Blizzard's Overwatch Catch-All

So I kind of accidentally screwed a friend of mine over. See, I made a conscious decision that I was not going to care about my competitive ranking, because I know myself and I know that that way lies madness. I wouldn't exactly say I "threw" my placement matches, because I know I was probably playing with people who very much DO care about their ranking and didn't want to be rude to them, but I also didn't play as though my life was on the line, and I wound up with something like 8-1-1 losses-draws-wins and got a ranking somewhat below what my actual skill level would probably warrant if I'd been busting my ass. It's high enough that I can still play with my friends, and that's all I care about.

Well, then I was playing competitive with two friends and we were having an insane winning streak, and it turned out my one friend was still in HIS placement matches, and between his unranked status and my artificially low ranking, we wound up getting matched against some sort of mediocre teams (by competitive standards) and steamrolling them.

And then my friend's placement ended, and because he'd just won a bunch of games in a row, he got ranked over a thousand points above me and can't play with me any more and gets to solo-queue in company that is probably a bit above his weight class.

Oops.

Simply put. You play with the best, you learn from the best. Believe me, he's better off. People in higher ranks communicate better and constantly switch heroes if needed. In gold and down, people just want to do their own thing and not be bothered with the aspect of team. He's going to have more fun.

First time back on tonight, got dumped into a Dorado match with randos on Attack. Went Mercy like normal. Hit the 3rd check point and switched to Lucio because my n00b brain figures "hey we're going to be clumped up a bit more anyways, why not". (This was probably dumb but hey I have less than 10 hours of time in the game and it's Quick Play cut me some slack here)

Immediately get chewed out in text chat by a Soldier 76 telling me "F**** YOU" and to " switch back to Mercy". Ignore him, keep on going for two more deaths. Then a death threat, because of course.

I say nothing, switch to Zenyatta because lol. We win about 30 seconds later.

Pick up 4 (+1 from myself) commendations in the process and call it a night

Played with a rando Reinhardt today who was too charge-happy, kept trying to solo the entire enemy team and dying. Finally typed something like, "Rein come back. Stick with us and you won't die so much." Lo and behold, he did it, and we won the round.

I tell this story because it's so rare. Sometimes talking sense to people actually does work.

shoptroll wrote:

Immediately get chewed out in text chat by a Soldier 76 telling me "F**** YOU" and to " switch back to Mercy". Ignore him, keep on going for two more deaths. Then a death threat, because of course.

Wow! Is this a common thing on US servers? In quick play?? Because I've read quite a few anecdotes of abusive chat but the worst I've ever seen in quick play is "noob team", after a loss. Maybe Europeans have less salt

kergguz wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Immediately get chewed out in text chat by a Soldier 76 telling me "F**** YOU" and to " switch back to Mercy". Ignore him, keep on going for two more deaths. Then a death threat, because of course.

Wow! Is this a common thing on US servers? In quick play?? Because I've read quite a few anecdotes of abusive chat but the worst I've ever seen in quick play is "noob team", after a loss. Maybe Europeans have less salt

It's common enough and tbh it happens more in the early hours with folks that have English or Scottish accents for me.

ranalin wrote:
kergguz wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Immediately get chewed out in text chat by a Soldier 76 telling me "F**** YOU" and to " switch back to Mercy". Ignore him, keep on going for two more deaths. Then a death threat, because of course.

Wow! Is this a common thing on US servers? In quick play?? Because I've read quite a few anecdotes of abusive chat but the worst I've ever seen in quick play is "noob team", after a loss. Maybe Europeans have less salt

It's common enough and tbh it happens more in the early hours with folks that have English or Scottish accents for me.

Wot the fok did ye just say 2 me m8? i dropped out of newcastle primary skool im the sickest bloke ull ever meet & ive nicked ova 300 chocolate globbernaughts frum tha corner shop. im trained in street fitin' & im the strongest foker in tha entire newcastle gym. yer nothin to me but a cheeky lil bellend w/ a fat mum & fakebling. ill waste u and smash a fokin bottle oer yer head bruv, i swer 2 christ. ya think u can fokin run ya gabber at me whilst sittin on yer arse behind a lil screen? think again wanka. im callin me homeboys rite now preparin for a proper scrap. A roomble thatll make ur nan sore jus hearin about it. yer a waste bruv. me crew be all over tha place & ill beat ya to a proper fokin pulp with me fists wanka. if i aint satisfied w/ that ill borrow me m8s cricket paddle & see if that gets u the fok out o' newcastle ya daft kunt. if ye had seen this bloody fokin mess commin ye might a' kept ya gabber from runnin. but it seems yea stupid lil twat, innit? ima sh*te fury & ull drown in it m8. ur ina proper mess knob

All the Brexit wafflers...

BadKen wrote:
ranalin wrote:
kergguz wrote:
shoptroll wrote:

Immediately get chewed out in text chat by a Soldier 76 telling me "F**** YOU" and to " switch back to Mercy". Ignore him, keep on going for two more deaths. Then a death threat, because of course.

