When Blizzard announced Solo Shuffle for World of Warcraft, the solo queue only mode was announced as a work in progress, intended to help bridge the gap for those queuing solo but underserved by the Group Finder. In creating the new mode, they conceded that they were working carefully before its inclusion in 9.2: Eternity's End.
There are concerns from the community, as shared by Worldpvp, a member of the World of Warcraft Community Council, on the WoW forum regarding the potential for abuse in people leaving the queue and abandoning their matches for whatever reason and the impact it might have on the rest of the players. Developer Desvin responded with regards to the concerns about leaving and said that the team shares that concern and it was one of the reasons why they chose to start Solo Shuffle off as a Brawl.
They’ve also already made it so that if someone leaves the match, it regards them as having lost all three rounds, effectively making them 0-6 in the match, and everybody else 3-3. This way, it turns out mostly a wash for those who haven’t left in a rated mode, but it does eat up their time. Desvin’s response also adds in another aspect of what they are considering:
“Second, we’ll be using a pretty hefty Deserter penalty that prevents people from queuing that will stack with repeat departures. The first time you leave early may be 15 minutes. Subsequent early departures within a certain timeframe (perhaps 24 hours) will increase the duration by 5 minutes. We need to provide some grace for the occasional internet disconnect, but repeatedly leaving matches is a detriment to everyone.”
With regards to rewards, Solo Shuffle is also intended to be “the most efficient way to earn Honor for 9.2”, while also having its own individual button on the PvP pane to separate it from the standard Brawls.
For more, you can read the full question and answer at the World of Warcraft forum.
