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[Kor of Memory]

After half-maining Zarya and half-maining Genji, I have gone all in on the Genji train. Dude is hard to play, but when you start getting good with him, it makes it all worth it. He's one of the few characters that can literally put down 4-5 players in a SNAP, on his own, and require a bunch of skill in the process which makes you feel like a total badass.

However, he's super easy to play like shit and just drag your whole team down by being basically -1 member. There's also variations to his playstyle depending on skill level i.e. Rambo style if you're in the Shadder2k/Seagull level or the more "ninja" style of throwing shurikens/harass, being the finisher for weak targets, and then flank-rambo with your sword. I'm playing more like the latter than the former and my game has improved greatly.

Zarya is totally sweet though and who I play when we need a tank.

Tracer is very similar.

When I first tried her I felt like an annoying gnat just buzzing near enemy ears but never actually doing any damage.

Then the week before comp came out I gave her some more serious attention and ended up "main-ing" her for my qualification matches. Turns out she can absolutely shred a lot of targets, you just have to wait for that opportune moment.

 

[Rocketz]

Afternoon session was a wash. Only lost one lvl before calling it quits. Too many quitters. Even when we are winning. I don't understand.

I was in a 1v6 situation by myself on offense. Some of the other team caught in and had fun with me, other kept trying to kill me. I didn't want to quit as I wanted the points.

I did get a laugh though as they were not expecting this at all:
http://xboxclips.com/ChadDaniel/94ea164d-983d-4bb6-bb34-db246a4f9b69

 

[Stone Ocean]

I think I have a like 20% win rate in competitive lol

 

[divisionbyzorro]

IMO - the worst think about Competitive Matchmaking is how shitty it is at creating balanced teams. I swear: every time I see a team of 52s and 53s against a team of 57s and 49s, the mismatched team wins every time.

 

[abundant]

I think I have a like 20% win rate in competitive lol

My win rate in competitive is the same as in quick play, roughly 48%.

 

[mikeGFG]

Just played my first competitive match: Did anyone at Blizzard think that playing the same match for almost 20 minutes was fun?

 

[DurielBlack]

The current crop of people I group with in competitive really, really, really like me playing Mercy. It's started to get kind of annoying, even though I pretty much main Mercy and do enjoy playing her.

The problem isn't them letting me play something else. All I need to do is switch and say I am doing something different. The problem is they are all really bad with healing.

I can do Rein, Mercy, Reaper, Lucio, and Roadhog with about equal levels of skill (I'm really not very good IMO). I'd like to play more Pharah. But as bad as I consider myself to be, these guys really suck with the supports.

When I do manage to switch, someone else takes over as Mercy and then we have a real hard time because they are always either;
A. Dead or otherwise nowhere to be seen.
B. Healing a Reaper on the other side of the map for no apparent reason, rather than being near the main fight where they are needed.
C. Standing near you firing their pistol instead of healing or with their beam stuck on someone full health, while you waste 5 valuable seconds getting their attention.

I think it's time I held a training session lol.

 

[Deleted member 325805]

Just played my first competitive match: Did anyone at Blizzard think that playing the same match for almost 20 minutes was fun?

They can go much, much longer than that. Sounds like Quick play is definitely more your speed

 

[RandomExpletive]

I need to take on more days on at work... I can never find the drive to play OW unless I've put in a good 5-6 hours of work... Summer school's not doing it (but that may change when my 2nd course starts)

Hopefully I can keep above Rank 60, surprised I made it that high after hitting high 40's / low 50's in PTR

 

[Zemm]

Just played my first competitive match: Did anyone at Blizzard think that playing the same match for almost 20 minutes was fun?

Wait until you get a 50 minute match on Volskaya

 

[LucidMomentum]

Wait until you get a 50 minute match on Volskaya

We went to a 5-5 on Volskaya, both of us failed to cap the 2nd point for the THIRD time.

We won by holding out on Sudden Death.

I needed a drink afterwards.

 

[Kor of Memory]

The current crop of people I group with in competitive really, really, really like me playing Mercy. It's started to get kind of annoying, even though I pretty much main Mercy and do enjoy playing her.

The problem isn't them letting me play something else. All I need to do is switch and say I am doing something different. The problem is they are all really bad with healing.

I can do Rein, Mercy, Reaper, Lucio, and Roadhog with about equal levels of skill (I'm really not very good IMO). I'd like to play more Pharah. But as bad as I consider myself to be, these guys really suck with the supports.

