Competitive Mode Seems Fun, Never Thought I Would Say It

Competitive Discussion
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I know that i am not very good at FPS-based games, having only ever played but never completed a “pure” FPS game (Far Cry 1) in all my 30+ years of gaming.
I purchased and started playing because of my teenage daughter, who was curious about the hype. So i bought 2 copies for us to play together.
Suffice to say, my daughter and subsequently, my son as well as i all enjoy Overwatch for its great art design and its unique spin on traditional FPS games, making it more like a MOBA and hybrid RPG-FPS games like Borderlands.

Because of the talk on how “toxic” Competitive Mode is, in the six months which i have been playing the game, i have always avoided the Competitive Mode except for placements in Season 10 because i liked the icon. Surprisingly, in the 10 games i have played, “toxicity” was non-existent (maybe it is because i was on the Asia server) and i was was placed in Silver Tier.

Then, i’d figured that i might as well go and get me a golden weapon since i have some points and that would mean playing more Competitive Mode games. So, finally, after Season 10 placements, i went into the Americas servers and did placements for Season 11 and got placed in Bronze Tier despite winning more placement games than Season 10 (5 wins in S11 vs 2 wins in S10) and having better overall stats.

The thing is, despite “dropping” to Bronze Tier, i never had so much fun in my Overwatch “career” as i did playing a straight 3-4 hours of 10 placement games with some breaks to attend to the needs of my family and dogs.

Mind you, there were moments of “toxic” behaviour in some games with the self-appointed “leader” cursing at a team mate playing Soldier 76 for not being able to take out Pharah which cost us the game and in another game, we had a (regrettably, Singaporean) player calling players “gay” as a derogatory term and was a total disgrace in terms of etiquette. However, in 10 games, the games were cordial and no one was going “GG EZ” or “GGS”. In fact, we had players who greeted everyone in Match Chat together with me, wishing everyone a great well played game.

Speaking of well played games, the MMR did a good job in my Match Making and i daresay, for the other 11 players, everyone was either unplaced and/or Bronze Tier with the occasional 1-2 Silver Tier. The number of players in their respective Tiers on both teams were pretty much balanced as well. Other than stacks, nothing appeared to provide any overt advantage to either teams. There were no Steam Rolls and the matches all could have gone either way.

This is very unlike how things are like in Arcade whereby the skill difference is sometimes so painfully obvious that it is like an NBA player playing pick-up with a normal basketball player who plays in recreational leagues.

Because of the balance, i could feel myself making a difference if i played well and notice the effect on my team when i switch off onto another character. Case in point, i knew that the team needed my Reinhardt but we had no healer so i was running Lucio. We lost on defense on Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Game was tied at 1:1 because both teams completed the escort. I switched back to my Reinhardt which i used on Assault and we won on both the Defense and Assault on the Extra sets.

I think that because in all my 42 years of life, I have always been into team sports, especially basketball; the structured manner in which Competitive Mode is run, with both teams taking equal opportunities on the maps as well as the decent Match Making; it really is reminiscent of a real life team sport and to me, that is really very enjoyable.

So, I would like to say, “Kudos!” and “Thank You” to the OW Dev Team, you guys are doing a good job and i think that i will play more games in Competitive Mode from now on.

Basically, i am just sharing my experience, in particular with all new players, who are fearful of entering into Competitive Mode games, don’t be but do enter when you think and feel that you are ready. It really can be a lot of fun, if you are of the correct mindset. =)

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From what I’ve heard, bronze and silver are the least toxic ranks in that order. I’m glad you’re having fun playing comp. I found that I actually have fun once I stopped joining voice chat. (I’m in gold) XD

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Thank you, Kelocena. Yes, this old man hopes that he would continue to enjoy playing Competitive mode games. To be sure, there is almost no voice chat in either Bronze nor Silver Tiers when I was Silver Tier last season so perhaps that would account for less “toxicity” and maybe why many of the players are, where they are at Bronze.

I hope that you would continue to enjoy what is left of this S.11 and enjoy the next and many more to come =)

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It is fun. QP can be fun, but it just feels like an afterthought nowadays. Nobody tries in it. Competitive you can have a good number of games that feel like everyone is doing their best. I’ve played in every rank from silver to grandmaster, and at every tier it’s just a lot of fun. Some points can have more toxic people just because there’s a larger population, but you can just mute them and move on.

This was my first competitive game, and it’s been a good experience.

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Yes, exactly, DongQuixote!

Setting aside the goons on chat (verbal and otherwise), Competitive Mode is fun because of that sense of cohesion, ceteris paribus, which one gets from a IRL team sport. As a man who has grown up playing, thriving on enjoying basketball as a competitive team sport for nearly 3 decades, OW’s Competitive Mode; when play with the right mentality and attitude offers a similar, if not the same, experience as a physical sport.

I agree that QP mode, much less, Arcade mode, cannot offer that same sense of team cohesion and sense of purpose that Competitive mode does. QP just does not feel … “meaningful” and hence is not “fulfilling” enough. It is like making shots during basketball training. It is fun and nice to sink those baskets but nothing beats hitting those tough shots in an actual game.

I also think that, also, the part of me which enjoys the structure and role which team sports offers have also found a facsimile in Competitive mode and that is why I enjoy it.

I hope that you will continue to enjoy the game as well =)

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I knew my four years of Latin in high school would pay off one day. “Take a useful language like Spanish or French”, they said. Who’s laughing now??

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ha ha! Yes, a common term in economics, meaning “all things being equal”. I mentioned it because, all things being equal i.e. no throwers, tilters and drunk/drug induced crazies; Competitive mode is good fun with the right mentality; irrespective of a W or L.

edit- Fun. To me.

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Bronze to mid silver is fun because you’ll see familiar names on each game. So in each gaming session if you see names on your blacklist you just need to mute them and then avoid them and you already improved your gaming session since the toxic people will most likely in the enemy team for the next few games. After I made my way to gold it doesn’t work anymore… There’s too many players there that I think only 100 avoid slot could reduce the toxicity.

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Thanks for being so positive, Scarecrow. Much appreciated!

Well, in my 10 placement matches, i encountered a particular 3 stack at least twice on the Red Team and of course, they beat my team all the time.
While in solo queue, i also encountered the same players on my team a few times. So yes, you are definitely correct in your observation.

Looking at the stat distribution from sites like overwatchtracker .com, Bronze to Silver Tiers look to be the amongst the smallest number of existing players / accounts. The bulk of players / accounts are actually in Gold to Platinum Tiers. So statically, it would make sense for one to encounter the same people often between Bronze to Silver.

In addition, if what i have read of the official information provided is accurate, players would be group with and against one another within 1000SR of their own SR. So with my current SR of 1469, i would be grouped with players from 500SR to maybe 2499SR, i think.

Of course, all these are moot points because there are only 2-3 days of Season 11 left and i am busy with family and friends (friends coming over for a Dungeons and Dragon session later), so i may not have enough play time to test that out.

Something to look forward to in Season 12, then!

P.S. Thanks for being so encouraging as well. From what i have read, many OW players treat Bronze Tier players as the dregs of the cask and with much disdain (like lepers). However, thus far, everyone here has been nothing short of positive and that fares well for the in-game community and the forum as well.

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