Community is obsessed with meta, does meta actually apply to most of the community?

General Discussion
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I value and understand discussion.

I want to ask, given the volume the community discusses what is meta and what is not, what hero is garbage and who isn’t, who should be nerfed and who shouldn’t due to ‘meta’…

Does meta actually apply to most of the community? In my mind meta applies most effectively and accurately to high end play, IE: M/GM/T500. In my mind, this is where game skill is very good and more where mechanics of the characters picked dictates the extend of usefulness…

IE: A gold player who picks Rein or Ana or Sigma or Ashe or what have you, that or more or less ‘meta’ (insert xyz character that you believe is meta to make this more accurate) is not going to have the skill to begin utilizing this characters mechanics the same way a M/GM player would.

Do I sound far off on this?

If this sounds reasonable, then why is meta such a common discussion among people who it does not actually effect in a severe way? Why is the discussion of who is garbage and who is too strong so common below M/GM players, where people seem to lose their minds?

It almost feels like people are tricking themselves into these debates and conversations to me. Are we all, Bronze - Diamond, tricking ourselves into believing meta has a real impact on our games beyond feeling “we should pick xyz because that’s what’s played by the pro’s?”.

Do we think gameplay in bronze - diamond is even remotely close to the same as M/GM/OWL?..

Opinions?

Personally I feel meta has a big hand in shaping the way lower ranks play and I can appreciate meta. I am not saying don’t talk about meta, lol… discussion is healthy. But I feel many people kid themselves into abiding by certain rules and regulations they’ve made up in their head because someone in GM/OWL does or picks xyz…

I feel it also has an unhealthy hand in discussing who needs to be nerfed or buffed because xyz player in gold - diamond thinks a character being meta is too much… or that the character they play (Sym, Pharah, Bastion) is not strong enough to compete up into Diamond or even low M… which results in stigmas in the community that may just have a negative impact on development… even if we aren’t the pro’s in a private discord…

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Pretty much.
You can climb to GM with any hero, but if you wanna keep winning there you have to play meta.

People keep saying “Rein/zarya is meta everywhere below GM” or “ana is meta everywhere” without realizing that there is no meta in most ranks.

Metas exist in ranks where people fully utilize the potentials of their heroes, thus the heroes with the highest potential are meta

But that doesn’t happen in low ranks where people don’t understand how to maximize the value they get from a hero, so there is no meta in low ranks.

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This is how I feel. I see so many posts about people being bullied or harassed for playing an off-meta character… just to see they are in gold or plat or something… where they shouldn’t have to worry about being forced to pick something. I find many problems in ranks Diamond and below stem more from gameplay than pick. The trouble starts with peaking too much or not grouping up or chasing… not what character they are doing it on. Of course yeah, if you’re running Junk and Sym or something and the enemy team goes Pharah you have a problem, but that’s more to do with counter picking than it is meta…

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Yeah there really is no meta heroes in lower ranks. Just characters that are harder to get value with and characters that are easier to get value with. Meta only matters when teams can actually coordinate stuff, like dive. During dive meta, low ranks just ran dive heroes and didn’t understand how the comp actually functioned, requiring actual coordination on who you dive and whatnot to be able to pull maximum value out of the comp. Honestly it was better in lower ranks to just run rein zarya because you can individually out duel all the dive characters because that’s not what dive is meant for.

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You can just brute force an off meta pick, through skill, well into masters/low gm on basically any hero.

That said, that doesn’t mean that playing off meta below gm is in no way a disadvantage. It is a disadvantage but it’s not as punished in lower ranks. You have more room for mistakes so playing off meta doesn’t matter as much.

For example, it’s just simply easier to climb to masters on Ashe than Bastion. If you’re good enough, both are perfectly doable but one is at a disadvantage.

So, yes and no to your question. People focus on meta too much in the sense that playing off meta in lower ranks isn’t that bad. On the other hand, it is a disadvantage and requires you to be more disciplined in how you play your hero.

