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There's a exp penalty that reduces the exp you get by 75% if you leave too many Overwatch matches.

What I want to understand is, what constitutes leaving. If my game crashes and I have to kill it in task manager while I am in a game, does that count as leaving? If I leave the match during the hero select screen (pre-prep period), does this still count as leaving? Do I have to wait the entirety of the PoTG as well as the commendation screen then leave to not get a penalty?

What constitutes "leaving"? I'd like to know so I don't get penalties.

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You get an XP penalty if you leave a certain percentage of your last 20 games. Testing has shown that that you will be shown a warning if you've left 3 of your last 20 games. From Blizzard's patch notes, leaving one more game will cause you to get a Leaver Penalty.

This can be for any reason, including game/computer crashes. You should be able to leave during the hero select screen as long as it's before the game's Setup time has started.

A match is considered to be completed as soon as the words Victory or Defeat appear on the screen. This is when XP is actually awarded as well... you can tell this because the achievements for levels 10, 20, and 50 are awarded before the Play of the Game appears.

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    And by "testing" I mean "kept getting put in bad pubs." I didn't think to screencap the warning, though and it has disappeared now, soooo....
    – Powerlord
    Commented Jun 5, 2016 at 19:14
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    What exactly constitutes leaving though? If I leave say during the warmup, or waiting for players, is that penalized? If I leave during the hero select before the 1 minute setup time, does that still count?
    – childe
    Commented Jun 5, 2016 at 19:40
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    @Retrosaur As far as I can tell, as long as you leave before Setup time starts (which is after waiting for players and "prepare your team"), it shouldn't count.
    – Powerlord
    Commented Jun 5, 2016 at 21:27
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I've left matches right after seeing my level bar grow with the XP from that match and right after entering a new match in the first seconds of hero picking.

I've never had any leaver penalties. Most of the times I leave is after seeing the XP bar though.

However, I see a lot of people leaving as soon as they see the commendation screen after the "play of the game" so I'm betting that's safe too.

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