Competitive ruining Overwatch for me

[BloatedGuppy]

I seem to recall people mentioning issues of game quality and skill matching before ranked went live.

Well, yes, people complain about matchmaking all the time. Kaplan addressed this specifically in a rather long post. People have confirmation and recency bias, and expect to win around 70% of their matches and feel robbed if they win around 50%, which is where they should be in a matchmaker that is doing it's job. I'm not complaining about wins and losses, I'm complaining that the game is fishing from too broad a pool when it sets up games.

And you say a smaller pool, but how many people are in this smaller pool though? Isn't there millions of people playing the game? Even splitting a pool in half, you've got millions of people to be matched with.

The game sold upwards of 10 million copies. I'm not sure about platform split. It's important to remember that copies sold =/= active players, let alone concurrent players. Going off MMOs, player concurrency is usually about 10% of total population, and MMOs are "sticky" games with heartier retention than a game like Overwatch. If OW had 5% concurrency I'd be very impressed. But let's say it's 10%, and the game sold 15 million copies. That's 1.5 million concurrent players. Adjust for region, let's say there's 1 million in NA. Split that in half for ranked, and now you've got 500,000. A fraction of that will be available for a game at any moment in time, and Overwatch favors "fast" games over "balanced" ones, so it seems to be happy to grab any 12 idiots and throw them into a match together. This results in turkey shoots for skilled players ("Boo, matchmaking sucks, all my teammates are idiots") and grueling punishments for lower skilled players ("Can't get out of spawn without getting murdered").

And if ranked is as crap as people are saying (and that seems to be the consistent response I've heard from other sources), then they will likely stop playing ranked.

Ranked has issues, but a lot of them are teething pains. Some will get sorted out. Others will continue to vex players. I doubt anyone who hungered for ranked will be happy returning to Quick Play, though.

I mean games like LOL and DOTA have the unranked and ranked, and you can get decent matches just fine in those games.

Absolutely true, which is why it's so annoying here. As said above, I'm HAPPY to wait for a game if it means the game will be BETTER, especially since Overwatch allows for games to roll into new matches. Adjust the search time upwards, and work harder to keep relatively balanced matches intact. Both things the MM *should* be doing, and isn't.

So I don't really see how it's killed the game, having Ranked, simply given the population size.

I never said it was killing the game, for pity's sake. I said it was fucking up Quick Play. Let's not ascribe hyperbole to me I never actually uttered.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Also had one guy who was really nice in the voice chat but salty as fuck in the text chat at the same time, which was weird.

I know who player, albeit in TF2, who is exactly like that too.

The nicest, most cooperative (and funny) player you can imagine when he's on your team. But the saltiest douchebag little shit to play against, who will produce trash talk at a terrifying rate.

He actually does it on purpose, trying to provoke players into wasting time replying to him or singling him out in fights. He's pretty damn good at it too, so it works more often than you'd expect on players who aren't already wise to his act.

I'd venture a guess your avatar is wise to his act, yes?

 

[Redryhno]

I mean games like LOL and DOTA have the unranked and ranked, and you can get decent matches just fine in those games. I know because I don't play ranked, and I have a decent track record of competent players. Sure you get some noobs, but in the time I did spend playing Ranked, you saw plenty of dumb players there too.

So I don't really see how it's killed the game, having Ranked, simply given the population size.

Eh, League's turned into a shitshow even at the top brackets honestly, getting a good game there is like finding four shiny Mareeps in a gangbattle, and normals I hear are giving Master/Challenger queue times these days since Riot decided to fuck around with the ladders, DotA's still pretty good though.

Same shit was going to happen as the game went forward anyways honestly, this just makes it happen faster while giving those curbstompers a place to play with their own skill level.

Yes and no. The game really needs to tighten up its match requirements. I'd rather wait 2 minutes for a game I like playing and will happily keep queuing for more rounds in, then wait 10 seconds for an unbalanced clusterfuck. The former is a recipe for a night of entertainment, the latter is a recipe for a night of irritation and frustration.

If DOTA2 and Starcraft could manage proper ELO ranking and tight quality control on their matchmaking, Overwatch can. The game has a huge player base. Punting people into a new match with a 5 second wait and having that match be a shitshow of wildly divergent skill levels is just sloppy.

Problem is that the game's still pretty young. It may be a Blizz game, but it's still a multiplayer only title that you have to pay money for, which is a big red flag for alot of people, and rightfully so. Give it six months and I wouldn't be surprised if it evened out a bit.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Then don't play competitive? I usually never play ranked in these sort of games, since I know it's just a stressful experience. Unless you're actually planning on becoming a skilled player to "go pro", I'd stay away from competitive modes.