When I do manage to switch, someone else takes over as Mercy and then we have a real hard time because they are always either;
A. Dead or otherwise nowhere to be seen.
B. Healing a Reaper on the other side of the map for no apparent reason, rather than being near the main fight where they are needed.
C. Standing near you firing their pistol instead of healing or with their beam stuck on someone full health, while you waste 5 valuable seconds getting their attention.

I think it's time I held a training session lol.

That's just an unfortunate side effect of competitive play. Typically you want to play to your strengths as best you can.

I typically play characters in the Offensive class because I do the best with them, and fall back to Tanks as a secondary. My wife sticks to healers because she doesn't feel like she can trust randoms to do it, but it happens.

That's why we tend to stay in Quickplay more than anything else.

 

[Animator]

Wait until you get a 50 minute match on Volskaya

And get an inch of xp for winning...

 

[DurielBlack]

That's just an unfortunate side effect of competitive play. Typically you want to play to your strengths as best you can.

I typically play characters in the Offensive class because I do the best with them, and fall back to Tanks as a secondary. My wife sticks to healers because she doesn't feel like she can trust randoms to do it, but it happens.

That's why we tend to stay in Quickplay more than anything else.

I've been using Lucio a bit more to get some different gameplay while still healing. Plus when we have tryhards that know to focus down the Mercy first thing it gets tough to be an asset to the team. I find Lucio has a little more survivability.

Hopefully though I can get someone else able to heal at least some of the time. I don't mind doing the majority of it, but I'd like to improve other skills as well. Plus who knows if/when Mercy could be nerfed into the ground or made obsolete by something new. I'd like to have some other characters to fall back on.

 

[Dartastic]

oh yes, i've played with randoms where double Torbs simply wreck the defense cuz they can't seem to adapt to them. it's oddly refreshing to sometimes see characters not filling in their usual roles. it's even funnier when the turrets are on the Payload and killing so many guys.

I'm all about the attack Torb. When you need to continually push forward, having someone that can keep the opposing team from pushing back can be a huge benefit. It's even better if you're going to capture an objective and just need to defend it for your team while they can get back to help you capture it.

"People always under estimate the engineers."

 

[AnotherNils]

I'm not sure how much longer I can take competitive. Its more stressful than Rainbow 6, partly because the ranking system seems arbitrary, difficult, and flawed.

Also, it kind of amazing how much 10 ranks can really manifest itself in player skill. The gaffers ~59 are so much clearly better than those at ~50. I played with some 43s last night and their gameplay was also appreciably different from mine ~50.

I'd actually like to see some of our best PS4 gaffers (Ramirez, cooldude, shiba, proudclod, papasmurf, etc.) would do without having to try and carry some of us less skilled or versatile players in the lower 50 range.

It also seems to me that if you don't have people who main tanks or healers, you're going to have issues. That's actually one of my criticisms of the whining in this thread. Whenever I'm getting murdered by some player 9/10 it's by someone who has put 30 hours into that character instead of 3. The skill that comes with practicing a limited amount of heroes can overcome what should be a match-up disadvantage.

As for myself, I seem to have pretty limited utility as an above average DPS (Pharah, Reaper, Soldier), Junkrat, D. Va., and Symmetra. My winning percentage in competitive with tanks and support is hilariously bad (41% & 36%). After that GAF v GAF I feel like I'd really like to focus on becoming a better Reinhardt and Mercy as they are crucial.

I also have come to the conclusion that the defensive class kind of lacks appeal in competitive. Junkrat is A+, but after that you have Torb (soon to be nerfed into oblivion), Bastion (situational), Mei (requires teamwork to be properly effective) Hanzo (a meme because of how useless his players are), and Widowmaker (high skill required). How wrong am I on this?

 

[Sorral]

So far, placement matches have been a shitshow for me except for 1 match.

Won 1 and lost 4. The one we won was close and actually fun. The 4? Either teammates do well at the first round, then fuck up the rest of the match, or fuck up from the very start. Of course that one sudden death had to give the enemy team attack as well.

What pisses me off is that I almost always end up tanking as Zarya then get mostly golds and silvers as her... I don't know what these DPS are doing man, and this last match, I went around as junkrat in King's Row Attack and killed their Widow, Mercy, and Sym. My teammtes just stared at the 2 players at the entry and didn't even go around. :/

 

[Kor of Memory]

I've been using Lucio a bit more to get some different gameplay while still healing. Plus when we have tryhards that know to focus down the Mercy first thing it gets tough to be an asset to the team. I find Lucio has a little more survivability.

