opportunity to forfeit properly.

I think this would probably reflect the game behavior in Battle Stadium Doubles. However, by official VGC rules, walking away from a match before both players’ game systems have recognized the results of the final game is a Warning (if it causes disruption to the other player), and is grounds for a game loss penalty. If done intentionally, manipulating the outcome of a match by distraction is a Major penalty with the recommended penalty being a game loss.

I think that ending the battle after a X number of consecutive turns of inactivity would be fair to the player who does not have to wait 15-20 minutes from a QoL perspective, and reflective of a ruling that could take place in an official VGC match.

I'm not actually sure what the ruling would be if a player just got up and left their Switch behind. The ruling you mention is someone, like, yanking their Switch out of the dock and storming off. The more analogous situation here is if a player just put their controller down, and didn't select any moves. As far as I'm aware, you are allowed to do this at live events. It wouldn't be a very good strategy, but I see no reason why a judge would issue a penalty for a player, say, putting their controller down at the end of game 1 to just study the team sheet for game 2.

Overall, what you're describing is flaws with Your Time as a system fundamentally with afk users. My recommendation would be to just win more games, so you climb out of low ladder and are able to fight against players who are more likely to care about their rank and not just afk time out.