After not having played a single ranked match since season 6, I’ve decided to change that today. I’m going to be exclusively flex-queueing, until I’ve completed all 10 placement matches on any of the 3 roles, as an experiment of sorts (also cause I just hate myself, I guess). I will document my results, and any things that I find interesting or notable from each match in this post.
(This “experiment” was sort of inspired by this post, so thank you Potatoad, if I end up having a miserable time, I’ll know who to blame /jk)
Before I begin however, a few disclaimers;
- My understanding is that between season 6 (when I stopped playing ranked) and now, there has been some kind of rank/mmr reset. I’m not sure if that is actually true however, so just in case my old ranks/mmr skews my experience, I thought I’d list my old ranks here;
Tank - Peak: GM 5 (season 4), Final rank: Masters 3 (season 6)
Damage - Peak: Masters 2 (season 4), Final rank: Masters 5 (season 6)
Support - Peak GM 2 (season 4), Final rank: Masters 3 (season 6) - I have not played role queue in months. I don’t think that’ll really effect anything, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.
- I will not use voice chat. I don’t care if it puts me at a disadvantage, my past experiences with vc were so terrible that I am never using it again in any game.
- I will be solo queueing all my matches.
- I play on EU (Nordic).
- I have not really kept up with balance-/meta-discussions all that much, so the only things influencing my hero choices will be suggestions from my teammates, and my personal experiences on what I feel to be my best heroes.
Alright, with all that out of the way…
Here are the results of all my matches:
Match #1
Result: Win
Map: Paraíso
Role & Heroes Played; Tank - Winton
Replay Code: NMBCPD
Notes; Felt like a pretty decisive stomp. Started on defense and full held first point, and on attack we got the point without much hassle. Ended the match with 0 deaths, and 23 elims. The only messages sent in match chat were both from me; “gl hf” at the start, and “gg” at the end.
Match #2
Result: Win
Map: Shambali Monastery
Role & Heroes Played; Damage - Sombra
Replay Code: YQSN56
Notes; This match felt pretty tough. Not least of all because our other dps player was particularly toxic towards our supports.
Aside from that unpleasant aspect of the match, this match was pretty close and I quite enjoyed it. The enemy Cassidy in particular played really well and hit a lot of sick shots. Not a whole lot happened in match chat. Our tank made a comment about how the enemy was stacking cc on them, and one of the enemy players was impressed at one point how our tank survived an encounter with 1 hp left. Once again, the only messages I sent were “gl hf” at the start, and “gg wp” at the end.
Match #3
Result: Win
Map: Suravasa
Role & Heroes Played; Support - Baptiste
Replay Code: 6YN574
Notes; This one felt like another pretty decisive stomp. However, in contrast to the last match, my teammates were all really nice, and complimented me at the end.
I don’t feel like I played all that well tbh, I’m quite rusty on Bap, and I totally screwed up with my ult a few times this match, but these comments made me feel less bad about it :)
Match #4
Result: Win
Map: Oasis
Role & Heroes Played: Tank - Ramattra
Replay Code: TK1THH
Notes; Another stomp. The enemy tank seemingly gave up towards the end of the match and just stood still and said this in match chat:
And following that, the match ended shortly after and people sent the following messages:
…so yeah, didn’t feel too great about this one.
Match #5
Result: Loss
Map: Circuit Royale
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Soldier: 76 & Bastion
Replay Code: 6473N2
Notes; This was a very close match, and I enjoyed it quite a bit until the very end, where I made a very bad play by trying to go for the pocketed enemy Cassidy as Bastion during overtime and died, and ended up pretty much single-handedly throwing the match by doing so. No one commented on it, and the chat was actually very pleasant during this whole match, people were discussing strategies in team chat at the beginning and people even complimented the enemy players’ stats after each round. Overall a very fun match, but I still feel quite bad about my flub at the end, and my performance overall wasn’t as good as I’d want it to be.
Match #6
Result: Loss
Map: Lijang Tower
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Sombra
Replay Code: NFHEC4
Notes; This match started off okay. My team took the first round, and our tank encouraged everyone to keep up the good performance, but then things started going south in the 2nd round and the enemy team ended up reverse sweeping us. One of our supports made some unnecessary comments about our other dps player’s KD ratio and complained that our tank wasn’t peeling for them. Aside from that, this match was fine. I definitely could’ve played better though, I felt like I was overly passive this game.
Match #7
Result: Win
Map: Samoa
Role & Heroes Played: Support - Moira
Replay Code: 33MW8Q
Notes; Yet another stomp. My tank and I ended the match with 0 deaths. The chat was quiet until the very end, when the following messages were sent;
I don’t know whether there actually was a smurf on our team or not, as I don’t check other people’s profiles. If there was indeed a smurf on my team tho, then I do understand the enemy player’s frustration. Also the “ez” comment from one of my teammates was just unnecessary and rude.
Match #8
Result: Win
Map: Rialto
Role & Heroes Played: Support- Baptiste
Replay Code: CWT4G4
Notes; This was my favorite match so far. It felt like a good quick play match tbh, people didn’t seem to take the match too seriously, particularly our Orisa who made good use of the “exterminate” voice line throughout the whole match. There was also a funny moment during the second round where our Sombra took a little nose dive into the river after we had wiped the enemy team, and she seemed to be quite embarrassed by it:
Everyone seemed to end off on a good note as well, with most players saying “gg wp” at the end.
