…
You have some point in that it should be taken a little more rigidly than an arcade match, but damn. Games are to have fun. Some people have fun when they’re being ranked… but it’s still supposed to be fun.
Comp is a competition, if you compete in any sport your goal is to win, while is desireable to respect your opponent. You shouldn’t participate on competitions for fun, while you can get fun out of it doesn’t mean the goal is fun tho.
You can have, just the goal isn’t. Otherwise wouldn’t be a comp match. Like on OW2 their goal is to monetize and adapt the game to do so, instead you know make a good game and monetize on it.
The goal is to win. The purpose is to enjoy it.
Now if you enjoy winning, I can understand, but still the purpose of the entire endeavor isn’t to win. It’s just something you want to happen.
I’m not going to argue that you shouldn’t do everything you can to not be a detriment to everyones chances or that you have an excuse for letting things under your control go awry because “hey it’s just for fun”.
… but it still IS for fun. Once you lose sight of that overall reason for a video game existing, then you start to resent others because you aren’t winning or think that the only time you can have fun is when you win.
You wanna get sweaty and have something on the line and “prove you’re better” then go play pro tournaments or tryout for OWL.
“The reason for playing is to win” people leave games because they think it’s hopeless. They abuse others because they think they’re “costing them the win”.
It’s just not a healthy or correct way to approach a video game.
1 Like
I really understand your point of view, but at same time I know the other side of the coin. I advocate for more seriousness and also endorse the article from their FAQ and their competitions because I saw the impact of it.
Folks want to play games for fun, doesn’t matter if is videogame or real life. When you compete things change. Not because you’re not allowed to enjoy or have fun, but because the goal of the competition differs from casual play. You can abide or not the ruling, but eventually will face the consequence of your choice.
Like work, you can enjoy your work and have fun working. But at end of the day, folks work to get money and abide the rulings/perks around it. The goal of the mode wasn’t to have fun or enjoy was to abide the rules and compete in a fairly manner, treating everybody as equal.
That’s why, the mode’s goal isn’t fun. Due the punitive, serious and restrict nature of it. Doesn’t mean you can’t get fun out of it. If your mindset are not aligned to it, you’re not complying with the ruling, often disrespecting the others and are subject to be punished. In this case was not having a reliable hardware and counter-measures to avoid those problems.
The fun and competition aren’t exclusive, the line is what “should be done/meant” and “what folks actually do/want”. By example Rollouts are not banned from comp, but most tournaments ban them, OWL also have even more rulings about it. Each competition has it’s own rulings and set of stuff, which you abide to compete and are punished accordingly.
If you compete, you compete not because is fun, but because your goal is to win following their rules and be rewarded by it. Competition have medals, rewards and punishments due that kind of purpose. You can have a “unranked match”, “casual match” or “competitive match”.
Casual = friendly and non punitive game, everybody has rewards associated to it
Unranked = is kind of practice/scrim but not actually punishing you
Competitive = for real, to win, doing your best.
Folks used to play comp and custom games to practice to regional competitions, then eventually get Contenders and with some luck have one spot to OWL. Eventually the noise on comp demoted that.
Most of pros, started with, practice, custom games and competitive matches. These days the competitive matches ends up on scrims under custom games with comp ruleset. While prior weren’t that mandatory on earlier stages.
The playerbase not interested to take it seriously made most folks who took seriously quit or barely play it. I know some cases of actual Professionals leaving due the lack of integrity and effort related to find a custom match and scrim to have a proper training. Which reaches to the moment of competitive matches become lame and joke due folks not taking it as serious as should be. Is the moment that you hurt those professionals and demote folks to try be pro.
I’m not judging or arguing what folks should do or not. Just reinforcing that what folks can consider or not the mode, doesn’t change what blizzard considers it and what that decision leads to. At least right now they are pretty clear about how serious they consider it, even if most folks don’t.
I worked on OW competitive scene for about 2 years as part of staff, mostly the transition between their practice, scrim schedule, team formation/composition/strategies and their introduction to contenders. Wasn’t great view to see the motivation of those kids go to the mud due the difficulty of finding proper ways to become a pro. At beginning blizzard helped a lot, but after awhile things became harder for those kids.
Competitive part of the videogame is the part of you should not consider as videogame but instead as work. Because several folks actually depend that to live and put food on their tables. Not only on OW but competitive games in general.
Maybe I take it a bit more personal or more seriously than I should. But I do that mostly due the respect for those kids which I watched grow and suffer for 2 years. My goal was, not about what folks should have fun or not but instead to take it seriously or at least respect the rulings about it. If more folks done that the positive impact would be huge either you want to go pro or not.
Yeah thats true Blue. Its hard to know what is real and what is not. But let me put this too you. I stopped playing comp in season 8. Because there were so many leavers, through disconnections or anger, i still recorded the loss. You and the team at Blizzard have still not address this issue. If someone leaves you automatically give the L to the team with the leaver. You shouldnt be doing this yet you are
So all 3 reasons were your fault…
Your fault for not having your computer charged
Your fault for being cheap and having bad internet
Your fault you left on accident
Blame that on blizzard not having resources available, not on people for wanting to have fun in a video game.
Right now their rules are: Try. Do not leave until the game is done. Do not cheat. Do not abuse others.
I see no enforcement of “treat this like a job”. Just encouragement to have good sportsmanship and actually pursue ingame goals.
If you want to be on a competitive team to eventually get into a competitive scene or league that’s cool, but you also need to remember that likely the majority of the rest of the competitive players who are there, just clicked “play game” and then queued hoping for some good games and they have every right to do so.
They are not, and should not be, responsible for your livelyhood remaining viable if you choose to do so in a public, and advertised as a game, space.
It is not “srs bsiness”. It is a video game. You wanna take it to another level you are welcome to but remember why everyone else is playing too.
People playing in “competitive” should be encouraged to try and win and punished for intentionally bringing the chances of their team to win down. It is EXPECTED that you are all trying to achieve goals in the competitive moniker. It’s NOT expected that you treat this like a job.
It’s like the one parent at the little league game cussing out one of the 12 year olds because he’s not treating the game seriously enough so HIS child can get a proper competitive experience. It’s cool you want your kid to succeed, hopefully the kid wants it too. Hopefully that kid is motivated and talented enough to be a major leaguer… but treating the little leagues like they’re supposed to be bootcamps for big leagues is just wrong.
1 Like
12 year old player detected…
Seeing kids being frustrated with their decisions just were painful to watch. Started well, just derailed along the way. Somewhat I felt responsible on the future of those kids.
They were more serious towards that. At least on the scene I worked and their stance on their channels about it.
Which was one of the things that frustrated me and the kids, how they were supposed to take it seriously? That became harder to convince them to do the effort, due their peak on their age without much results on the end of the line, which they could had better results on other games.
I know that, just saddens me to see those poor kids going through that. That’s why I left, was soul crushing to see those kids being exploited and not being recognized from it.
When you’re supposed to give hope and your belief are shaken, becomes harder to actually convince them. A personal stance about it and often tried to make it better for those kids but at the end.
I feel a bit personal about the theme, due seeing those kids going through it. While at same time saw blizz also being tone deaf about it. So, yeah I see your point. I’m old and time doesn’t go back, which is why I feel a bad for those poor kids and wanted to blizz stand for their words for the sake of those kids.
1 Like
I can understand that and agree it sucks.
1 Like