A few days ago in a competitive game I had a match where I was left solo heal and we had solo tank.
I go Mercy and try to heal as best I can for the team but I get focused out in every fight so I can’t do anything. I’m really tired and I’ve been left to solo tank or heal in most of my games that day with minimal help from my team. I’m fed up with this and I’m fairly certain that we would lose the match if we didn’t get another healer by the least, if I had a lucio to peel for me I might be able to heal my team but my team ignores me and decides to go on their merry way. We’re losing every single fight and we haven’t even capped the point on nepal yet, we’ve hardly ever even contested the point. The match is very one-sided and feels absolutely hopeless - so because my team is being stubborn I decide that I don’t have to heal for them, I’d been having to swap from the heroes I actually want to play all day. So I swap off to mei, we have no healer.
At this point my team is harassing me and insulting me, whilst also simultaneously asking me to join voice chat again.
One particular person insists that
“You’re a useless woman. You’re a girl go healer.”
To put even more insult to it this person is playing hanzo, which I have no particular problem with but he’s not doing anything. We have four dps and none of them can dps well because we don’t have the tanks or the heals to make it work out and they’re all refusing to swap.
So I tell my team
“I don’t have to heal for you. If you don’t want to swap to healer that’s your own problem.”
At this point they’re all cursing me but halfway through the second point they actually start swapping to try and save the match.
At this point I’d normally swap back to healer myself and try my hardest to win but with the way they had been treating me the entire match I decide that it’s now their problem to make it work. I didn’t care if we lost this match, I was completely fine with it.
This hanzo player had still been insisting that I was useless because I was a woman and that I should just heal.
At the end of the game when we lose I tell this person that he’s a misogynistic jerk and that there was no point in explaining myself to him because he was being bigoted.
He says “Men are better than women, women can only heal. you should just shut up and play healer”
Honestly I could barely believe that this guy was even real. I’d never played a game with someone who had insisted on me healing because I’m a girl - which seems pretty stupid to me. He seemed to really believe what he was saying but I hope he didn’t really believe it.
I do realize that I should have tried my best to win the game but at the same time I’d rather not. Nothing obligates me to heal for them, I don’t have to be stuck on healer and honestly if I can’t have any impact on mercy because I’m just being killed over and over again then I’d rather swap off once in a while to save my sanity.
It’s a very frustrating experience the 4 dps players were all grouped together and they didn’t want to swap to try and save the match until 80% of the match was up.
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Welcome to the internet, where sh-tty people don’t have to worry about the consequences of their sh-tty actions.
Remember to lower your expectations, don’t feed the trolls, and enjoy your stay.
7 Likes
I didn’t have high expectations and also wasn’t feeding the trolls. Just trying my best to win until they started to insult and berate me.
Thanks though lol.
That really sounds like an awful experience.
From a dude’s perspective: See how you like playing Moira or Zen, because it will allow you to get quite a high-% of elimination participation and that turns into a post-game card more often than not. Just to rub some salt into the DPS man’s wounded ego… 
Yeaaaah - they’re out there. I got a duo queue yesterday that asked why I wasn’t playing Mercy because I’m a female tank main. They were complaining that I was playing Orisa on attack Gibraltar, like what?
When people are angry they say anything to make you mad, no matter how awful, they are looking to push your button.
- If you were a guy they would have said you have tiny genitals or a homophobic comment.
- If you sounded like you were a different color they would say something about that.
What you experience here is different in context but the same harassment that we all face. Please, do yourself a favor and ask the others to report them, then mute them immediately and then issue a report yourself.
I have to issue a report every time I play and I get messages saying that “action was taken”. I honestly believe the report system works, and the mute button is extremely useful.
I look at the mute button as a fully charged “ult” that I can use against extreme jerks.
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I just don’t get it, then again. It’s the internet. Doubt most people have the balls to say stuff like that seriously while around others lol.
Tanks are cool, I’m pretty good at dva. Usually scoring really high elims and damage and damage blocked (10k+)
If I’m doing really really well I usually ask my team what’s up and what needs swapping.
Just because you’re female doesn’t mean you’re even good at Mercy. Positioning on her is really important, really easy to take advantage of a mercy who cannot position well. Also, if you have to swap tank to heal, solo tank doesn’t have very good odds against coordinated team, the sole tank has to get so much support…
Just have to try to not let it get to you.
The reality is its going to get to you sometimes. Theres literally nothing that can stop the occasional person from being horrible to you. At best anything we could do happens after the incident (reporting or muting or leaving voice or w/e) .
It happens to everyone though. Ive been brought to actual tears from the horrible crap people have said to me. Just have to try to not let it get to you.
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I did report them actually. It didn’t really work to push my buttons in itself. “autistic woman, you’re so stupid” “I hope you never have children”
were some of the things they said but, when you’re reduced to saying that it’s a moral victory to me. If they turn into an animal that’s their own business.
Can’t help but be frustrated though when I was in 5 other games similar to this one where I have to solo heal or tank with minimal success because team isn’t looking back to focus targets. I’m only a person after all ![:stuck_out_tongue:](https://d74zh8edaijub.cloudfront.net/en/overwatch/images/emoji/twitter/stuck_out_tongue.png?v=5" ":stuck_out_tongue:")
2 Likes
Every day, we stray further from the light of the Rules of the Internet
14 - Do not argue with trolls. It means that they win.
18 - Everything that can be labeled can be hated.
19 - The more you hate it, the stronger it gets.
20 - Nothing is to be taken seriously.
I’ve already said but, it wasn’t the man that was getting to me. To be honest I was really just confused. My frustration just comes from the ignorance that I had experienced overall in the day. However, yes. Thank you darling. I’ll keep your words in mind.
I literally never play Mercy and part of the reason for it is I hate her play style. I would rather pick Zen or Lucio, because I can actually get eliminations. With Mercy, if doesn’t feel like you’re able to do anything but run away and hope your team can kill the person flanking you. Oh well.
I’m only really well versed with rule 34 ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Definitely important, definitely important for overwatch, but a little less relevant when you’re actually in-game.
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If you’re good enough at aiming you can take pistol battles with tracer and genji but you have to completely outclass them in mechanical aim to have a chance at it.
if you would like you can add me and we can play, maybe we win a few. Just say no if you don’t wanna lol but I don’t mind healing a little for tanks.
Sure, I’ll add you, I am taking a break though for a while. My matches last night were awful. I had that match on Gibraltar and two others where people were blatantly throwing. 
Unlucky, just check your battlenet client thing for the add
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Yeah don’t heal players who disrespect you! You did the right thing.
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Yeah you did the right thing. Sorry you were treated this way. You dont owe it to anyone to uplift their gameplay or support them through online abuse.
The sad reality is that as a woman you’ll be a target to weak men who need to vent their anger at someone from the safety of their headset. In those situations, you’re well in your right to just mute them and play for you.
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well… if that person is a widowmaker and you are on kings row… damage boost them then silently nudge them off the edge