Hopefully though I can get someone else able to heal at least some of the time. I don't mind doing the majority of it, but I'd like to improve other skills as well. Plus who knows if/when Mercy could be nerfed into the ground or made obsolete by something new. I'd like to have some other characters to fall back on.

I've found that my initial pick is based more on team composition, and then I adjust throughout the game as needed, usually as a counter pick when enemies are proving too difficult.

For instance, I usually start with an offensive character if I can.

If the enemy team has a lot of smaller targets like Tracers and Genjis, I switch to Winston.

If the enemy team has a good Reinhart, Winston or Zarya, I switch to Bastion, assuming they don't have a Pharah.

So on and so forth.

 

[abundant]

I'm not sure how much longer I can take competitive. Its more stressful than Rainbow 6, partly because the ranking system seems arbitrary, difficult, and flawed.

Also, it kind of amazing how much 10 ranks can really manifest itself in player skill. The gaffers ~59 are so much clearly better than those at ~50. I played with some 43s last night and their gameplay was also appreciably different from mine ~50.

I'd actually like to see some of our best PS4 gaffers (Ramirez, cooldude, shiba, proudclod, papasmurf, etc.) would do without having to try and carry some of us less skilled or versatile players in the lower 50 range.

I wasn't going to say anything, but I completely agree. Now granted, I can't really play anything but support due do a disability, but I consider myself a pretty decent support player. Whenever I play with the PS4 GAFers in the mid to high 50, I do my thing as support while the rest take care of the other team. We rarely get steamrolled unless we a) face a much better team then us or b) play a capture point game mode.

But when I play with the ones in the low to mid 40, I try to help with support but there's little to no DPS on my team, which results in us getting steamrolled almost everytime.

 

[Azoor]

Just saw this in the art thread, cracked me up XD

 

[Veelk]

Am I just better not bothering with competitive?

I'm not a very good player, for one. My win ratio is just a tad above .5 and I like playing with D.Va who I'm told is not all that viable competitively. And everything I hear about the competitive ranking system makes it seem like it's awful.

I just played one game, and we just got completely rekt. Made the payload move only 10 meters. Less than, actually, because the team's Reinhardt was doing business. I know it might just be incidental that we got matched up against a team that knew how to work together and I don't mind losing, but the game becomes utterly pointless when the opposing team has the payload so locked down that all we can do is throw ourselves into their hail of bullets.

And I don't really want to worry about stats in this game, which seems to be the main difference vs quickplay.

So is there any argument for playing in Comp, or will I just be happier sticking to QP?

 

[Kor of Memory]

Am I just better not bothering with competitive?

I'm not a very good player, for one. My win ratio is just a tad above .5 and I like playing with D.Va who I'm told is not all that viable competitively. And everything I hear about the competitive ranking system makes it seem like it's awful.

I just played one game, and we just got completely rekt. Made the payload move only 10 meters. Less than, actually, because the team's Reinhardt was doing business. I know it might just be incidental that we got matched up against a team that knew how to work together and I don't mind losing, but the game becomes utterly pointless when the opposing team has the payload so locked down that all we can do is throw ourselves into their hail of bullets.

And I don't really want to worry about stats in this game, which seems to be the main difference vs quickplay.

So is there any argument for playing in Comp, or will I just be happier sticking to QP?

Just play whatever makes you happy. No reason to play comp other than bragging rights and weapon skins.

 

[Azoor]

Am I just better not bothering with competitive?

I'm not a very good player, for one. My win ratio is just a tad above .5 and I like playing with D.Va who I'm told is not all that viable competitively. And everything I hear about the competitive ranking system makes it seem like it's awful.

I just played one game, and we just got completely rekt. Made the payload move only 10 meters. Less than, actually, because the team's Reinhardt was doing business. I know it might just be incidental that we got matched up against a team that knew how to work together and I don't mind losing, but the game becomes utterly pointless when the opposing team has the payload so locked down that all we can do is throw ourselves into their hail of bullets.

And I don't really want to worry about stats in this game, which seems to be the main difference vs quickplay.

So is there any argument for playing in Comp, or will I just be happier sticking to QP?

Stick to QP and only play Competitive with a group that would help you out and cover for you. QP is the mode you play just for relaxing play.

 

[Prelude.]

On Anubis attack sudden death:

"We only have one minute and a half, let's go straight to the point, I'll speed boost as Lucio when we're near the gate, don't stop."
"Ok."
We get there, speed boost, the point is empty.
I turn around and I see only Rein behind me and 4 skulls in the side alleys.

