Overwatch

[Aikouka]

My friend tried to convince me to buy this game, but it really seems like too much of a chore to learn all the necessary things to be competitive (or at the very least, not a liability). Plus, $40 more to put towards pizza. Amirite?

Mmm... I don't think it's too complex that I'd worry about learning things. At a low level, most people don't usually expect too much, so as long as you have generic FPS competency, you'll do well enough. Over time, you'll learn the maps, health pack placement, good strategy, and character playstyle. ...and if you want to feel even better about it, I've seen streamers who play this game for about 4-8 hours per day say things like, "I never realized that!", in regard to the way some mechanic works.

 

[evident]

I haven't had a chance to try the brawl yet, but as per usual, I caved and bought some boxes. I think I got all of the epic skins except for Hanzo, and I haven't gotten legendary Mercy or Junkrat yet. I really want that Mercy one!

I did get the Mei highlight intro though, and I think we can all agree that it's one of the best ever. That's not much of a surprise though, because if it deals with animations, Mei has the best ones (highlight intros, emotes, etc.).

The major things that I need to get would be Mercy's skin, Junkrat's skin, Genji's intro, Hanzo's skin, and I think that's it. I have a lot of the RIP victory poses too.

I caved last time and bought tons of boxes for the summer games, I hate that most of the unlocks are lame sprays or icons. I also hate that even though you spend real money you can get screwed and get dupes which convert into the game currency. however... i NEED that junkrat skin!!!

 

[Aikouka]

however... i NEED that junkrat skin!!!

I think this one may be the first Junkrat legendary skin that I actually like. Although, I'm still curious to see what Christmas will bring....

 

[evident]

holy crap... i dropped from 2650 down to 2050 in like a week. It's almost impossible for me to climb out of the low gold ratings now, everyone plays like crap, and no matter how good i am at carrying, we still lose. this is absolutely aggravating!!!!!!

 

[s44]

It's been horrible since Sombra dropped. I'm not doing competitive until next season.

That said, it's free weekend, for anyone who hasn't tried the game. Plus the Origins Edition is on sale for $35 everywhere (including Amazon).

 

[zerocool84]

holy crap... i dropped from 2650 down to 2050 in like a week. It's almost impossible for me to climb out of the low gold ratings now, everyone plays like crap, and no matter how good i am at carrying, we still lose. this is absolutely aggravating!!!!!!

Competitive still doesn't take into account how good your own skill is, it depends on everyone else you play with. You can always be doing great but if your team sucks you'll never progress. It needs to take into account your overall contributions to matches like heals or staying close to the payload or catching points etc.

 

[Aikouka]

Competitive still doesn't take into account how good your own skill is, it depends on everyone else you play with. You can always be doing great but if your team sucks you'll never progress. It needs to take into account your overall contributions to matches like heals or staying close to the payload or catching points etc.

It actually does take into account your own game-perceived skill. Blizzard stated during BlizzCon that the game does use your (hidden) MMR when trying to ensure that you don't climb too far in competitive. This means that the system should try to ensure that you don't gain too many points if you start getting far away from your MMR, and I don't know if they discussed the opposite, but it should be true too. They're also making some changes next season to spread out the distribution of players. They said that far too many people were in platinum that shouldn't have been (2500-2999), and they want to use your MMR and previous competitive rating to help place you after your placement matches.

I haven't had too much trouble in competitive. I'm at about 2600 right now, and games can really be a bit of a toss up. Sometimes, you get people that work well together, and other times, you don't. I have noticed that teaming up with friends usually gets me worse games, which is rather strange given most people prefer queuing in groups. I was actually below 2500 after playing with a friend, and I climbed back up to 2600 doing solo games. The only bad part is that I normally get stuck healing a lot, which might not be the worst thing as I haven't played a lot lately, and it really shows in my aim. To give you an idea, I had closed beta for a month and a half, and I was something like level 170. The game has been out since the end of May, and I'm only level 180-something. That's about four times as long for nearly the same result!

 

[jimrawr]

Competitive still doesn't take into account how good your own skill is, it depends on everyone else you play with. You can always be doing great but if your team sucks you'll never progress. It needs to take into account your overall contributions to matches like heals or staying close to the payload or catching points etc.

If you are stuck at a certain SR, its because you belong there. Everyone gets the unwinnable games due to the troll teammate, or the shit comp. Not just your team. So you will win some in that way, and you will lose some in that way and those losses should balance out with the free wins you also get. In the other fair games, you need to perform well enough to win at like a 51% win rate to progress. If you cant do that, you are at your SR.

 

[evident]

If you are stuck at a certain SR, its because you belong there. Everyone gets the unwinnable games due to the troll teammate, or the shit comp. Not just your team. So you will win some in that way, and you will lose some in that way and those losses should balance out with the free wins you also get. In the other fair games, you need to perform well enough to win at like a 51% win rate to progress. If you cant do that, you are at your SR.

I somewhat disagree... This entire season i've been hanging out at the 2600 ranking, and it was only after the last two updates that i made this freefall down to 2000, with no signs of coming anywhere close to the 2600 mark. This game is incredibly streaky for me. I can be on point with my aim, and strategy all day long and still lose games left and right. This is solo queuing btw.

I recently started queuing with some people i played with in groups of 2 and 3 and i've been climbing back up. the guy i've been playing with has really good mechanics and strategy too, his experience is the same as mine

i'm beginning to think the only way to climb rank is to pair up, and solo queue infrequently or not at all.

 

[Aikouka]

I wanted to play a few games the other night, and I ended up with three losses and one win. The only game that actually felt like my team tried was that one win. To be clear, I'm not trying to just hate on the team. In some of the games, I thought that my play felt a bit weaker than I would've liked. However, there were definitely those that were not being a team player. In the first game, we had a Torbjorn main. He wasn't that bad, but people that main unconventional choices usually cause a bit of strife in a group. Eventually, one of the other players flat out refused to play. He outright stated in match chat that he was just going to AFK. It was attack on Dorado, and he just sat far off near the second defender spawn point. (I reported him.) I think the next game was in Route 66 where one guy went Bastion, and I ended up having to go Reinhardt. (As usual, we had no tank and I was the only person that hadn't chose yet.) We were on top of the gas station, and the Bastion sets up all the way in the front of the gas station on the corner. I don't setup that far ahead, because the sign serves as great, built-in protection. So, I told him that he was up too far, and he refused to move and said I should shield him. Well, I didn't, because he was clearly in error for trying to put the team in a bad spot.

Fortunately, I'm still at about 2550, which is fine.

 

[evident]

I wanted to play a few games the other night, and I ended up with three losses and one win. The only game that actually felt like my team tried was that one win. To be clear, I'm not trying to just hate on the team. In some of the games, I thought that my play felt a bit weaker than I would've liked. However, there were definitely those that were not being a team player. In the first game, we had a Torbjorn main. He wasn't that bad, but people that main unconventional choices usually cause a bit of strife in a group. Eventually, one of the other players flat out refused to play. He outright stated in match chat that he was just going to AFK. It was attack on Dorado, and he just sat far off near the second defender spawn point. (I reported him.) I think the next game was in Route 66 where one guy went Bastion, and I ended up having to go Reinhardt. (As usual, we had no tank and I was the only person that hadn't chose yet.) We were on top of the gas station, and the Bastion sets up all the way in the front of the gas station on the corner. I don't setup that far ahead, because the sign serves as great, built-in protection. So, I told him that he was up too far, and he refused to move and said I should shield him. Well, I didn't, because he was clearly in error for trying to put the team in a bad spot.

Fortunately, I'm still at about 2550, which is fine.

Lets play again sometime next season, i thought we did pretty well together. i just hope my dropping 600 points won't screw me for next season's placements.

 

[jimrawr]

i'm beginning to think the only way to climb rank is to pair up, and solo queue infrequently or not at all.

You have to get better to climb. Its not a grind, its a skill rating. Its normal that people get stuck at a certain SR. They are not improving faster than others are improving. I solo q'd from 2700 to 3500. At one point i went something like 1-23 and dropped some 500+ points. It wasnt bad luck, it was bad play. Took me a few days to get the SR back. When I took that dive down to like 2600 the players were very clearly worse than me and it wasnt hard at all to climb back up. If you are stuck, its because you are ranked where you should be...

Everyone likes to think they are better than their actual rating, but why not just be objective and self critical? Then you can actually start to realize your weaknesses, etc, and improve your game! You don't get worse teammates than your opponents, and you don't have more disconnects than your opponents. That makes you the X factor..

 

[Aikouka]

Lets play again sometime next season, i thought we did pretty well together. i just hope my dropping 600 points won't screw me for next season's placements.

Sure!

You have to get better to climb. Its not a grind, its a skill rating. Its normal that people get stuck at a certain SR. They are not improving faster than others are improving. I solo q'd from 2700 to 3500. At one point i went something like 1-23 and dropped some 500+ points. It wasnt bad luck, it was bad play. Took me a few days to get the SR back. When I took that dive down to like 2600 the players were very clearly worse than me and it wasnt hard at all to climb back up. If you are stuck, its because you are ranked where you should be...

Everyone likes to think they are better than their actual rating, but why not just be objective and self critical? Then you can actually start to realize your weaknesses, etc, and improve your game! You don't get worse teammates than your opponents, and you don't have more disconnects than your opponents. That makes you the X factor..

