Since 6 September a dropped connection does not empty your seat.
What happens
- The moment your socket dies without you choosing to leave, the server holds your seat for 20 seconds.
- You stay in the map, frozen, taking no input. You are still a target. Someone can kill you while you are frozen and take the points.
- Your frags, deaths, points and streak stay with the seat.
- Rejoin from the servers list, take the same room, and you get the same seat back with everything on it.
- After 20 seconds with no return, the seat is freed and the map result records you as disconnected.
What does not get held
Choosing to leave (the leave button, closing the tab) frees the seat at once. A kick for being too far, and a server shutdown, free it too.
In a challenge
The window is 60 seconds once the countdown has begun. “Rejoin now. Your seat is held for 60 seconds, then you forfeit the pot.”
Why it works this way
The alternative was a Wi-Fi blip spoiling the match for everyone else: a seat vanishing mid-fight, a pot recalculated, a room reshuffled. Holding the seat and keeping you as a target keeps the match honest for the other seven people. Results affected by a drop stand for the same reason.
Frag race note
If you drop in a frag race map and do not make it back inside 20 seconds, that counts as leaving mid-map: your entry stays in the pot.