Hello! I have played OW since the very beginning and took a long break. I recently came back to try out OW2 and really try hard. I have anxiety about comp because I care too much about rank and how I look to others. I would drink, get buzzed all the time in OW1 and my account sat in mid plat to mid diamond for years. Once I got to diamond, I would get scared of losing my shiny object and stop playing. Lame, I know. Now, I was going to really try and take it seriously. I played a bunch of QP, learned all the new heroes/maps, got my aim locked in better than ever, and jumped into comp.
From what I have seen even a highly skilled t500 player will often get placed in gold when they do their placements, and have to climb up from there (I watched awkwards unranked to GM zarya). I knew with my accounts history I would likely place gold and I did, gold 2. Now, I DOMINATED my placements (we’re talking 33-2, 18-0, 26-4, 22-2 etc.). I lost 2 due to leavers, one of which I might have lost anyways, not sure, who cares I guess. I place gold 2, fine. I can tell I am playing the best OW I have ever played, literally carrying games. Now my sample size isn’t big, but over 20+ games after placements I end up with around 50% win rate. When I say the games were maddening, I mean it. Some games I’m steamrolling and it’s not even fair. Then others I’m still playing very well and losing, saying “what just happened, how did we lose this?” (my k/d is around 5 now, it was over 9 when I did my placements). I also had 3 of those games with leavers that were super winnable, fine, bad luck. I also accept that I made the occasional bad play that cost us, but if I am not playing amazing, we lose every time. I have to carry to win. If I die, my whole team dies, every time. You know those games where you kill 3 on your own, turn around and you’re whole team just suddenly isn’t there? That’s happening a lot. Comments like “holy zarya carry”, “what is this matchmaking”, “tank diff” all the time. I tell people I’m gold 2 and they’re like, “seriously?”. My WORST game was 20-10 on havana, unwinnable. I know stats aren’t everything, but they tell a story. I’m ranting, sorry.
I know everyone thinks they are great and deserve a higher rank when they don’t. My honest assessment is that I am playing at a much higher level than my rank, and I’m baffled. I keep playing, aaaaand rank update, gold 2. Kinda makes sense, I’m losing as much as I’m winning somehow. I’m sure if I keep playing I will rank up, but this ranking system feels very flawed. I check the people I’m playing with and they are diamond sometimes, plat sometimes, maybe I check my healer and theyre bronze, lets sprinkle in a masters challenger. I just don’t get it. I’m playing with a huge range of skill levels and have no idea what I’m going to get. Its a dice roll every game. I will say this, there was only one game where I said, “yeah that tank is playing better than me”. Im gold 2 and I ask everyone what their rank is and they say “diamond 2, plat 1, diamond 4”.
I honestly don’t know what skill level my opponents/teammates actually are, its confusing. I see this in the unranked to GM videos I watch too. They put you in gold, but put you with people at your “hidden MMR”, so if you don’t carry constantly at your actual skill level, you don’t climb. I suspect that gold as a rank has a ton of people with a vast range of actual skill level, and its probably like that in other ranks. I just get the impression that I’m going to have to play a TON of games, carry a TON of games, just to rank up a little. Now, if I was top 500 material, this might not be as brutal, but I’m not. It’s true that some people are hard stuck because they’re just playing at their rank, but there are definitely a lot of skilled players getting screwed too. Then you have skilled players playing other skilled players, at a lower rank than they belong, muddying the water even more. Sure, over 500 games, things will even out, but that’s ridiculous. In OW1, I knew I was playing at my skill level at the time, there were frustrating games but I knew when it was my fault, and my rank was deserved. I guess I’m just venting, and I know this kind of information isn’t new, but I thought I would share my experience. If I could sum up my comp experience in OW2, I would say: random, frustrating, at times exhilarating and fun, confusing, and unclear. If you read all of this boohooing, thanks!
UPDATE 2 WEEKS LATER: I’ve since climbed to Plat 2 with the same ~50% win rate (~55 games total played). The biggest thing I am noticing is dps diffs. Most of the games I’m winning feel pretty easy, still having those games where I end up 20-0 or something (had a 62-6 yesterday). The losses are usually hard fought losses, with the occasional enemy stomp. In the losses, the enemy has typically had superior dps that get picks at the start of the fight, and we have to back off quick or just get wiped. Still having horrible luck with leavers (~10 total out of 55 games) and my internet disconnected for the first time in years, making me a leaver on one game as well :(. The weird thing is it doesn’t show that game on my history, not sure what happened there, but my account was suspended for 15 mins. Struggled against Rammatras with good healing (he just wont die). I can really only play once or twice a week, so its tough to stay sharp and grind out wins. Still baffled by some of the people I get put with. Usually its a dps locking sombra or something and ending the game with 5k dmg and a 1 k/d, with other players at triple their stats. I’ve had diamond tanks on the other team that were easy, and others that were decent, but very few that actually outplayed me. I would gladly wait in 10 min ques for teams where every player is within 2-300 SR of each other, regardless of mmr, but it looks like that’s not happening.