It can depend on how much you play, because the games are setup with random people. For example, in my situation that I mentioned above, I was in four matches, and three of them had people that actively played against their own team. That's pretty much just bad luck for me. Honestly, I've never had that many bad matches in a row before then! However, if I had a chance to play ten matches, I might've evened out and gone back over 2600. In other words, I probably don't play nearly enough to climb up.

I've been doing some 3v3 today, and goodness... it's so easy to see how bad people are at this. I was just in a match that went 1-3, and I was the only one that could actually compete against the enemy. The biggest problem that I kept seeing was that people seemed to avoid characters with good self-sustainability, which is nice as you know most people won't choose a healer. I usually just go with Roadhog as he's probably one of the easier characters to get solo eliminations with. Although, I really need to learn where to aim on certain heroes a bit more.

 

[moonbogg]

Game doesn't support 21:9. What a sad thing. Very sad.

 

[Aikouka]

Game doesn't support 21:9. What a sad thing. Very sad.

That's on purpose. If the game wants to have some sort of competitive aspect to it, it has to decide what's the "base" viewpoint that determines what any player standing in the same spot and looking the same direction will see. If the game had true 21:9 support, then that player would see more peripheral information than someone playing on a 16:9 screen, which would give a clear advantage to the 21:9 player.

 

[moonbogg]

That's on purpose. If the game wants to have some sort of competitive aspect to it, it has to decide what's the "base" viewpoint that determines what any player standing in the same spot and looking the same direction will see. If the game had true 21:9 support, then that player would see more peripheral information than someone playing on a 16:9 screen, which would give a clear advantage to the 21:9 player.

Yeah so why does it work fine for CS:GO? That's way more competitive and a more serious game than anything else pretty much and it works. No one complains or cries about it there. Not supporting a popular aspect ratio and giving some excuse for it, other than a technical limitation, is just a disgusting noob move.

 

[Aikouka]

Yeah so why does it work fine for CS:GO? That's way more competitive and a more serious game than anything else pretty much and it works. No one complains or cries about it there. Not supporting a popular aspect ratio and giving some excuse for it, other than a technical limitation, is just a disgusting noob move.

Wouldn't it just look super goofy unless they increase the FOV for 21:9? You'd be stretching the same 103 degree FOV over a wider space....

 

[moonbogg]

Wouldn't it just look super goofy unless they increase the FOV for 21:9? You'd be stretching the same 103 degree FOV over a wider space....

That's not supporting the resolution. More is added to the sides. This isn't hard to do. Many old games support it great, like team fortress 2 and counter strike. It works great. No reason why a brand new game shouldn't support it. The competitive excuse is straight up stupid and lame. They think their game is so important to the whole world, like an Olympic sport or something. Its not. Its just another game, and its a new game that doesn't support a wide range of wide resolutions. Its a derpish fail for stupid reasons.

 

[Insomniator]

That's not supporting the resolution. More is added to the sides. This isn't hard to do. Many old games support it great, like team fortress 2 and counter strike. It works great. No reason why a brand new game shouldn't support it. The competitive excuse is straight up stupid and lame. They think their game is so important to the whole world, like an Olympic sport or something. Its not. Its just another game, and its a new game that doesn't support a wide range of wide resolutions. Its a derpish fail for stupid reasons.

I'm all for supporting it in quick play, but certainly not any competitive modes. The standard is 16:9, get over it. People play these games as a career, for 100's of thousands of dollars -- all on 16:9. ~99.5% of people will be playing competitive on 16:9.

 

[Aikouka]

I'm all for supporting it in quick play, but certainly not any competitive modes. The standard is 16:9, get over it. People play these games as a career, for 100's of thousands of dollars -- all on 16:9. ~99.5% of people will be playing competitive on 16:9.

I'm not for that. That would just be really confusing to the player to suddenly have the resolution shifted when playing in Competitive. For that sake, it would be better to just have it be one or the other. The thing is... if he doesn't want to simply have the FoV stretched, having a larger FoV specifically for 21:9 will give them a potential advantage. Whether or not the player can take advantage of the extra visuals is a completely different story. I'm not blaming them for not being pleased about it. I mean... who wants to buy a monitor and find out that it's not properly supported; however, 21:9 support is flaky enough that they've got Steam curators to help denote which games work and which don't.

 

[moonbogg]

I'm all for supporting it in quick play, but certainly not any competitive modes. The standard is 16:9, get over it. People play these games as a career, for 100's of thousands of dollars -- all on 16:9. ~99.5% of people will be playing competitive on 16:9.

