Overwatch hates Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum Ranked Players! (Mercy changes coming up???)
Competitive rightfully caters to the higher tier players of Overwatch. I say rightfully because it IS a competitive e-sport with leagues, fans, tournaments and paid players and employees. The community is growing exponentially but I continue to feel forgotten in the gold and platinum rank.
Before we go through some of the issues I want to provide you with a quick breakdown of where the bulk of the players that play Overwatch are ranked. This data has been calculated by third party sites and it is arguably an accurate outline for the purpose of discussion.
"Posted by Zisi on the Overwatch Forums:
bronze is bottom 2%
silver 2% - 10%
gold 10% - 50%
plat 50% - 90%
diamond top 10%
masters top 2%
grandmasters, much less than 1%"
The proof is there, just watch any grandmaster streaming competitive matches and see how long they wait to find matches. Gold and Platinum ranked players make up approx 80% of all Overwatch players, yet anyone with any game sense at all can tell you how broken the competitive aspect of this game can be. Lets be clear on one thing, I will praise and thank Blizzard for the improvements they have made along the way. They have redefined the reporting system. They encourage and reward good behavior on its game. The community is starting to come together to flush out all the toxins in order to make it all a more enjoyable experience.
Many matches will bring along a smurf account. For those of you not aware of smurfs, these are players that buy a second copy of the game attached to a new account, simply to practice or boost other accounts up to higher ranks. This can tip the scales to one side and leave you frustrated and defeated. You may come across other issues such as early match leavers, or even the "blame it on everyone else" guy or girl that thinks they know everything about the game and blames everyone else for everything. This toxicity is not uncommon in competitive matches and this definitely disintegrates any chances you had of working as a team at times. I believe a mandatory tutorial on competitive games could bring some stability to the game. They could show gamers that grouping up is essential because of how big a 1 man advantage could be for the other team. Explain the basics of managing your ultimates as a team. Sometimes, spending 5 minutes flanking, dying, and looking for that perfect opportunity to get a play of the game is not exactly the best way to contribute to the team. Although this may work sometimes, working together and using ultimates even to take out one healer, or help win a fight at the choke can turn the tide and win the match. Have you ever watched your soldier or pharah use their ultimates alone, when their whole team is dead and waiting to spawn? Why not hold the ultimate and wait to push with your team? I can go on and on and on, perhaps it is a lost hope and my only path is to train hard and become a godlike killer and push my way to the grandmaster rank. Every rank has its flaws, grandmasters may have higher expectations, but at least they know how the game is meant to be played. It is not fun to lose when you are facing a triple tank enemy team and you have a widowmaker with zero eliminations that refuses to swap heroes. As the data piles up on reports and complaints and toxic players, I hope that blizzard that queue us up with happier and more cooperative teammates in the future.
Mercy, our angel from above swooping down to resurrect fallen heroes and save the day... or the point rather. The ability to resurrect a hero or two is definitely still overpowered. If you are up against a Mercy, in many cases you will almost always need a Mercy in your team in order to win. Many believe her ultimate does not belong in this game, but blizzard seems determined to make it work. The Overwatch World cup, in my opinion, was held down simply because a Mercy was needed in every match in order to win. This is something i believe blizzard tries to avoid but it was simply too late to implement any changes. Now, the Overwatch League is still battling the broken Mercy issues. I feel confident that they can work this out and I still really enjoyed watching the world cup and the OWL. It is extremely entertaining and you can learn a few things from the worlds top Overwatch players at the same time.
To end this blog I will say that I will continue to be a big fan of everything Overwatch. The quality and performance and continued support is a 10/10 for me. I am looking forward to the Blizzard World map update that just dropped today along with a ton of new skins and items. If you haven't tried tried overwatch yet, I highly recommend it.
Johnny Rocket