 

[Mr Nash]

I'm surprised more people haven't tried the back cap strategy, especially with how I'm seeing more and more people play Symmetra for giggles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqvOokwhPgU

 

[arimanius]

IDDQD vs Seagull. :O

 

[Animator]

IDDQD vs Seagull. :O

where?

 

[ExMachina]

Luminosity Gaming vs Nubris on right now:

https://www.twitch.tv/esl_overwatch

 

[Zemm]

None of the stats sites working/updating?

 

[Lesath]

The rank 50-60's are full of utter shit players. I can't even imagine what it's like below that. Like holy fuck, some of these shitters, it would be an achievement if they could tie their shoelaces. I'm never ever solo queuing placements again and I'm waiting a few days for any bugs.

I've been solo queuing from 53 all the way down to 44. I was in a group of people who demanded healing from Lucio as if he was a goddamn Mercy. A lot more Genjis, Widowmakers, Hanzos, and D.Vas. At least 50+ you're getting above average players.

 

[Codeblew]

Blizzard says they fixed the winning with leavers on the opposite team issue:

http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20745727098

Some people are still reporting it is not working. I am still staying out of ranked until someone confirms they get full rank when salty opponents leave in the last minute.

We’ve recently implemented a change on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One so that, if a player leaves mid-match, it will no longer affect how Skill Rating is adjusted at the end of a match.

Some context behind this change:

When you are you placed into a Competitive Play match, the game calculates each team’s probability of winning. This calculation helps identify how evenly matched two teams are, which in turn informs how your Skill Rating will be adjusted following a win or loss. Right now, the way system works is that if your team is favored to win, you will gain less Skill Rating for a win and lose more Skill Rating for a loss. And if your team is NOT favored to win, you will gain more Skill Rating for a win and lose less Skill Rating for a loss.

Previously, if a player from either team left mid-match, the game would automatically recalculate each team’s probability of winning. The assumption was that if a team was a person down, the odds of them winning would go down, too, and that the most accurate thing we could do was account for this when adjusting each player’s Skill Rating at the end of the match.

Despite being more accurate, we received a lot of feedback that this recalculation just didn’t feel great and that it incentivized bad leaver behavior—which is last thing we want to do in Competitive Play. As a result, the game will no longer recalculate each team’s probability of winning whenever one or more people leave, and instead will scale off the probability originally established at the beginning of the match (just as it would it there were no leavers).

From a technical perspective, this will make Skill Rating adjustments a little less accurate for that specific match, but it should ultimately feel better for the players who stay and finish it out (plus, your Skill Rating will correct itself the next time you complete a match with no leavers). We also hope this will remove the incentive to “troll” a winning team by leaving, since it will no longer have an impact on anyone’s Skill Rating.

-----------------------------------------------

As always, we'll continue to keep an eye on Competitive Play and make quick improvements whenever possible. Thank you so much for your feedback and helping us make Overwatch better.

In case you've missed any of our other updates re: Competitive Play, here are links to the most recent and relevant discussions:
We're looking to add the "time bank" system from Assault maps to Escort and Hybrid maps for Season 2

Coin Flip and Sudden Death are being removed for Season 2

In the interim, Sudden Death duration has been calibrated on a per map basis

Fixed an issue that was causing players' Skill Rating to not be correctly adjusted when playing on Control maps

If you leave and then rejoin an in-progress Competitive Play match and your team wins, the game will no longer track the match as a loss in your placement match history or when determining the amount of Skill Rating you receive for completing a match

If you leave and then rejoin an in-progress Competitive Play match, you will no longer receive a competitive "leave" penalty

We feel that Overtime is lasting a little too long and are experimenting with some possible changes

 

[Haly]

About time.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Am I just better not bothering with competitive?

I'm not a very good player, for one. My win ratio is just a tad above .5 and I like playing with D.Va who I'm told is not all that viable competitively. And everything I hear about the competitive ranking system makes it seem like it's awful.

I just played one game, and we just got completely rekt. Made the payload move only 10 meters. Less than, actually, because the team's Reinhardt was doing business. I know it might just be incidental that we got matched up against a team that knew how to work together and I don't mind losing, but the game becomes utterly pointless when the opposing team has the payload so locked down that all we can do is throw ourselves into their hail of bullets.

And I don't really want to worry about stats in this game, which seems to be the main difference vs quickplay.

So is there any argument for playing in Comp, or will I just be happier sticking to QP?

It's fine.