Wow! Is this a common thing on US servers? In quick play?? Because I've read quite a few anecdotes of abusive chat but the worst I've ever seen in quick play is "noob team", after a loss. Maybe Europeans have less salt

It's common enough and tbh it happens more in the early hours with folks that have English or Scottish accents for me.

Wot the fok did ye just say 2 me m8? i dropped out of newcastle primary skool im the sickest bloke ull ever meet & ive nicked ova 300 chocolate globbernaughts frum tha corner shop. im trained in street fitin' & im the strongest foker in tha entire newcastle gym. yer nothin to me but a cheeky lil bellend w/ a fat mum & fakebling. ill waste u and smash a fokin bottle oer yer head bruv, i swer 2 christ. ya think u can fokin run ya gabber at me whilst sittin on yer arse behind a lil screen? think again wanka. im callin me homeboys rite now preparin for a proper scrap. A roomble thatll make ur nan sore jus hearin about it. yer a waste bruv. me crew be all over tha place & ill beat ya to a proper fokin pulp with me fists wanka. if i aint satisfied w/ that ill borrow me m8s cricket paddle & see if that gets u the fok out o' newcastle ya daft kunt. if ye had seen this bloody fokin mess commin ye might a' kept ya gabber from runnin. but it seems yea stupid lil twat, innit? ima sh*te fury & ull drown in it m8. ur ina proper mess knob

Now that's entertaining! So what time of day do I need to play to experience this?

Finally ranked up to Platinum! Feel I'm starting to get the game a lot more now, although I am usually playing as either Lucio or Junkrat, as I feel most comfortable with them. I love the other heroes, but don't trust myself enough with them in comp.

Pretty frustrating game of competitive tonight. Playing on Hanamura, and we attack first. Take the first point pretty easily, are unable to take the second.

Second round, we hold them a the first point, as the timer winds down. Game goes into overtime with one of their players on the point, and several of us contesting. We kill the player, leaving no one from their team on the point. However the game says "contested." They have no one on the point, yet somehow are contesting it, preventing the overtime timer from winding down.

They throw attack after attack at the point occasionally getting people on the point, and legitimately contesting, but when we clear the point again, it still says "contesting"

Overtime goes on for 3-4 minutes and the entire time the overtime timer is completely filled. Eventually they do capture the point, as most of our team seems to be busy chatting at them and reporting them as cheaters rather than playing.

They roll, and take the second point without much of a fight, because by this time our team's pretty much given up because what's the point, it'll probably just go into overtime and we be unable to win it again.

I'm leaning towards it being some sort of bug that happened, and the other team exploited it. But it was frustrating nonetheless.

Skraut wrote:

Second round, we hold them a the first point, as the timer winds down. Game goes into overtime with one of their players on the point, and several of us contesting. We kill the player, leaving no one from their team on the point. However the game says "contested." They have no one on the point, yet somehow are contesting it, preventing the overtime timer from winding down.

I'm leaning towards it being some sort of bug that happened, and the other team exploited it. But it was frustrating nonetheless.

I have seen several examples of areas on the map where new new sit emotes (especially Junkrat's) allows players to clip into the geometry and appear hidden to other players. I know there are spots on Dorado and Eichenwald where players can hide near the carts and keep contesting them without being seen. I'd definitely keep an eye on the kill cam and scoreboard to determine which players are alive or dead and try to do a headcount on all the enemy heroes in this situation.

EriktheRed wrote:
Skraut wrote:

Second round, we hold them a the first point, as the timer winds down. Game goes into overtime with one of their players on the point, and several of us contesting. We kill the player, leaving no one from their team on the point. However the game says "contested." They have no one on the point, yet somehow are contesting it, preventing the overtime timer from winding down.

I'm leaning towards it being some sort of bug that happened, and the other team exploited it. But it was frustrating nonetheless.

I have seen several examples of areas on the map where new new sit emotes (especially Junkrat's) allows players to clip into the geometry and appear hidden to other players. I know there are spots on Dorado and Eichenwald where players can hide near the carts and keep contesting them without being seen. I'd definitely keep an eye on the kill cam and scoreboard to determine which players are alive or dead and try to do a headcount on all the enemy heroes in this situation.

The thing was, the overtime counter showed that there was no one from their team on the point. Sure when they were making a push it had a 1 or a 2 on it while there were enemies on the point, but for the most of the time there was no number, it just showed contested. I would assume if a player could clip through the geometry enough to be counted as on the point enough to contest it, the game would show that there was 1 enemy on the point.

BadKen wrote:

Karma's a bit—...

That's awesome.

EvilHomer3k wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Karma's a bit—...

That's awesome.

No, it's bit—n' awesome.

*Wall rides the well to hide*

Mantid wrote:
EvilHomer3k wrote:
BadKen wrote:

Karma's a bit—...

That's awesome.

No, it's bit—n' awesome.

*Wall rides the well to hide*

Won't matter, there's another Roadhog over there, too.

Getting back into Overwatch a lot recently, I have about 25-30 hours played now. I'm not a particularly good player of FPS games in general but I feel useful with heroes like Reinhardt, Winston, Lucio, Symmetra etc, (basically, the less I have to aim, the better). Any other recommendations for heroes well suited to non-FPS players?

