I'm a (not too) novice Hearthstone player, this month I'm on rank 12 in ranked mode and many, many, many times when my opponents feels that I'm gonna win the fight they just quit the game; that is, my opponents simply disconnects on the last round when they feel that they are gonna lose the match.
I really doubt that they just close the game entirely because rage or because life suddenly needs them, as there are just far too many times that I have seen players disconnecting on the last round always in the same circumstances. This only appears to be expert players (people that are on high levels of ranked mode), it's not a normal behavior for all players because a normal player just would use the Concede button which I understand to be faster.
I'm sure they share the same reason to disconnect on the last round (i.e. quit entirely from Hearthstone) when they are gonna lose a match, so I'm wondering if there is an explanation, for example a kind of official trick or legal (as far as Hearthstone's term of use) exploit/cheat or something else to avoid the Hearthstone algorithm to record their loss when they re-log the client and avoid downgrading in the rank?
I'm aware that in theory when a user closes the game or disconnects during a match the Hearthstone's system automatically awards the win to your opponent; however, I have witnessed this behavior too many times in simiular circumstances for it to be a coincidence.
My question is: Is there some advantageous reason in Hearthstone I've overlooked that these experts are quitting on the last round when they are going to lose
Best Answer
It seems it must be a causality. Disconnecting from a match permanently counts the same as a concede, so there is no gameplay or statistical advantage to do so, however: