Leavers are ruining TDMs in Apex Legends Season 16

Season 16 of Apex Legends brings a whole new dimension to the game and the Team Deathmatch (TDM) game mode is a part of this. Joining a few Limited Time Modes as part of a season-long LTM playlist that replaces Arenas in the matchmaker, it's easy to see why Team Death Matches are an exciting new feature. Players were sick of Arenas and it didn't look like the developers cared too much about it either. However, like every new game mode, The TDM mode has a problem.

So it turns out Apex Legends players don't take losing very well. Who knew, eh? (Looking at you, sweaty Wraith Mains). So a lot of them are leaving TDMs immediately after losing a round, without being bothered enough to try fighting back. Now this wasn't an issue in Arenas. At least not as much. Because if the entire enemy team quit in Arenas, the winning team would automatically be crowned and the match ends. However, this doesn't seem to be the case in TDMs, leading to some pretty awkward scenarios.

When the entire enemy team quits, winning teams face this weird scenario where all they can do is aimlessly free-roam the map until the game ends. The game won't automatically register a forfeit from an entire team and crown winners. Ultimately, this leads to the winning team needing to wait for the hidden timer to expire until they can rejoin the matchmaking queue. A post on the Apex Legends subreddit has attracted plenty of comments highlighting the issue.

This isn't mentioned in the Season 16 patch notes, but TDMs do have a hidden timer. So thankfully, players that find themselves in a situation where all opponents leave aren't stuck forever. However, it is quite a long wait. If the game goes on for 20 minutes, it ends, automatically crowning the team with more kills as the winner. However, in circumstances where the entire enemy team has left the game as early as the second round, the winning team has to wait for around 15-17 minutes. Win conditions for TDMs are round-based and kill-based. The first team to score 30 kills in a round wins the round. The first team to win two rounds wins the match. The only way to end a round other than scoring 30 kills is to wait out the timer.

In circumstances where most of the enemy team has left but someone chooses to stay, it turns into a game of hide-and-seek. The entire team is basically roaming around the map looking for one or two players who choose to play sneaky and pick off wanderers.

Players were quite vocal about all these issues around TDMs and it looks like the developers were paying attention. They rolled out a quick patch that addresses these problems.

Team Deathmatch Mode was introduced with the launch of Apex Legends Season 16. It's a 6v6 Team Deathmatch mode where players run the gauntlet against each other until one team scores enough kills.

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