Legitimate DC vs AFK
Time Warner cable has been messing up recently so I have lost connection 2 times in the past two days during games. Here's the issue: Currently a player can be reported for going "AFK" and most of the threads talks about the impact that it has on the remaining teammates. Although this is an issue (obviously), there has been less discussion on legitimate DCs. There needs to be more evidence surrounding the ability to report people for "AFK". For example, in both games that I DCed I was the only person being positive. My DC was clearly not a result of me being mad or "afking". In fact, my only death in the game came from an obvious connection issue and I dced early enough in the game to where it wouldn't have made sense for it to be a "Rage quit".
This brings up the question of what should be done. I personally never report people that have clear internet connection issues as I think it is simply out of their control. I do report people that say things like, "GG noobs I'm afk until 20". Moreover, there are times when somebody leaves for reasons that are ridiculous but also outside of the scope of the game. For example the classic, "We better win fast, I have to leave in 20 minutes for dinner."
The intent for these types of leaving behavior are different and should be treated as such. Therefore, I believe that "Leaving/AFK" should not be a reporting category. Indeed, the connotation of Leaving and AFK are at times very different. In the example above, a person that is otherwise pleasant but DCed could be seen as leaving. This could normally be viewed as people that leave the game when there is no real reason (i.e. early in the game or on a team that is otherwise even or winning). On the other hand, AFK behavior is much easier to detect implicitly or explicitly. This is behavior such as explicitly telling your team, "IDGAF if you report me I'm AFK until we FF" or implicitly after the game is out of hand and there is a clear "rage quit". The clear distinction of motivation deserves a distinction in punishment. A person that exhibits AFK behavior should be punished somewhat immediately as that is a deliberate move to ruin the game experience for others. Moreover, these same people would normally end up feeding or AFK pushing which are equally reportable behaviors. Their punishment should be swift and harsh.
A person that exhibits leaving behavior might have underlying issues such as connection. These people should be given a different punishment _if _there is a pattern in the behavior such as being banned from ranked until their connection issues change. Most people in this category end up playing less anyways until their connection is better.
TL:DR being AFK deliberately is different than leaving the game spontaneously due to internet connection, emergency, etc. Treating them as equals gives people that AFK for bad manner reasons more wiggle room but often punishes people that might have a spotty internet connection temporarily.