....so then stop playing in competitive mode? I mean, there seems to be a very simple and direct solution to your problem:

If competitive mode is too frustrating, don't play competitive mode.

And here's 2 people who clearly stop reading after the first paragraph (or possibly even the title).

My problem with competitive isn't that competitive is frustrating, it's that the inclusion of competitive has ruined quick-play.

Now I'm either stuck playing competitive, which has somewhat satisfying matches but I seem to constantly be paired with assholes, or if I want to play quick-play (which is honestly all I want to play) I end up playing with people who seem to have been lobotomized because everyone who knows what they're doing wants to play competitive.

Hell, the play with friends approach doesn't work either because all my friends also want to play competitive (because competitive gives you the reward of gold guns), but there's never enough of us on at one time to make a full team, and my work schedule often doesn't coincide with theirs.

 

[Programmed_For_Damage]

you can lower microphone volume in the settings. If someone gets rude in chat remind them it's just a game.

people are gonna *****. Fuck 'em. Just have fun doing your bit and don't put too much stock if you win or lose.

At least thats how I play.

Amen brother. Amen.

I haven't seen any real correlations in Overwatch since Competitive mode has been added. You get the rounds where everyone gels as a cohesive unit and even if you are sucking it tends to be a good experience on the whole. Then you get the rounds where everyone runs off to do their own thing and leave you guarding the objective with your dick in your hands. Then they slag you off for dropping the capture point after you get bum-rushed by four other players. But you take the good with the bad.

 

[PurplePonyArcade]

I enjoy Competitive and Overwatch is better made for it than a lot of FPS games. That said I know a thing or two about what OP said on matchmaking. It just feels as random as non competitive and thats bit me hard in the past.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Eh I know what you mean sort of, but at the same time I completely turn off all my stress while playing quick play and 100% have fun, it sucsk you aren't going to get the strategy you might be hoping for, but pretty much everyone uses it to screw around/get better with heroes they aren't good at yet.


although rant incoming......I'm getting *super* sick of mei, and not mei's on other teams...I keep getting stuck with fucking assholes on my team that switch to mei and purposefully troll their own team, either by icewalling in front of the spawn (making us stuck in there), or in one case they icewalled the whole fucking team up in the air to be hit by D.va's ult when we were hiding behind the payload...

Competitive is being ruined by assholes, even with them being reported by both teams, it is seeming to make little to no difference, and it sucks that one person can objectively ruin the match. I've had guys absolutely rage for 30 seconds straight when someone takes their hero before the match starts, and they'll specifically pick a troll character and help the other team the entire match, and when it's 5 on 6 off the bat and the guy is essentially helping the enemy in any way possible, it ruins everyone's fun and you're stuck playing the entire match until the end, otherwise you get penalized.

My experience has been the opposite.

The players in competitive are more cooperative and tend to realise that raging will just lead to a loss. They play the objective and pay attention to team composition.

I've only encountered maybe two salty people who I just mute immediately. Also had one guy who was really nice in the voice chat but salty as fuck in the text chat at the same time, which was weird.

Quick play is now where I go when I don't want to give a fuck. Usually when I want to play/practice a character I'm not much good with or experiment with non-conventional roles.

oh how I yearn to play with australians. I wouldn't even mind the "leet must win at all costs" kids right now, I'm just tired of getting stuck with childish ass trolls who sink their own ship at the first sign of not getting their way. my rank is swinging +/-800 right now because of this bullshit and it's really dissuading me from playing more.

 

[RaikuFA]

Eh I know what you mean sort of, but at the same time I completely turn off all my stress while playing quick play and 100% have fun, it sucsk you aren't going to get the strategy you might be hoping for, but pretty much everyone uses it to screw around/get better with heroes they aren't good at yet.


although rant incoming......I'm getting *super* sick of mei, and not mei's on other teams...I keep getting stuck with fucking assholes on my team that switch to mei and purposefully troll their own team, either by icewalling in front of the spawn (making us stuck in there), or in one case they icewalled the whole fucking team up in the air to be hit by D.va's ult when we were hiding behind the payload...

Competitive is being ruined by assholes, even with them being reported by both teams, it is seeming to make little to no difference, and it sucks that one person can objectively ruin the match. I've had guys absolutely rage for 30 seconds straight when someone takes their hero before the match starts, and they'll specifically pick a troll character and help the other team the entire match, and when it's 5 on 6 off the bat and the guy is essentially helping the enemy in any way possible, it ruins everyone's fun and you're stuck playing the entire match until the end, otherwise you get penalized.

My experience has been the opposite.

The players in competitive are more cooperative and tend to realise that raging will just lead to a loss. They play the objective and pay attention to team composition.

I've only encountered maybe two salty people who I just mute immediately. Also had one guy who was really nice in the voice chat but salty as fuck in the text chat at the same time, which was weird.

