I must admit that I enjoy the abovementioned Arcade modes the most because of the potential for the hilarious, weird and unpredictable situations which occurs. This can only occur because of the wonderful diversity that is humanity. No two person thinks exactly the same and even great minds react differently despite thinking the same!
So, in a departure of all the “oh my frigging gosh, XYZ123 is ruining the game, nerf! nerf! nerf!” and “i frigging hate you, OW (devs), scr3w you guys, ima gonna home” threads, I would like to invite one and all to share personal stories and experiences about hilarious and unexpected situations which made you rofl until then some here.
For me, 2 situations come to mind and they were fairly recent:
No Limits:
Decided to try this for the first time during the x2 XP weekend during the anniversary event and as usual was solo queued.
Map: Route 66
Objective: Defense
Forming team screen and someone started to select and unselect Torb. I just selected Reinhardt as usual. Realised that as my team mate continuously select & unselect Torb, others did as well until all but me was on Torb. (Asian server so peeps are mostly quiet on comms and chatbox because of the myriad of languages used) . So i switch to Torb and another player switched to Roadhog.
3 Torbs camped at ledge near the billboards and facing the initial spawn point with the other Torb farther back. Roadhog was chaining would pick off whomever the turrents and Torb guns could not.
With a wonderfully timed and placed D.Va’s mecha bomb/self-destruct which the hit the 3 Torbs and creating a 5-player wipe. The opposing team broke through past us. However because of the time spent charging up Ults and trying to break through, the could not deliver the payload.
I found this incident to be rather hilarious because of the sheer absurdity and ludicrousness of the team composition. I empathised with the opposing team because i was at the receiving end of a defending comp of 3x D.Va, 2x Mei + 1x Mercy just a couple of games back in No Limits at Lunar Horizon Colony which totally wiped my team and i still found that hilarious because of seeing a bunch of D.Vas panicking as i tried to wreck them with Mei and other characters.
Mystery Heroes
This is my favourite arcade mode by far because i enjoy playing all the characters in OW and trying to think of how to use, on the fly all the time, the one that RNG had put on me and adapt as well as challenging myself to be as effective as possible as i am forced out of my comfort zones every single time using characters which i do not enjoy.
Ideally, MH’s RNG should be a blessing for a INTJ MBTI-type like me because it would be so wonderfully strategic in terms of play as i try to piece a Team strategy up based on the RNG. However, this is usually impossible because of the lack of spoken communication. Although there were times when the unspoken synergy just comes together and it is beautiful.
Map: Watchpoint: Gibraltar
Objective: Defense
After the initial wave and one death, as i was returning to the opposite spawn point with a Hanzo RNG, i managed to pick off the opponent team’s Reinhardt who escorting the payload. Only a Brigitte, a Moira and a Zarya were left. Next thing i knew, we were getting wiped as the payload moved inexorably forward.
We had Reapers, we had Orisas, we had Bastions and i even RNG re-spawned as a Torb. Still. No. Go. Getting steam rolled and all i could see was Brigitte (Zarya got picked off) with the Moira doing her hit and run.
As the opponents neared the final leg to the last check point i realised that they had 3x Mercy, 1x Brigitte and added 1x Bastion. Zero deaths. While frustrating, i just found it hilarious as well. Because the game was essentially over, I just typed in the match chat, “haha. 3x Mercy” and both teams were laughing on the chat and said things in Mandarin such as “OP”, “what the heck, LOL”.
It was a rare moment of spontaneity and comradeship from both teams and it was just great.
I have other stories to share as well and i hope that everyone would share some of their own stories here, be it from Arcade or Comp or QP.