#1 - June 24, 2014, 12:54 p.m.
Blizzard Post
As part of our continued efforts to curb exploitative behavior and improve the overall PvP experience for our players, we’re applying a couple of hotfixes that will make a few changes to how the Deserter debuff functions, and also apply it to Arenas and Rated Battlegrounds.

Once these hotfixes are applied, a player who leaves an Arena or Rated Battleground before anyone in the match has entered combat will, at first, be given a 5-minute Deserter debuff. If they leave another match prematurely within a 20-minute window, the duration of the Deserter debuff will increase by 5 minutes each time (and the 20-minute window will restart), to a maximum of 20 minutes. The debuff will also apply if a player leaves the queue (or ignores it) once the match is ready and they’re given the prompt to enter.

The Deserter debuff given for leaving a non-rated Battleground early will also be changed to begin at 5 minutes (and increase by 5 minutes for each subsequent desertion), but otherwise the rules will stay the same. Leaving a Random Battleground in progress at any point before it’s finished will give the Deserter debuff, and leaving or ignoring the prompt to enter a non-rated Battleground will not.

We’re currently in the process of preparing and testing the hotfix, but hope to push it live with this week’s maintenance period.