Freedom of Skill Expression

General Discussion
1

Ever since I joined Overwatch 2 back in October of 2022, I’ve had a fog in my brain, in terms of trying to fit in with the atmosphere of the game’s identity.
Fortunately, I’ve adapted well enough to reach Diamond rank in my play of skill.

Being a single/individual skill player myself, it took me a while, a long while, to understand how team-centered this game really can be.
Which sounds like an exaggeration, considering Overwatch 1 was composed of 6v6 player format, and objectively harder to pull off a game with a solo performance plan in mind. It just wasn’t possible since the team-centered aspect was amplified tenfold.

In terms of Overwatch 2’s identity, however, I’ll go as far to say that it’s still not adequate to say solo skill is majorly relevant on prevailing; given how team-fight revolving a match can be, how imperative it is to group up and to capitalize punishing an enemy’s bad positioning, and the overall intricacy to note the entire team’s health, and knowing the flow of both superorganisms in a match.

One weak link, one underperformer, is all it takes for a team to succumb to the other, especially if both teams are of approximate equal skill; more-so if the other team is of higher skill.
On the other side of the coin, one carrier, one excellent performer, will not be enough to counter the higher-skilled team, simply because the game’s nature denies that.

That’s why you have angry, toxic players raging at their teams, coming to the forums to vent at the lack of balance and matchmaking structures. No one that absolutely knows they can carry a team wants to stick around for a lost cause, mostly because these types of players know it is impossible in this game.

That’s also one of the reasons why QP is a cesspool; there’s no determination to label the difference between casual play, trying to win/experimenting new techniques, and mess around/leave anytime I want play.
This is why you have some people leaving games in Competitive and QP in unision, because there’s no incentive for players in Competitive to say: “I can carry this match given the circumstances/my team isn’t performing well”, and in QP, “I’m seeing a lot of my teammates leaving, making this match obsolete, but I still want to try my best to carry and turn it around”.

There’s simply no freedom of expression to stamp yourself as the most killed player, for the incredible most part.
On the other hand, you could go Tracer, Ashe, Hanzo, Widow, Cassidy, or any other hero with sweep potential; but at what cost? A huge one.
Team fighting has always been prevalent in Overwatch, but that is a big portion of why players feel disillusioned with Competitive, and the overall stigma that their teams are blank, aside from the putrid Matchmaking.

The phrases “It’s a team game.” “You shouldn’t be able to solo carry.”, are completely destructive for players with incredible amounts of skill, and that know they could win/flip matches if their skill was highlighted and rewared in action, even if their teammates are obsolete, and maintencance of the modes being completely sunken.

“Narrow teams” through solo play in s9 should more prevalently cure this. Otherwise, this game isn’t very inclusive in skill expression, and the conformity to strive exclusively as a team player is enforced more and more, ironically given how the amount of character and skill potential a lot of characters in Overwatch have.

2

To be honest smurfing disproves this. As an individual you can hard carry with little effort until you’re one rank away from your real rank with a winrate easily above 80%. Carrying is still a thing and if anything it’s easier overall. Some heroes are better at this than others though.

I will concede that this is probably only applicable to those above diamond though as only then does the difference in skill really begin to significantly increase between ranks.

3

You mean to say smurfing; as in, creating another account, and the ridiculous matchmaking will place you in Masters, even in GM, just by the act of placements? Right.
Well, this has also been disproven by the amount of confirmed people that have uploaded videos showcasing this.
I’ve been shared stories, and have seen videos of many people getting high ranks after placements.
Sorry, but, you can’t exclusively bet on matchmaking for an accurate portrayal of skill because of that, I’m afraid.

4

No. I mean if a masters/gm player jumps onto any metal rank account they’ll hard stomp. Old OW1 accounts show this as they don’t get the sr boost that the new accounts do. This can be simulated by throwing the initial 10 comp games too as then the system becomes convinced that you’re not a smurf. Not that I condone that but it’s a thing.

Explain in detail why gm players can consistently climb back up on any account when others can’t.

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5

At it’s core OW is a team based game so it makes sense to me. Individual skill expression will vary to be either non existent or heavily prevalent. This all depends on the matchmaking and players you get on each team as you can have someone of high skill expression on both sides, but the one actually playing with their team and getting the support they need will prevail. Which, if they are playing as a team, they should win.

In a team based FPS I don’t want one singular person to be able to destroy the whole lobby to the point where they carry their team and win if my team is the one playing better overall. I don’t see why skill expression should be put first if it would ultimately make playing as a team nonexistent, there is a balance that needs to be met. The current system we have sucks right now but it, at it’s core, works for the nature of the game. However, the balancing and bloating of the metal ranks in the early seasons have hurt comp and QP to where games are feeling like this one sided mess.

I feel as if it might be resolved with the new competitive mode since they are going to be doing this sort of rank reset iirc? I don’t have high hopes though, we will see.

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6

Well, that is also fairly subjective.
I remember back in the first seasons, I was just catching up to content creators/video uploaders that tried this, and their instant affection towards it was mostly “Nah, these ranks are helpless”, “You really can’t count on these guys for anything lol”, “Stick to your own ranks, these ranks are a trash”, and “You’ll be hardstuck for a while down here”.
This has been a while, though. I’m not sure how this environment has evolved.
So, from what I’ve seen, anyone with enough confidence that attempts this will eventually see the fallout.

[/quote]
Explain in detail why gm players can consistently climb back up on any account when others can’t.

As I’ve said, an exclusive reason for this would be to hop onto an extremely old account, or make fresh one. This will trick the matchmaker at various capacities.
Have you heard the tip, “Just make a new account if you want to make it to GM”? lately?
It’s been thrown around a lot.

Those that I’ve seen that take the challenge and attempt to climb, eventually see the repercussion.
This is all on foot of a solo approach, by the way. I’ve seen many that trick the challenge by stacking.

7

This is exactly why it’s so easy to stomp these ranks.

I’ve literally done this. That’s why I’m so confident in asserting that climbing back up isn’t an issue regardless of how new or old the account is.

Yeah. It doesn’t work out for the vast majority. It can if they get a lucky winstreak though and that does need fixing.

8

That’s right, I agree.
Overwatch down to it’s core is a team-based game.

However, as I’ve said, there’s no room for skill expression, and I’ve taken a deep dive in learning this the hard way, given how I’ve come to adapt to reach the most above average of ranks. I know what it’s all about.

The game has a form of practicality, where conforming to the the team-centric flow is vital, but the approach that this is being labeled as is very poor, in reason behind why a lot of characters have that essence of being solo carriers. It’s a very muddy angle, and really does not help with those players that know what they would be able to do if the game didn’t enforce the team approach extremely heavily.

This in turn makes players bitter, and to various degrees alienates the approaches that skill could require.

All in all, I’m just hopeful for s9 giving more liberty to players that may mold a match to their liking lol
These upcoming changes could really be tools to help eximplify the freedom of skill a solo-centered player could have.

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