I would recommend Junkrat and my personal favorite Roadhog. Supports are always good too. Mercy in particular.

It might sound weird, but as a not great fps player too... I've found the bog standard fps hero soldier 76 one of the most productive to use. With sprint, heal and forgiving standard and rocket weapons he's pretty easy to get going with some decent contributions.

I would really not recommend Mercy for solo queue play as she's way too dependent on her team.

JohnKillo wrote:

I would recommend Junkrat and my personal favorite Roadhog. Supports are always good too. Mercy in particular.

See normally I would agree with you about Junkrat- he seems like a good fit, and I played Demoman almost exclusively in TF2. But my winrate is horrid with Junkrat, so go figure!

Solo-queue Mercy is a situational pick based more on team comp than actually being actively supported by the other players, I find. She pairs really well with tanks with deep health pools who can benefit from her strong single-target healing, like Roadhog and D.Va.

Winston also really benefits from her presence, but you've got to be more careful with him because it's all too easy to follow him into the danger zone and wind up getting picked off. You're better off sticking with the group and healing him whenever he returns (assuming he's smart enough to do so; there are a lot of suicidal Winstons out there in pub-land).

Ditto Reinhardt; he's got a deep health pool and no self-heal so that golden stream of healing is great for him, but he doesn't benefit much from her blue damage-boosting beam, so you've got to have an organized team that sticks together so that you can boost the DPS characters as they murder from behind Rein's shield, then switch to topping off Rein's health when he needs it. It's a great comp if you can manage it, but not something you can count on for solo play.

I couldn't get the hang of Junkrat at first, but I turned the corner when I mentally stopped thinking in terms of getting kills, and started thinking in terms of denying the enemy access to areas by filling them with explosions. Paradoxically, when I started doing that, I started getting more kills, go fig. You do have to know the map pretty well to know where you can get to the high ground and rain down death and what the angles are to hit hard-to-reach places, so there's definitely still something of a learning curve.

You might have fun with D.Va, but she's a pretty different tanking style than Reinhardt. Rein is all about being the strong center that the rest of the team can form up around. D.Va is all about using her mobility to hit and fade, supporting flankers or just generally annoying the enemy. If her Defense Matrix is getting close to tapped out, it's time to hit the boosters and find a different angle to attack from to keep the enemy off-balance (and to give her Matrix time to recharge some while you're repositioning). She's a great counter-pick against enemy Junkrats and Pharahs, since she can just swallow up their big scary AoE attacks. Since she lacks a self-heal, it's very useful to take note of nearby health packs so that you know what your fallback position is if you get in trouble.

I think I learned more about overwatch from that one post than from all the videos I've watched combined.

FINALLY

I made platinum.

I got ranked at about 2400 after placing into gold. I sank to about 2100. I've been playing my butt off ever since because I know I can hit that halfway mark, and I just finally did it after 35 hours of competitive.

Felt the need to tell someone.

That's awesome. Congrats.

I have been playing unranked with a friend recently and was called a bronze newbie who didn't understand the mechanics of the game. Then I proceeded to carry the team to a near victory but, it's hard to win when there is someone actively working against the team.

Actively against the team? How does that work?

You occasionally see Mei players who troll by intentionally placing their walls so as to block their teammates' shots or strand them on the wrong side of chokepoints, or Symmetras who place their teleporters so that people emerge in weird places where they're likely to die quickly or are even farther from the action than if they'd just walked there from the spawn point.

I imagine Chimalli was probably speaking less literally, though, and simply referring to someone who was wandering off seeking kills and glory instead of playing their role and supporting their teammates. That's a lot more common.

Oh, I played a competitive game with a guy who was being Tjorborn on offense, he was clearly doing it on purpose, and kept messing about in the match trying to wind people up. We obviously lost, the worst part is I thought I'd put it behind me and get a win back straight away, and I got paired with THE SAME GUY.

hbi2k wrote:

Ditto Reinhardt; he's got a deep health pool and no self-heal so that golden stream of healing is great for him, but he doesn't benefit much from her blue damage-boosting beam, so you've got to have an organized team that sticks together so that you can boost the DPS characters as they murder from behind Rein's shield, then switch to topping off Rein's health when he needs it. It's a great comp if you can manage it, but not something you can count on for solo play.

Even when you have a Rein and a soldier you can't count on the soldier doing that. Some soldiers think they're playing COD and the run off by themselves.

kergguz wrote:

Getting back into Overwatch a lot recently, I have about 25-30 hours played now. I'm not a particularly good player of FPS games in general but I feel useful with heroes like Reinhardt, Winston, Lucio, Symmetra etc, (basically, the less I have to aim, the better). Any other recommendations for heroes well suited to non-FPS players?

Mei doesn't require much in the way of aim. You have to understand her and the game to be effective and don't expect any golds for kills but she can be very effective at annoying the other team and her blizzard is a great ult for clearing the point and wiping the other team.

Zarya also doesn't require great aim. Her constant beam means you have to get it on the target most of the time but it's much more important that you get your shields right. If you master shielding you can master Zarya. I'd also suggest turning your mouse sensitivity down like you would with a sniper.