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I can appreciate that. I used to be a Pharah main until I went support and main Moira now. Of course I have been learning, becoming more familiar with other characters and OW in general, my aim has gotten better, etc…

But I wonder if I went back to Pharah in a time like this how far I could run her. I used to fight Widows, didn’t mind, but that was also in plat so it is sort of relevant to what you said in that I would be at a disadvantage with so many hitscans/snipers present (IE Ashe) but I should also be able to brute force her into D/M/GM just like I’ve done with Moira into D, instead of ever picking Ana or Bap or something.

But I guess then it comes down to being a OTP… interesting.

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People are misunderstanding what meta actually is below GM. For them its which 6 heroes work best together to win games. For the rest of us its which heroes are the easiest to win games with. Which is why top down balance comes with its own set of critical issues. Because when you do that it restricts which heroes the rest of us can actually use to win games because some will be objectively better than others to play.

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You can play whatever you want in gold but some poeple are very obsessed with things that sometime dont even existe.

If you are in gold and complaining about sym not being good then you have quite a big issue in your gamplay ngl

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No meta doesn’t actually apply to almost anyone playing comp. especially if they are in solo queue

I use to be a gm sym 2.0 main

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Well yeah, my reply was more from that perspective but can also apply to anyone with a small pool of mostly off meta heroes.

I see no reason why you couldn’t. Until higher ranks it isn’t as punished.

My reply was more trying to explain that metas and how over/underpowered some heroes are does still have an impact. It’s just much easier to overcome in lower ranks.

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Are you high dude ?, what about gm it has 6 months straight of double shield alsmost every match …

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I use to play sym 2.0 in gm. That was the farthest thing away from meta.

Sure most people will choose to play meta characters it gives them a slight advantage. But it isn’t required to win.

I’m talking about there are no required characters at any rank. Most characters with enough skill will still be able to compete with the meta heros

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Yes, but not in the same strict way it applies to OWL/t500.

Because often those meta characters are meta for a reason, especially the 1-2 characters who define the meta. A gold Genji doesn’t need to understand why his character is overtuned and meta to benefit from his character being stronger or more forgiving then another choice.

Also not all metas apply to low ranks the same. Good luck getting a low rank team to properly execute Dive, but anyone can grasp the concept of standing behind 2 shields or stick together in Goats.

It depends why the meta in OWL is what it is. If it’s because ‘with perfect teamwork this specific comp and strategy are likely to succeed’ then no, there’s little point in trying to emulate it in your random solo queue matches. If it’s because ‘these 3 characters are significantly stronger then the other choices’ then yes, low ranks will still benefit from picking “meta”.

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Nah. They don’t. However the trickle down effect is real. They see what works at the top and will try their best to emulate it without actually knowing how to play it or why they’re playing it to begin with. It happened with dive hero’s during dive. It happened with goats hero’s during goats.

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it doesn’t work like that when you reach 4K1 +

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Who knows I really don’t play much anymore. Role lock and losing my main sucked. But I still think if you get good enough with almost any hero you can go against the meta.

Hell isnt there A few hog players above 4.1k

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Yes and also mercy otp which are destroying the game and making every one tilted

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There is no meta below Masters.
A guy climbed to GM with a Steering Wheel…
People Masters and under should worry more about their performance than a meta they cant even utilize.

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The thing is, in the past, usually no. Things like dive and goats were not really seen at all in lower ranks.

But nowadays, things like double shield and rein zarya are extremely easy to run in low ranks. Double shield less so after its nerfs, but rein zarya is super easily runnable at every rank.

As well, certain meta heroes do have an impact on all ranks, such as ashe and pre nerf genji.

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One tricking is a bit wierd but hell they bought the game you just have to deal with em. I just tried not to bother with what the team is running. But that’s because my job was a support and I could help most teams regardless of what they ran

But sym 2.0 was super wierd in gm. I had games with no healer just the cart and we still did fine I don’t know how the rien managed that game we did go 6-7 though :stuck_out_tongue: