Do you find yourself trapped in the vortex of bronze?

Competitive Discussion
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I decided to visit and post in the forum for the first time in hopes of discovering that I may not be the only one. If I am, I will happily shut up immediately.

My problem is that I am trapped. Trapped in a place called bronzonia. Where once you enter, you never leave. The first competitive season ever put me somewhere in Gold. Great! However, a few understandably close losses later, a handful of a teammate mid game abandonment, pissing contests for who can get the most gold medals, and observing a lacking of understanding how countering heroes work. I found myself in low silver. And in the preceding seasons, the slippery slope into bronze didn’t stabilize until the 1400-1500’s.
Now to paint a little bit of context, I have been striving to get out of bronzonia so that I can play competitive in a group of friends who are good, but by no means professionals. Therefore, putting them just over that 1000 point gap limit. This is incredibly frustrating.

Now those of you who are at higher levels may not understand my plea. I will try to paint the picture for your, as I do not wish this on anyone. It seems more often then not I run into players who tend to do odd/enraging things. Most of these are observations and generalizations, but nonetheless what I have experienced first hand, and continually experience variations of them each time I log on.

-For example, why running off by yourself, against a unified team, may not be a good idea.
-Or, “Why do I keep getting killed (as Genji), i’m so good with him!” As he/she continually bum rush into a situation over and over again with the same result. Not realizing that what they are doing probably isn’t going to change the outcome.
-What about you Reinhardt player who neither advances nor retreats through a choke? You turn yourself into a professional shield melter by standing there until your shield gives out, toss a fire strike, or charge into a full tilt bastion only to leave your team out cold.
-This one may be a little personal for me, but I am looking at you sniper players. You who strive for those gold medals but not realizing that the Roadhog you keep trying to take out is easily evading you and healing while smiling the whole time.
-I had a kid (literally a child) ask me what healer he should be. I recommended Lucio because he wasn’t currently being countered by the other team, and I was already had a focused healer (Mercy). He replied with “I am not playing him, I never play him. He doesn’t even heal well.” Not understanding that his only job would be to just exist in order to fulfill the most basic part his role.
-What about you, D.VA, who spends every waking moment of a match running after the Tracer in the periphery, not realizing they just got baited into abandoning their team. Leaving them one tank down, or tankless.
-Then there is the gold medal warrior, verbally expressing their disgust over a loss because “I have all the golds, im not switching, its your fault.” All the while forgetting that Overwatch is a teamwork and objective based game.
-And my personal favorite, the Hanzo (or literally anyone) who complains about not getting healed enough as he A) runs directly into fire, and B) is on the other side of the map away from everyone.

Is it a skill thing? No, I feel like I run into handfuls of other good players through the course of a few games. Is it a level thing? No, I see 400, 500, 600 level players making these bonehead plays while blaming everyone else, (in my opinion level reflects the time you have played the game, not how well you have learned to play it). Is it the number of medals you have at the end of the game??? NO. Once again, in my opinion, medals are severely trumped by the overall teamwork in advancing/defending an objective. So thank you to every teammate who has recognized a situation, abandoning their position as “gold/silver/bronze kills,” and switching to a better suited hero, before it was too late.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself “this guy is the common denominator, he is the problem.” Am I the problem sometimes? Certainly! However, to try and combat this by making conscientious decisions to bend to the playing styles of teammates, playing support roles that are often last picked, or changing to fit the dynamic of an established team. More often then not, it proves fruitless.

I might seem overly passionate about this, but it is merely because I have grown to really enjoy Overwatch, and part of what makes it so fun is how well built it is. And how different from all the other team based FPS out there. But the enjoyment begins to fade once the more easy going players leak in from quick play, and the toxicity rises dramatically. The fun of Competitive mode becomes…less competitive when people don’t take it seriously, and would rather lose while keeping their pride. I would hope that Overwatch will not become another “Call of Duty” situation.