Quick play is now where I go when I don't want to give a fuck. Usually when I want to play/practice a character I'm not much good with or experiment with non-conventional roles.

oh how I yearn to play with australians. I wouldn't even mind the "leet must win at all costs" kids right now, I'm just tired of getting stuck with childish ass trolls who sink their own ship at the first sign of not getting their way. my rank is swinging +/-800 right now because of this bullshit and it's really dissuading me from playing more.

You're in 800? I'm in 4000 because assholes keep DCing on my team.

 

[SlumlordThanatos]

The worst part of the NA competitive scene is the fixation on the meta mentality.

This is true of pretty much every team-based game. League, Overwatch, etc.

The pros will find the best combination of heroes, and play them. People who like to win will typically follow suit.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

I only hate it because people are so bad at it. And every other match one guy on my team will ruin it for everyone else because he doesn't like the hero someone else played as. If only you could get banned for being a griefing asshole *****.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Eh, I'll take it over Quickplay any day. People play the objective, people seem more likely to work together an communicate, and people actually voice words of encouragement. Sure, there's the occasional jackass, but it's easy enough to mute and move on. Also, I don't really think it's even a rank thing as I'm only in Silver and really don't encounter many issues with people. Maybe I'm just lucky...

 

[WindKnight]

oh how I yearn to play with australians. I wouldn't even mind the "leet must win at all costs" kids right now, I'm just tired of getting stuck with childish ass trolls who sink their own ship at the first sign of not getting their way. my rank is swinging +/-800 right now because of this bullshit and it's really dissuading me from playing more.

I wouldn't mind so much, but a loss costs 1.2-3 times what i get for a win, and I'm about 120 points from making a gold, but I know I won't get there unless I get a 4-5 game winstreak, and I know with my own skil, the games not going to just put me on the 'good' team 5 times in a row.

 

[Glongpre]

Competitive is amazing when you get a good team, but absolutely infuriating when you get a bad team.

This season has been pretty bad to start, and I actually got one team that was so bad that they were playing like it was quickplay. There was one other dude on the team who wanted to group, and he eventually gave up and was continuously laughing in the mic and wondering what the fuck everyone was doing. It was so odd, and it was around 2400 which is suppose to be above average if I am not mistaken.

Anyway, I had to stop because I moved to a new place and the internet is not made for online games, I tell you what. Makes me sad, I was excited to start the new season. Practiced a lot of McCree, my accuracy went up from 31% to 41%.
I guess I'll stick to quickplay while at college

Went on a tangent, competitive is better than quickplay. It may have taken a lot of good players out of quickplay, but quickplay is for practice, so no sense getting bent out of shape over match outcomes. If the team is that bad, try to carry the team with an offensive character or try and be the best support you can be, and see what happens. Practice, and have a little fun. Fun is allowed.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Eh I know what you mean sort of, but at the same time I completely turn off all my stress while playing quick play and 100% have fun, it sucsk you aren't going to get the strategy you might be hoping for, but pretty much everyone uses it to screw around/get better with heroes they aren't good at yet.


although rant incoming......I'm getting *super* sick of mei, and not mei's on other teams...I keep getting stuck with fucking assholes on my team that switch to mei and purposefully troll their own team, either by icewalling in front of the spawn (making us stuck in there), or in one case they icewalled the whole fucking team up in the air to be hit by D.va's ult when we were hiding behind the payload...

Competitive is being ruined by assholes, even with them being reported by both teams, it is seeming to make little to no difference, and it sucks that one person can objectively ruin the match. I've had guys absolutely rage for 30 seconds straight when someone takes their hero before the match starts, and they'll specifically pick a troll character and help the other team the entire match, and when it's 5 on 6 off the bat and the guy is essentially helping the enemy in any way possible, it ruins everyone's fun and you're stuck playing the entire match until the end, otherwise you get penalized.

My experience has been the opposite.

The players in competitive are more cooperative and tend to realise that raging will just lead to a loss. They play the objective and pay attention to team composition.

I've only encountered maybe two salty people who I just mute immediately. Also had one guy who was really nice in the voice chat but salty as fuck in the text chat at the same time, which was weird.

Quick play is now where I go when I don't want to give a fuck. Usually when I want to play/practice a character I'm not much good with or experiment with non-conventional roles.

oh how I yearn to play with australians. I wouldn't even mind the "leet must win at all costs" kids right now, I'm just tired of getting stuck with childish ass trolls who sink their own ship at the first sign of not getting their way. my rank is swinging +/-800 right now because of this bullshit and it's really dissuading me from playing more.