These guys let themselves get stressed out over a fucking videogame ranking. If you want better balanced team comps and people who communicate, Ranked is the best way to play. People are guaranteed to be trying to win there, and are more likely to do fundamental things like fill role needs and switch when they aren't being effective. If you just want to bullshit and play heroes you want to get better at, play QP.

 

[arimanius]

where?

ExMachina linked it.

Luminosity Gaming vs Nubris on right now:

https://www.twitch.tv/esl_overwatch

 

[LiK]

Bah, two triple kills with DVa Ult and one of the, got me to get in to kill the team to get Payload to CP right before time ran out and I didn't get POTG. Gave it to Genji who got 4 kills with his Ult. Sigh

 

[chrominance]

It's fine.

These guys let themselves get stressed out over a fucking videogame ranking. If you want better balanced team comps and people who communicate, Ranked is the best way to play. People are guaranteed to be trying to win there, and are more likely to do fundamental things like fill role needs and switch when they aren't being effective. If you just want to bullshit and play heroes you want to get better at, play QP.

I don't know why everyone just assumes it's the rank that everyone cares about. My post-placement win ratio before I stopped playing competitive was 29%. I was losing more than 70% of my games. Do you like losing 70% of your games? Does that sound fun to you? I don't give a fuck what my rank is. I don't want to lose 70% of my games because the placement matches put me way higher than I should have been.

 

[Redmoon]

Blizzard says they fixed the winning with leavers on the opposite team issue:

http://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20745727098

Some people are still reporting it is not working. I am still staying out of ranked until someone confirms they get full rank when salty opponents leave in the last minute.

Slowly but surely ranked is getting into a state that I can stand playing in. Might be time to go back to regular daily OW once this is confirmed fully working 100%.

Though there's nothing I/Blizzard can really do about teammates not playing for the obj, not working together, or having good comp(regardless of what I say to them in chat/voice). That's a burden I'll have to carry as a solo q player and hope I can carry myself to a better haven.

 

[arimanius]

Luminosity Gaming vs Nubris on right now:

https://www.twitch.tv/esl_overwatch

So intense.

 

[Dead Prince]

tried again with zarya. what' a terrible mess lol

 

[eek5]

Luminosity Gaming vs Nubris on right now:

https://www.twitch.tv/esl_overwatch

dva stall cheese is cancer

 

[Zemm]

Why on Earth are they not playing stopwatch mode and why is there no hero limit?

 

[Haly]

Why on Earth are they not playing stopwatch mode and why is there no hero limit?

They gave the reason in an earlier stream, and it's because Blizzard is not going to use stopwatch or hero limits in whatever Worlds tournament they have in store, so they don't want to force pro teams to practice two different metas.

 

[Zemm]

They gave the reason in an earlier stream, and it's because Blizzard is not going to use stopwatch or hero limits in whatever Worlds tournament they have in store, so they don't want to force pro teams to practice two different metas.

Ah that makes sense. It sucks ass, but it makes sense.

I see some players in this tournament saying in chat "THIS IS WHAT YOU DID BLIZZARD" or "ARE YOU WATCHING?" so I guess they aren't too happy with this setup either.

 

[Antiwhippy]

dva stall cheese is cancer

Wait, what this.

Also yeah, I don't think I enjoy watching these rulesets as opposed to the hero limit/stopwatch matches that are actually fun to watch. Double winstons just look like a goddamn mess.

 

[eek5]

Wait, what this.

Also yeah, I don't think I enjoy watching these rulesets as opposed to the hero limit/stopwatch matches that are actually fun to watch. Double winstons just look like a goddamn mess.

http://plays.tv/video/577d6e928394b38641

Basically you stagger DVA to contest non stop

 

[abundant]

Wait, what this.

Also yeah, I don't think I enjoy watching these rulesets as opposed to the hero limit/stopwatch matches that are actually fun to watch.

If the attacking team is about to win, the defending team start stacking D.Va in order to contest.

 

[RandomExpletive]

I imagine it may be quite hard to coordinate, but shouldn't 2 Mei's shut down a full D.Va stall?

 

[slightconfuse]

Nothing like the opposing team go all torb

 

[Papercuts]

http://plays.tv/video/577d6e928394b38641

Basically you stagger DVA to contest non stop

Hero stacking continues to be the worst part of the game.

 

[eek5]

I imagine it may be quite hard to coordinate, but shouldn't 2 Mei's shut down a full D.Va stall?

Maybe. 2 people have to die and the attacker spawn is so far away that they'd have to break the defense again anyway. Meanwhile your team is fighting 4v5 or 4v6. By the time you get back with 2 mei the defenders have normal comp again.