Do people seriously not know how to play with a Ball?

General Discussion
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Ok so I’m really annoyed right now. Played a match as Ball, and was doing really well. Disrupting a ton, getting 3 or more to focus on me with every engagement, getting good kills, etc.

And my team starts flaming me because I’m not frontlining. And blaming me that they’re dying to a Rein while I’m solo killing the entire enemy backline and creating massive amounts of space.

So like…just in case you didn’t know, Tanks are meant to take space. Not frontline. Different Tanks take space in different ways. While some do frontline, others force the enemy team to close in on itself by going straight through it to pressure vulnerable targets. A Ball or Doom player isn’t bad if they’re in the enemy backline instead of duking it out with a Reinhardt. They’re still taking space. The only difference is that you don’t have a massive shield to hide behind.

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Some people don’t feel like space is being made unless it’s visible and in front of them like a shield.

I’ve gotten berated for sucking at tanking before when I spent half the game 1 V 4, pulling the entire back line back to their spawn… and then the complaints stopped when I swapped to Rein and proceeded to slow push.

So no… lots of people do not know how to take advantage of a disruption or distraction tank and even if they are given the opportunity to surround and destroy the enemy tank, they consider themselves dived.

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They don’t and flame and report you even if you win sometimes. Unless you do insane on him someone will always complain because nobody on either team likes a Ball player. He is basically the new Hog from ow1. But if you’re like me then that is the part you like the most about playing him. Because I hate both teams just as much as they hate me and especially the enemy Ball I dislike him the most of all.

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Would you feel the same way if instead of flaming and blaming you, your team came forward and said they were struggling with the Reinhardt and needed help?

The way I see it you might be doing well, but if your team struggling then it might be best to switch anyways. The important part being that it’s not about blame, it’s about finding a way for your team to work together to succeed.

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You might think your “doing good”, and perhaps you are. But are you playing with your team? Or you just going off on your own. IT doesn’t really matter how many enemies you “Disprupt” if you do it when your team isn’t in any position to do anything about it.

I see a lot of balls distract the team, when the rest of their team is in spawn. Or they spend so much time going back and forth the 10 seconds they distract isn’t worth the 30 seconds your team is fighting 5v4.

I gotta be honest unless your the best ball player in the world, on a team with voice chat and working together I would rather have anything else on my team. The visible lack of presence of a tank on your team, combined with no real ability to protect them in any way is a green light for most enemy teams to just push forward and walk all over yours.

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If they are struggling with the Rein while said Rein is getting no support because they (enemy supports) are either already dead to me or focusing all of their attention on me then no other tank I can play is going to make up for that incompetence so I may as well just stay on Ball and have fun at least.

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Tbh, when I see my team playing deathmatch and not carring about my tank pick, Ball has often garanteed my win. I’m enough annoying for my teammates that don’t wanna play as a team to actually play as a team because they get value by not being shot at LMAO.

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What sort of ball? Tennis ball? Bowling ball? Ball of yarn?

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No matter how you put it though, saying every one else has to cater to how you play, and that if you lose it’s their fault is not a great sign.

I also highly doubt your killing all their support constantly if your team is still losing.

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Yeah, it’s rough. The hardest part of playing “unconventional” methods, or say anything that isn’t straight forward as: run_to_point.exe → see enemy → fight → repeat; is usually going to be hard for many players to play around or even coordinate with.

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I don’t say it I just think it. It’s the only way to enjoy the game with the matchmaking the way it is. Players want more control over their own destiny and one way to do that is to play a selfish hero like Ball.

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So just a few things. You contradict yourself a bit. You say you are making space? But then you say the enemy Rein is deep in your team suffocating them and wreaking havoc. That is a contradiction. You have not given your team any space if you allow their Rein to rum amuck in your team. You have all the space in the world, your team does not.

Now saying that ,you could be doing your job well, technically, so long as you are getting a kill every time you dive backline. And you should dive the backline, get a quick kill, then back out and reassess the situation, check on your team. Rein is in your teams face? Go deal with him and make some real space for your team.

But if you’re chilling in the enemy backline and the enemy tank is 1 or 2 v 4’ing your team and winning, then their tank and its pocket/helper is better than your 4 teammates. This ‘shouldn’t’ happen on paper as they’re outnumbered, but it does happen. The enemy rein is capitalizing on the fact that your team doesn’t have a tank presence to directly help them, and if he hits all his abilities and wipes out your team… That is both your teams fault and your fault.

This is a common thing for DPS players to blame their team. They can go in the enemy backline and get 3 picks, and lose the fight. They scream “Why TF did we lose the fight? You guys suck! I got 3!” meanwhile the enemy DPS (or tank) also did the same thing and killed 4 or 5. Awareness is key.

Remember you are the common denominator in all of your games. You can never truly put full responsibility for winning on your teammates because you don’t know if they’ll hit their shots or be in a good position or not. You have to take full responsibility yourself, ask yourself what you could have done differently. Did you linger a few seconds too long in the backline? Did you take too long to net a kill? Are you dying outright while taking aggro? Are you neglecting your teammates? Their survival should depend on you, either killing the enemy faster, or peeling for them to kill the enemy on top of your team.

A great YT/streamer to watch is Awkard. He’s no nonsense, you watch him, follow his tips, you’ll improve. I don’t think he’s done a Ball UtGM yet though, but his tips can apply across the board. The general gist is, never rely 100% on your team to win. You need to kill and you need to stay alive. Don’t trade, ever. Even if you can kill 2 with you dying, it’s most often best if you live because your dying then makes you rely on your team to win the fight, putting full responsibility on your team and not yourself.

