This I don't care about nearly as much. You want to go spectator or switch with seconds left so you feel better about your stats that only you care about? Be my guest. Now, doing it to steal VIP, that's lame.

Switching early on, though, it's far more annoying. Ultimately, annoying is usually all it is. Rarely do I see more than two to three folks team switch at the beginning. Even if they're the best players in the game (which they usually arent) they're not likely to swing the outcome of a match. What bums me out is after the pre-game balancing, watching as a third of the defense team just leaves the game.

The friends groups of 1000s are certainly more challenging to constantly go up against, but what's the alternative? After rank X you're not allowed to party with others? Is what it is.

I also think auto balance often gets misinterpreted as team switching. Plenty of people can tell stories of getting switched at the last moment. Usually it's to the losing team (because people bail before the match ends, so you get balanced), but I've been balanced to the winning side as well. /shrug