I by no means like to bring up what could be an issue without at least proposing a solution: Possibly revamping the point, or placement system. Maybe some kind of scramble. Though, I have no clue what that looks like as I am not a game developer. I feel there has to be something reasonable that wont ruin the game for others who have earned their spots in the higher ranks.

Though one could argue that I belong in bronze. I have come across many other players who have had the common sense, eye for teamwork, knowledge of the game, and raw skill in my time in bronzonia to know that they definitely shouldn’t be.

TL;DR
Overwatch’s bronze rank may be one of the most inescapable pits known to the gaming community.

3 Likes
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If you ask me, anyone who comes here to learn and incorporates that knowledge into their game is not bronze. I do not care if you are missing an arm. You should be silver at least. It is a touchy subject and there is a wide sentiment that you are where you belong; however, I am stuck in platinum if it makes you feel better. I do not feel like telling the entire story to justify why I believe that, I just figured I would tell you so that you do not feel alone.

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That’s because bronze players are so underestimated that some of us actually believe that we’re useless potatoes. There are plenty of people who can help you with your problem, and my recommendation is to form a six stack using lfg or otherwise and focus on some simple comps and strategies, good fundamentals will see you through. With that being said, why would you want to leave bronze? If you think about it, it’s the best rank.

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Of I ever got bronze, I’d just get a new account and redo placements around at least Gold.

Overwatch is $12 btw.

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I heard that there is rank where everyone knew basic Overwatch. Where people make call outs and ult track. Where leaving and throwing is not even an option. Where all the good people hang out and compete.

Im silver. Someone show me the way to such an elysian battlefield. I wish to get out of my cesspool too!

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Communication, above anything else, will get you out of Bronze.

The stupid placement system put me there for three or four seasons in a row and I climbed out with ease each time. I just had to step out of my shy comfort zone and be kind of a leader.

And yes, I know lots of people don’t use voice chat down there. That sucks. But for those that do … well, be their leader.

Call out flanks, sync ultimates, call out focus targets, be encouraging, etc. It doesn’t take a lot, honestly.

From what I saw of Bronze, the actual legit players down there (excluding trolls and such) aren’t “bad,” they just lack direction. I know you think people won’t listen - I didn’t expect them to either … and to be honest, some don’t - but you’d be surprised what simple communication does for a team in that rank.

Give it a shot. :slight_smile:

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I’m going to be honest, I didn’t read most of your post. The bronze vortex is real. If you get sucked into it the amount of smurfs and throwers (all those people who ‘just want to experience the nightmare of bronze’ and then make an OmegaLUL youtube post of the highlights) makes it harder than silver to escape. The only real way to get out is to play a crap ton. If you play enough chances are that you will get a lucky break and escape bronze. Then the trick is getting far enough out of bronze so that you don’t get paired up with the smurfs who accidentally played to hard and got to silver. Good luck.

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I’m basically stuck in bronze. Then again, I don’t play comp much.

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I have several accounts all over the place. The system is severely flawed.

As for helping you out of bronze, my friend and I did a left click only mercy and rein and easily got into gold with that alone. Solo shatter the enemy main supports if you need to as well.

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If someone else has 4 golds there isn’t a role you’re filling better than they are, and they’re filling multiple roles. It’s really frustrating to have a 2/2/2 comp, sitting on 4-5 golds as Roadhog or Moira, and being asked to switch, or being dominated by a Genji or a Widow only to be told “It’s only a game” when asking for someone to dive them.

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Absolutely! Of which I have, but often times its words that fall on deaf ears. The whole leading a horse to water…Not that I am right all the time.

More so than the very helpful advice, I just hope this thread calls some attention to what I think is the most frustrating thing about this otherwise very fun game.

My dude, been there done that as well. I think what I have learned in the many competitive seasons doing this strategy is that you can’t heal stupid. But will keep trying until I give up on competitive all together.

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I would absolutely advise against playing a healer if you want to climb, I’m the one that played the rein. Telling you man, just hold down W and just keep swinging around corners. People underestimate reins damage output at low levels.

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I wish everyone could see how nightmarish it really is. The trick is getting far enough out. Spot on man.

