He left the game. Its a simple as that, as much as I talk about hating getting low-health/gear people on my team, I would rather have people that actually try, instead of simply giving up.
No, having recruit gear does not make you a "bad" player, it just means your more limited then others by your gear; which will become better and better over time. Alot of those people were probably "bad" players themselves when they first started out.