Match #9
Result: Win
Map: Midtown
Role & Heroes Played: Tank - Ramattra
Replay Code: HYC6BY
Notes; Another stomp… This one was totally carried by our Widowmaker. Not much else to say about this match, except at the end people started typing a lot in match chat, though it was all in cyrillic so I’ve no clue what they were talking about 
(and I’m afraid to post screenshots in case it’s just a bunch of slurs or something xd)
Match #10
Result: Win
Map: Hollywood
Role & Heroes Played: Tank - Ramattra & D.va
Replay Code: 3P5QSV
Notes; Yet another stomp where I ended with 0 deaths. Nothing noteworthy to mention about chat either, the only things said were “gl hf” at the start, and “gg wp” at the end.
Match #11
Result: Loss
Map: King’s Row
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Sombra & Mei
Replay Code: 69EA21
Notes; This match felt alright. Wasn’t particularly close or anything, the enemy team was just better, but it didn’t feel like a total stomp. I also seemed to have upset one of the enemy dps players with my Sombra pick;
Match #12
Result: Win
Map: Blizzard World
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Sombra
Replay Code: 749XW3
Notes; I guess this was another stomp. Idk, it didn’t really feel like it, but on attack we did push all the way to last point, and on defense we full held first point, but I still felt like the enemy team did make us work for it pretty hard. Yet another silent match where the only things said were by me; “gl hf” at the start, and “gg wp” at the end.
Match #13
Result: Win
Map: Havana
Role & Heroes Played: Tank - Ramattra
Replay Code: M7QERC
Notes; You guessed it, another stomp. The only thing said in chat (besides my usual “gl hf” & “gg wp”) was our Zen saying “reported for aimbot”. I’m pretty sure that might’ve been a joke though, since they said it as our Widow’s POTG was playing, and it certainly did not look like an aimbot (to me at least).
Match #14
Result: Win
Map: New Queen Street
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Soldier: 76
Replay Code: EFZ50P
Notes; This match started out feeling like it was gonna be another stomp, but it ended up being somewhat even by the end. As for chat, It started out pretty good;
And then it the end it looked like it was gonna be great;
…but then, at the very end, seconds before the potg ended;
sigh
Match #15
Result: Win
Map: Route 66
Role & Heroes Played: Tank - D.va
Replay Code: K5WKBF
Notes; Started off okay, with me and another player wishing everyone “gl hf”. And the match felt like it was going to be a pretty close one, but then in the middle of it, someone on the enemy team seemingly just gave up;
Match #16
Result: Win
Map: Colosseo
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Sombra & Reaper
Replay Code: 2THEP8
Notes; Yet another stomp. Nothing else to say here, the only things said in chat were once again “gl hf” at the start, and “gg wp” at the end.
Match #17
Result: Victory(?)
Map: Antarctic Peninsula
Role & Heroes Played: Tank - Zarya
Replay Code: VGDJCG
Notes; Not sure what happened here. In the middle of the first round one player from each team left the match. Then at the start of the 2nd round, the match seemed to get cancelled, but it still counted as a win on my profile, and counted towards my placement matches on tank, so uhhh…yeah…weird. I did have this exchange with one of the enemy players after the first 2 players left;
Match #18
Result: win
Map: New Junk City
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Sombra
Replay Code: H7WMC2
Notes; Yet another stomp. Only notable thing was my tank complimenting me at the end of the match;
Match #19
Result: Win
Map: Blizzard World
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Soldier: 76 & Cassidy
Replay Code: JZJTNC
Notes; I won’t lie, I got carried by my team hard in this one. I swapped to Cassidy to try to help out with the Pharah, but I don’t think that was needed since I was pretty much just dying off cooldown anyway xd. Once again, nothing of note happened in chat, just "gl hf"s and "gg wp"s.
Match #20
Result: Win
Map: Suravasa
Role & Heroes Played: Damage - Sombra
Replay Code: YBTNYX
Notes; Aaaand yet another stomp…and once again, a silent game with no chat messages.
Final Results & Summary
Total number of matches played: 20
Number of Tank matches played: 7
Number of Damage matches played: 10
Number of Support matches played: 3
Final Rank: Platinum 1 (on Damage)
Conclusion/Final thoughts
I honestly expected to get queued for tank exclusively in the beginning, given how everyone says it’s the least popular role and whatnot. I think the big patch that dropped yesterday might’ve skewed things quite heavily on that front.
The majority of my matches ended up being/feeling like absolute stomps. I think that may be because as my final rank indicates, I was playing in a lower rank than I have ever been in before. Or maybe the matchmaker is just really funky? I honestly don’t know what caused all these stomps, but they weren’t all that enjoyable.
There wasn’t all that much toxicity. There was some, and some things that I’d not label as “toxic” perhaps, but more so just childish, unnecessary comments. People did also seem to talk just a bit more than they do in my quick play matches, which I did kind of expect, but I did not expect to encounter as many nice/normal people who complimented other players, or just said “gl hf” & “gg wp” in match chat. I was pleasantly surprised by that :)
This “experiment” was kinda fun to do, but I don’t think I’ll play any more competitive after this (except maybe to finish my placements on the other 2 roles). Simply because the matches are way too long for my liking. Also I don’t like feeling pressured to preform at my absolute peak for the sake of other people’s ranks (since I don’t care about my own).
VERY IMPORTANT NOTE:
The results of this “experiment” do not necessarily reflect the general playerbase, or the game as a whole. I am only one player, playing in one of many regions, and I only played 20 matches. Still, I do think there is some interesting information to be gathered from this, but just remember to take it with a huge grain of salt.
Thank you very much for reading this awful post of mine (or just skipping through all this text to the end, I don’t mind :p).
I hope you all have a wonderful day 
