Ahead of Marvel Rivals Season 3, NetEase is making it easier for losing teams to end their own suffe

We're just a couple of weeks away from , with or Phoenix potentially set to join the roster. But before a new season begins there's the regularly scheduled patch notes which tee up everything for the next couple of months.

Most patches are small, purpose-built updates deployed when and where they are needed. This patch is much of the same, but it does include an interesting tidbit: changes to the surrender system.

"We have reduced the number of votes required for a surrender," the . It used to be that everyone would have to agree in order to give up, stop the game, and just take the loss. But now if a team has six players only five votes are required to end the suffering.

If leavers shrink your team down to five or four members, you'll still only need all but one player to trigger a surrender. But once you drop to teams of three or two, everyone on the team needs to vote to end the game early.

Having a surrender option has its pros and cons. The upside is that if two teams are a real mismatch to the point of [[link]] it being beyond unfair then sometimes the best option is to just let the game die and move on. But getting your entire team to vote for that can be tricky, especially if you're playing solo. Not everyone will always agree it's a lost cause, but just because one person wants to fight on shouldn't mean they can drag five other players through that mess.

On the other hand, a surrender button can also act to disenfranchise players. Once someone's mental breaks and they decide the juice ain't worth the squeeze they can throw in the towel and just surrender when in actuality the match is still quite close. Some people would rather surrender or throw games than actually push a bit further and try harder. Ultimately, whether the surrender button is right or wrong depends on the kinds of people you end up playing with.

Other than the change to surrender, there are a couple of other fixes in the new patch. Winter Soldier, Magneto, Mister Fantastic, Iron Fist, and Doctor Strange have all gotten tweaks. They're mostly fixes to small bugs like an issue where Bucky's ultimate may be abnormally interrupted if an ally Captain America initiates their Team-Up ability at the same time.

There'll be more exciting things than just an update to the surrender function to come in the future: "The Marvel Rivals universe is ever-evolving, and we have plenty more surprises and updates on the horizon."