And in order to keep killing and to stay alive, you need your teammates alive. You can’t expect to win if your teammates are always dying. You need to keep an eye on your teammates. He’s called a wrecking ball for a reason. You can dive enemy backline and return to protect your own backline within seconds. Swing from backline to backline like a wrecking ball.

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This is what you can do, and personally it’s what I do. Even if I feel I’m doing very well as disruption I’ll try to fit what my team is actually doing cause that’s what I enjoy, the teamwork and gameplay.

but it does make it apparent people do not know how to deal with a disruption tank even when the tank is doing phenomenal (not me, I’m just OK, but I’ve seen this happen.).

That’s fine, and thats your playstyle, but it’s because you don’t like just a reduction in pressure, you want safe space (not like… THAT kind of safe space I mean “protection”).

Also it’s likely because you have also discovered the rando’s you play with do not know how to manage that kind of gameplay and you WILL get walked over.

This isn’t a “skill issue” thing either. People who play safe space tactics are VERY good at the game, but the lack of faith in teammates as well as the lack of game sense to pursue and brawl and partially peel for teammates in an open space with just reduced threat is not something a lot of people practice.

I think disruption/distraction tanking just takes more teamwork than safe space tanking and it’s not something that’s common or reliable in most OW games.

I had a backfill game where I jumped in at 1 minute on push… and went ball cause why not. We went OT for another couple minutes and lost but we did push back to their spawn, just couldn’t secure the last few feet we needed. The HANZO on the opposing team though was blue streak cursing me out. “OMG ball is so toxic”, “this is the worst, ball go K**”… and this is after we LOST. I don’t encounter any people like that with any other character I play. People just feel helpless when ball is in the zone and they hate that.

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Baseball, football or basketball?

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I can agree with that. My favourite tanks are dive tanks, and often I switch not because of the enemy but because of my team. It sucks but there have been a lot of games where I’ve switched to Mr. Rectangle man, did a lot worse, but we won because it. It doesn’t always work, it doesn’t even usually work, but it works more often than forcing my team to play the way that I like.

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KILL IT WITH FIRE!! :fire: :fire: :fire:

joking… such a cute little thing

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Some people aren’t as good at dive comps as they are push comps. Swapping to a different tank can change an entire games dynamic/playstyle. If everyone picks non-dive and you’re the last to pick, and you pick ball? Your team not doing so hot is basically your fault.

I’ve met tanks like you, where you think you’re the most important person in the world for that game. The hard truth is; most ball players can’t actually play a push tank well. Just automatically deciding “no tank I play is going to make up for their incompetence” is narcissistic at best. Perhaps its your own incompetence of swapping to something that better suits your teams comp?

Most ball players I come across don’t even know when they’re being countered and don’t swap. I’ve seen multiple matches where it’s a mei/sombra/orisa/hog/ana just chewing through a ball tank on the enemy team, but that ball still continues to THINK they’re somehow carrying their team.

Part of being a tank is realizing what your team needs to be successful, not just going whatever you want to play and blaming them if you lose for not playing around you. The tank role is the backbone of every team. If you play it selfishly or ignorantly, you’re most likely going to lose.

Your mindset alone in this comment tells me you most likely do this type of stuff.

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This is just the issue with tanking at the moment. The DPS and Support roster needs to take more care of itself generally. Which means making more appropriate swaps and often times a very specific pick to consistently stand your ground.

Trying to play a small mobile character when Rein charges in is not the option. You NEED to start fielding a little more disruption, mobility, or heavier fire power. A rein vs Reaper is heavily is Reaper’s favor as you can point blank heal off the damage you take. You need minimal healing from your support to keep it up.

Most of the issue is the DPS or Support picking something that can’t counter the enemy tank well.

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Probably not. A skill issue is one of thing. Flaming because you can’t win a 4v1 is another.

Going off on my own, sure. But I’m also fighting 4 people at once and killing all or most of them. There is NO reason for two DPS and two Supports to lose to a Rein with no team.

This.

If you want to win, you’re gonna play around my Ball. The only games I lose on Ball are when I’m forced to swap off, because he’s the only Tank I can play well. If we’re losing while I have 11 more kills than the other Tank and 2 deaths, it’s certainly not a me problem.

That Rein was abandoning his team to kill mine right by spawn. There’s no reason he should’ve gotten ANY value. Any remotely good team would’ve killed him every single time.

There’s no point in trying to fight a Rein when I’m clearly going to be the only one damaging him. It is not possible for a Rein to win a 1v4 unless against horrible players or people that are outright not trying. And going back means that the Rein gets even stronger, since he’ll have heals.

If my team is that much worse, why would I EVER swap to Rein? I’d have less Support, so I’d always lose the 1v1. And I’d have no DPS. The only thing that would happen if I wasn’t on Ball is me getting held at spawn by the Rein.

Which is why I have a very high winrate on Ball. The only time I ever lose on Ball is when I’m forced to swap. I’m not losing the majority of my games, and I didn’t even lose this one. Got POTG too. But even while my POTG was playing, my teammates were flaming.

Not every game works like that. Ball was absolutely the best pick. Anything else would’ve been held at spawn.

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Yep. They don’t understand that they have to swap to a dive-like hero and capitalize on the ball’s plays (or play reaper and go after rein).
They think solo rein is some unstoppable barrier they cant cross and that ball is wasting their time on the enemy backline. If the enemy has a frontline tank, the ball’s team feels threatened and held at bay. They could just play echo or something though. Hitscan like Ashe is also a great combo with slam. Headshot someone that bounces over rein shield or dynamite when they can’t move in the air. Just hold highground and rein can’t do much.

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