Marvel Rivals’ Season 3.5 refresh is now live, and it’s largely focused on punishing players who disconnect or go AFK from matches and compensating those who have to endure the aftermath.
Leavers have been an ongoing issue in Marvel Rivals’ competitive mode, and now developer NetEase is upping the penalties for those who make it a habit in the game’s Season 3.5 update. According to the Season 3.5 patch notes, those who continue to leave or go AFK will see more frequent temporary bans from competitive play, with repeat offenders being banned from competitive play for upwards of 20 hours. There are penalties for leavers in quick matches as well, though they are less steep. Repeat leavers there can be banned for up to eight hours from matchmaking.
As for the teammates of leavers or those with an AFK member, NetEase is looking to ease the sting of losing a teammate in the 6v6 hero shooter. If a disconnection or AFK players is detected within the first 70 seconds of a competitive match, the match will be deemed invalid, with penalties for the leaver or AFK player but no negative results or penalties for other players in the match.
If a disconnected or AFK player later rejoins, if their team wins, they won’t receive a penalty, but will if their team loses. Other players on the losing team will receive ranked-point compensation, easing the sting of the loss.
There have been adjustments to matchmaking as well, with players in higher ranks no longer being able to queue as a larger team. In Platinum, Diamond, and Grandmaster, players can only form up to a three-player team to enter matchmaking, while Celestial, Eternity, and One Above All players can only queue in teams of two.
While that’s the majority of what makes up the patch, there are a few other changes. On PC, shaders will now compile in the background, players can now zoom out and use emotes while in the team lobby, and unique costume voice and sound effects can now be toggled for specific costumes. The only major gameplay change is increased audio cues for Wolverine and Black Panther in order to give those they are ambushing a chance to hear them coming.
Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 additionally adds Blade to the game’s ever-expanding superhero roster, alongside the removal (and addition) of a number of team-up abilities. NetEase previously announced it would start recording voice chat in Marvel Rivals and automatically screen it for toxicity, after which a human would review the logs and determine whether a player should be banned or punished. You can read the full patch notes below, and the compensation and punishment scaling charts on the game’s official site.
Marvel Rivals Season 3.5 Patch Notes
All Platforms
New Hero
Blade is on his feet and itching to join the fight in Marvel Rivals!
New Stories
New Blade lore – Cut to The Chase
New Iron Man lore – The Celestial Iron Man
New Rocket Raccoon lore – The Deepest Bond
Limited-Time Event: Queen’s Codex
The Queen is coming! Battle to earn XP and level up to earn rewards, including the The Thing – Symbiote Thing costume absolutely FREE!
Unlock the Premium Codex to claim even more rewards, such as the Hela – Queen in Black costume, an all-new dynamic spray, and more! Plus, once you unlock Premium, you gain permanent access to the event until all rewards are claimed. No time limit!
Available from: August 8th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)
New Systems
1. Custom Muted Words: Players can now set up their own defenses against words they’d rather not see in chat. If a message contains a muted word, it will be filtered out.
2. Faction Tab in Chat: Added a new Faction tab to the chat system.
New In Store
1. Blade – Polarity Edge Bundle
2. Blade – Emoji Bundle
3. Blade Dynamic Mood Bundle
Available from: August 8th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)
Twitch Drops
As Season 3.5 kicks off, get ready for a new round of Twitch Drops. Simply accumulate the required viewing time to claim your rewards.
This round’s drops include the Mantis – Will of Galacta costume along with related bundle content.
Drops Period: August 8th, 2025, at 12:00:00 (UTC) to September 5th, 2025, at 09:00:00 (UTC)
Tournaments
1. We’re introducing latency equalization technology to the S3 Marvel Rivals Championship. When a server or geographic location causes significant ping differences between factions, the system will auto-balance latency for fairer matches.
2. Newly added the Balance Latency option to Custom Game – Tournament Rooms. Hosts can now enable this option and set thresholds.
Rank Adjustments
Rank Rewards
New Rank Settlement Rewards: Reach Gold for the cool Blade- Emerald Blade costume. Earn all-new Nameplate Frames at Diamond and Platinum, plus rock fresh Crests of Honor for Grandmaster, Celestial, Eternity, and the illustrious Top 500.
Team Matchmaking Adjustments
1. Players in Bronze, Silver, and Gold can queue for Competitive in any team size except 5-player teams.
2. Players in Platinum, Diamond, and Grandmaster can queue for Competitive in teams of up to 3 players.
3. Players in Celestial, Eternity, and One Above All can queue for Competitive in teams of up to 2 players.
Surrender & Disconnect Rule Adjustments
Surrender Trigger: In the first round, if a player disconnects and does not reconnect within 90 seconds, their team may vote to surrender. The required votes passes with 1 less than the current team members. (E.g., if 4 remain, 3 votes are needed.)
Disconnect Penalty and Compensation Adjustments
Invalid Matches
If any player disconnects during loading, ban/pick phase, hero select, or within the first 70 seconds of a match, the match is deemed invalid. The disconnected player receives a T1 Penalty (see below for details) that scales with repeated offenses and penalty count increases. For other players, the match ends with no result or penalty.
Valid Matches
If a player disconnects after 70 seconds, the following applies:
1. Disconnected player does NOT reconnect before the match ends:
– If the match ends within 90 seconds of their disconnect:
Normal settlement based on match result and stats; no penalty.
– If the match ends 90 C150 seconds after their disconnect:
Disconnected player receives a T1 Point Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (both scale with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases (win or lose). If the disconnected team loses, remaining teammates receive ranked point compensation.
– If the match ends 150+ seconds after their disconnect:
Disconnected player receives a T2 Point Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (both scale with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases (win or lose). If the disconnected team loses, remaining teammates receive ranked point compensation.
2. Disconnected player RECONNECTS before the match ends:
– If their team wins:
Normal settlement; no penalty.
– If their team loses:
Penalty is based on disconnect-to-reconnect time (as above), but no Competitive Matchmaking Ban.
-Teammates receive compensation on loss only if the disconnect lasted more than 90 seconds.
AFK Penalty Adjustments
Invalid Matches
If a player is detected AFK within the first 70 seconds, the match is invalid:
Inactive Player: T2 Penalty (scaling with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases.
Other Players: Match ends immediately with no result or deductions.
Valid Matches
If a player is detected AFK after the first 70 seconds:
– If their team wins: Normal settlement, no penalty.
– If their team loses: Inactive player receives a T2 Penalty and Competitive Matchmaking Ban (scaling with repeat offenses) and penalty count increases. Teammates do not receive compensation.
Combined AFK & Disconnect Penalty
1. If a player is both inactive and disconnects, the highest penalty applies.
2. If a team is faced with both inactive and disconnected players and that team loses, compensation is granted to fully engaged teammates.
Quick Match Penalties
In Quick Match mode, we’ve also strengthened the penalty duration for players who disconnect and leave the game:
We will continue to monitor disconnections and early exits in both Ranked and Quick Match modes and adjust these rules as necessary. If you believe you were wrongly penalized, please contact customer support for a prompt review.
Fixes and Optimizations
All Platforms
1. Rank reward Nameplate Frames can now be displayed in more areas (lobby, career, friends, faction, leaderboards, gifts, invites, custom games, etc).
2. Hero display in the team lobby now supports camera scrolling. When zoomed out, you can use emotes, and your teammates will see them in real time.
3. Costume voice and sound effect settings have been moved from Audio Settings to the Hero Profile > Costumes screen. You can now toggle special voice lines and sound effects individually for each supported costume.
4. Improved Venom’s Tickle Me Pink emote animation for his default costume.
5. The “Special” tab in the Store now lets you browse all available Moods, Emoji, and unique Emotes.
Graphics & Performance
PC
1. PC Shader Compilation Rework: The mandatory shader compilation wait on first launch has been removed. Instead, essential global shaders will now preload in the background after installation/update. (Shader preload speed depends on your GPU, entering a match before preloading competes may cause performance issues, including stuttering, network lag, rendering errors, or crashes.)
2. The performance test tool now provides graphics settings optimization recommendations based on your test results.
3. In-game UI animation details will now automatically adjust based on your effects detail settings to improve overall performance.
Maps and Modes
1. Fixed several terrain issues that could cause characters to sometimes become stuck or clip into strange areas.
Heroes
1. Jumping the Gun: Polished up a minor bug where Emma Frost, Iron Fist, Phoenix, and Wolverine were out-leaping the competition with slightly higher jump heights. Now everyone’s jump is perfectly balanced, as all things should be!
2. Iron Fist’s Silent Sanctuary: Resolved an issue where Lin Lie’s Harmony Recovery would sometimes end without playing its ending sound effect. The Iron Fist can now find his inner peace with the proper zen, no more silent retreats in K’un-Lun!
3. Venom & Spider-Man Slinging in Style: Spidey and The Symbiote can now set separate keybinds for simple and manual swinging. Choose your web-slinging style on the fly!
4. Panther & Wolverine’s Sneaky Sounds: Enhanced the audio cues for enemy Black Panther and Wolverine when they’re sneaking up for a surprise attack. Now, when these clawed kings are on the prowl, you might hear them coming. Predator awareness up!
Console
1. Fixed an issue where changing global keybinds could incorrectly affect some hero ability keys.
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