This can't be true. Any gamer making that much money would certainly spend it on a 21:9 monitor. So, all gamers making that much money would first, before doing anything else other than cash the check, buy a 21:9 monitor. These rich gamers are in pain. They have been injured by the fact that they can't game in 21:9. 21:9 is better. I know its better. They know its better. You know its better. The only derpers who don't know its better are the lame devs who don't support it because they think their game is a world class Olympic event and 21:9 is the equivalent of doping.

 

[jimrawr]

PC gaming has never been about being on a level playing field. It was always about who has the better cpu/gpu, monitor, and to a less extend mouse/kb/mousepad. I remember back in the late 90s gaming mousepads werent really a thing until the 3m and the Everglide came out. Gave a clear advantage for FPS games.

If 21:9 is an issue, why are 144hz monitors OK when a large majority are still on 60hz and the advantage gained is MUCH higher than what would be gained by a 21:9 ?? No one can compete on a high level without a 144hz monitor. 21:9 is likely the future, so why not embrace it?

 

[Aikouka]

I think I've done four of my placement matches so far, and the first there were just horrible losses. I had a match on Numbani where it seemed like I was the only person that could manage to kill anyone (on attack). On defense, I had to switch from Soldier to Lucio as we only had a single healer (Ana), and I wasn't too comfortable with it. Unfortunately, no one on the team understands the idea of switching, and they sat there with heroes that couldn't easily counter the enemy's Pharah (Junkrat and Reaper). At one point, I had to sit there and kill a McCree in close quarters because no one was killing anything (they were too busy dying to Pharah), and he was kinda trying to kill me. In the end, I kept my top eliminations from the first round (as Soldier) and also took top healing.

Unfortunately, the one that I won was soured a bit by a salty player. Essentially, the guy was just a giant arse... the sort of "dude bro" type of player that you'd expect in a Call of Duty match on Xbox. To give you an idea, he made some rather crude remarks while looking up the little girl's dress on the statue on King's Row. Just... . Flippin' weirdos!!

 

[Fingolfin269]

I thoroughly enjoy those competitive experiences where you get 4 of 6 in voice chat and the other 2 say the reason they are not in is it is pointless. Great story other than the fact that we could not communicate to either of them the position of some of the opposing players positioned above us on the 2nd point @ Temple of Anubis. Made entering a lot of fun considering they were the 2 most readily equipped to deal with the threat. Should have won but instead ended up in a draw on that specific one.

My placement matches were brutal. Think I ended up somewhere in the 1550 range after losing 8 of 10 placement matches. The good news is I won 4 out of 6 or so after that and am already near 1700 so at least for now the ranking is shifting in greater increments. I did notice the increase for winning was significantly greater than any decrease I received for losing.

 

[Aikouka]

I thoroughly enjoy those competitive experiences where you get 4 of 6 in voice chat and the other 2 say the reason they are not in is it is pointless. Great story other than the fact that we could not communicate to either of them the position of some of the opposing players positioned above us on the 2nd point @ Temple of Anubis. Made entering a lot of fun considering they were the 2 most readily equipped to deal with the threat. Should have won but instead ended up in a draw on that specific one.

I feel your pain there. I did two placement games with my friend where I expected them to be a bit more painful because his MMR would have him placed a bit lower. However, since his SR last season was only about 1600 last season and I was 2500-2600, I could never play with him. We got into a game of King's Row, and the salt started before the match even began with a few people complaining that someone chose Widowmaker. Worst of all, NONE of the people (apart from me and my friend) were in voice chat. So, at the end of the match as they started complaining in match chat, I just layed it all out and told them that they shouldn't complain if they weren't even in voice chat. Amusingly enough, I referenced alerting them to a potential danger right as one of those dangers (Junkrat tire) came up as a play of the game. It was even worse that they left the Junkrat alone almost the entire time that he was up there. He was a prime target to get picked off given he was completely away from his team, but they practically let him sit there and kill people. I was playing Ana, and I'd attack him when I could, but a good Junkrat can simply bounce it off the edge of the window/door thing.

My placement matches were brutal. Think I ended up somewhere in the 1550 range after losing 8 of 10 placement matches. The good news is I won 4 out of 6 or so after that and am already near 1700 so at least for now the ranking is shifting in greater increments. I did notice the increase for winning was significantly greater than any decrease I received for losing.

I'm a bit worried as to where I'll end up. I only play a few matches a night, and I don't really feel like putting up with having to climb out of ratings where people don't even want to try. Heck, last night, I played Soldier, Lucio, Ana, Reinhardt and Roadhog, and there are some that won't even consider switching. (There was also a minor bit of Tracer when I didn't think I'd get back to the payload in time as Reinhardt.)