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you are a victim of an intentionally flawed system and blatant scam

when players get stuck in bronze the easiest way out, as many have already pointed out, is to simply purchase a new account and redo your placements.

the flawed rank system is one of several components in place to encourage people to purchase new copies of the game and create new accounts - allowing blizzard to brag up the ridiculous number of copies sold while the servers are emptying at a ridiculous pace

as far as video games go, Overwatch has a brilliant core and could be a lot of fun
as far as business practice goes, I have to reiterate, Overwatch is a blatant scam on so many levels

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pick brigitte? bronze is such a mess brig may even work as a flanker there, although she even works as one in higher ranks too.

ive had legit 2 supports and a tank shooting at me and i never die.
you shouldnt die as long you know what picks you are doing.
and honestly? dont be afraid to try crazy stuff with her there.
you cant really get any deeper

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I hate to be the bearer of bad news OP, but you being in bronze is not an organized effort by Blizzard to hold you down, but rather just an accurate representation of your skill. I play on PS4 where creating alts is free, and because my main ranks in diamond while I have friends who play in silver/gold, I have made many smurfs in order to place at ELOs where we can queue together. I’ve made and placed about 4 accounts now in the low gold range to queue with mid gold friends, and despite playing for the same team in the same game constantly, I always pull ahead in SR and surpass my friends. The game can detect impactful play from individuals and rewards it accordingly. If you aren’t climbing, then chances are your SR represents your skill.

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First step is admitting your mistakes and having in mind that if you want to climb to silver, gold, platinum, you have to “carry” the game.

Why would you get out of bronze or any other rank by being “carried”?

I usually try to take all the responsibility for a loss. As an Ana main, I know that I could win a game with a sleep dart, more heals ore even a kill.

So don’t expect people should help you to climb up. Do your better and you’re gonna get out of bronze :slight_smile:

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Can u tell us what are your most played heroes and your sensitivity?

  1. I believe that no one is bad enough to be <1600. All the bronze/low silver players I encountered shared something in common. They either play with high sensitivity, or be like: well I’m bronze, I’m not good enough to play anything other than rien or mercy.

  2. no matter how bad your team is, remember you are all playing on the same elo. The enemy team is just as bad. Only exception is the players who gave up on ranking up and decided to simply throw every game.
    Anyway, no one is stuck forever because of thier team. I’m a diamond player, I don’t deserve to be in masters yet. I didn’t earn that rank yet. Meanwhile I can easily get other accounts to diamond whenever I want. Better players can reach gm whenever they want. No matter how bad you say bronze is, it doesn’t change over the ranks, that genji that jumps alone on the enemy team and wonders why he died? He is in my team as well.

I dragged it a bit too long, but can u still answer the 2 questions?

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I’ve found that in situations like these, where there is no teamplay even when you make call outs, picking dps and actually getting kills in works wonders. Mostly 76 since he can self heal, and doesn’t need to be point blank in front of the enemy

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I appreciate all the responses, and advice. However, my goal in posting here was to 1)see if there are others in my situation, and 2) draw attention to a possible problem.

I do not believe it is a scam, but I think there is an issue with the point system. Or at least hoping it can be done in a different way. For someone who is trapped in it, it can be tilting/enraging.

To address alfislegend, I very much disagree with you. I know gameplay is going to be somewhat different different between PS4 and PC given the input. However, like I mentioned in the original post. Even if I deserve bronze, I see many other players who certainly shouldn’t be there either. In bronze there is often a complete and utter disregard to team play, and basic knowledge of how the dynamics of heroes can counteract one another. I even think some of the best players would have a difficult time carrying out of some of the worst case scenarios because you are left in what essentially is a 5v6, 4v6, or 3v6 given the circumstances. Teamwork trumps skill. And I know I am not good enough to carry that hard.

Vortex,
Right now most played is Mercy, Rein, D.VA, and will fill wherever need be. And the sensitivity is pretty average. I play with a mouse that adjusts DPI on the fly so I cant really give you a concrete number other than I don’t get too crazy here on one end or the other.