people don't play to counter
Trust me.
Junkrat doesn't disappear all the way to mid plat. It's just that his spammy nature makes it easier for people to feel they've made a big impact with a lower skill floor.
You just pray and hope he's one if the good ones. They are out there.
From my experience so far, I just feel like besides some defensive areas in Kings Row and Eichenwalde for example when opponents are forced into a choke point, he's not so great. I can't find a good reason he should be attacking more often than not, and one of the few times I do like pressuring Reinhardt's shield, he's off somewhere dropping bombs from afar in like Lijiang Tower: Garden. The character that I've discovered people don't counter far often enough when he's in the game: Zenyatta. There were quite a few times where I wanted to fight poison with poison, but nobody would pick Zenyatta when we have a Mccree, Soldier 76 and Reaper >.>
I pretty much gave up on playing anything other than a support or tank when needed. Everyone just quickly picks offensive characters right away leaving no other choice. It does get a little annoying. Especially since I am actually really good at hitscan. I learned to embrace the support role.
For better and worse, I've come to embrace the support role because unless I want to dedicate an absurd amount of practice, I don't have the kind of reflexes and consistency to be a threat or mentality really. I've found some characters I like playing because the community forces you into those roles like Roadhog and even Mercy. But playing as Mercy gets tiring when I'm getting backstabbed constantly. Admittedly, I've even become a bit passive aggressive with Mercy. I'll willingly take out the pistol to participate in the battle when I should be solely dedicated otherwise on healing or buffing, but that's because nobody is shooting a Pharah up in the sky for example.
Junkrat can be a good pick if the person knows how to play him well. Of course, at 1100 SR I expect the ammount of good Junkrats to be exactly zero.
Yeah, I don't doubt that. But I just don't see it in my league often enough. They'll never take a point themselves I feel like. When they're on a point and the enemy is forced to engage in direction, yeah, I see his effectiveness. But having that scenario occur in the first place? Ah :lol
But yeah, that's why I prefaced everything about my level. I try to improve what I can for myself like realizing how badly I fucked up on when to revive as Mercy, but otherwise, there are times like Hanamura A that you see things. The same things many, many times... Oh, how I would love a Genji or Tracer to gun down that Bastion in the back, but we as a team are stuck trying to gun down a Reinhardt, D.Va, and Mercy hiding behind them.