You're in 800? I'm in 4000 because assholes keep DCing on my team.

no, my rank is swinging +/- 800 because of said childish douchebags and trolls as mentioned above, I don't need a perfect team (I have at least one if not two heroes in offense/defense/tank/support that I am really good with, so hero switching isn't a big deal), and losing after a solid match doesn't bother me, it's the pathetic other shit that makes the game not fun at all and doesn't persuade me to keep playing it when the report function seems to do nothing.

also if you're in 4000+ already, then holy shit that puts you in grandmaster+, I would be surprised if you aren't in tournaments/pro teams.

 

[RaikuFA]

Eh I know what you mean sort of, but at the same time I completely turn off all my stress while playing quick play and 100% have fun, it sucsk you aren't going to get the strategy you might be hoping for, but pretty much everyone uses it to screw around/get better with heroes they aren't good at yet.


although rant incoming......I'm getting *super* sick of mei, and not mei's on other teams...I keep getting stuck with fucking assholes on my team that switch to mei and purposefully troll their own team, either by icewalling in front of the spawn (making us stuck in there), or in one case they icewalled the whole fucking team up in the air to be hit by D.va's ult when we were hiding behind the payload...

Competitive is being ruined by assholes, even with them being reported by both teams, it is seeming to make little to no difference, and it sucks that one person can objectively ruin the match. I've had guys absolutely rage for 30 seconds straight when someone takes their hero before the match starts, and they'll specifically pick a troll character and help the other team the entire match, and when it's 5 on 6 off the bat and the guy is essentially helping the enemy in any way possible, it ruins everyone's fun and you're stuck playing the entire match until the end, otherwise you get penalized.

My experience has been the opposite.

The players in competitive are more cooperative and tend to realise that raging will just lead to a loss. They play the objective and pay attention to team composition.

I've only encountered maybe two salty people who I just mute immediately. Also had one guy who was really nice in the voice chat but salty as fuck in the text chat at the same time, which was weird.

Quick play is now where I go when I don't want to give a fuck. Usually when I want to play/practice a character I'm not much good with or experiment with non-conventional roles.

oh how I yearn to play with australians. I wouldn't even mind the "leet must win at all costs" kids right now, I'm just tired of getting stuck with childish ass trolls who sink their own ship at the first sign of not getting their way. my rank is swinging +/-800 right now because of this bullshit and it's really dissuading me from playing more.

You're in 800? I'm in 4000 because assholes keep DCing on my team.

no, my rank is swinging +/- 800 because of said childish douchebags and trolls as mentioned above, I don't need a perfect team (I have at least one if not two heroes in offense/defense/tank/support that I am really good with, so hero switching isn't a big deal), and losing after a solid match doesn't bother me, it's the pathetic other shit that makes the game not fun at all and doesn't persuade me to keep playing it when the report function seems to do nothing.

also if you're in 4000+ already, then holy shit that puts you in grandmaster+, I would be surprised if you aren't in tournaments/pro teams.

I meant 400. I'm very low because as I said, fucking DCers.

 

[Bobular]

I found in both seasons that the qualifiers seemed to have a lot of bad practice going on, I never saw anyone leave a game in the actual competitive mode but in the qualifiers I saw it happen a lot. I also had one guy have a massive rant at us during a placement game because we weren't going with his tactic of all going Reinhardt and he seemed to get really confused when we pointed out that wasn't even possible in competitive mode.

But when I actually got to the proper competitive mode then that sort of stuff must drop to the bottom of the rankings because I just don't see it, yeah you'll get the occasional jerk but that's going to happen anywhere.

 

[WindKnight]

I found in both seasons that the qualifiers seemed to have a lot of bad practice going on, I never saw anyone leave a game in the actual competitive mode but in the qualifiers I saw it happen a lot.
.

Had about five placement matches with quitters, and especially infuriating was that if the enemy team had a quitter, the match would reset and not count, if my team had the quitter it would continue and coumt

 

[Bobular]

I found in both seasons that the qualifiers seemed to have a lot of bad practice going on, I never saw anyone leave a game in the actual competitive mode but in the qualifiers I saw it happen a lot.
.

Had about five placement matches with quitters, and especially infuriating was that if the enemy team had a quitter, the match would reset and not count, if my team had the quitter it would continue and coumt

I've never had a match reset and not count, hows that happen?

 

[RaikuFA]

I found in both seasons that the qualifiers seemed to have a lot of bad practice going on, I never saw anyone leave a game in the actual competitive mode but in the qualifiers I saw it happen a lot.
.

Had about five placement matches with quitters, and especially infuriating was that if the enemy team had a quitter, the match would reset and not count, if my team had the quitter it would continue and coumt

I've never had a match reset and not count, hows that happen?

Most likely it's just luck. Either way at least one person needs to complain to Blizzard. They seem to listen to one complaint.