Making profiles Private is a bad fix to an ineffective Report Player system.
If reports were actually actioned on we wouldn’t need this lame “fix” just to make some people feel better about some other people who were toxic to them in a game.
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i like it because it kinda tactical. sometimes enemy team would already be countering mains from me, or my teammates mains before the match even starts. this way they have no idea unless theyve seen me play befor
As a one trick like… if you can’t take a few “you suck” comments here and there isn’t that your own problem? like… report and move on? lol that’s what I do. I’m proud of my almost 800 hours on Mercy. anyone who has a problem with that will be laughed at, reported, and blocked. If you can’t do that maybe you aren’t mature enough to be interacting with other people online… just a thought. so yeah. bring back public profiles. it’s honestly not even that bad being called bad for one tricking. 
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I feel as though private profiles reduce the amount of times people asked me to play certain heroes even though I don’t want to. Imo, that’s a good thing. Also, less people are getting bullied by their statistics now.
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It’s not toxic to make a plan on how to win a game. Let’s use your examples.
What if they are a one-trick: If I see they are a good one-trick via their profile, I can take picks that synergize with them and completely play around their hero to win the game. If they are bad via profile I can assume they will continue to play bad and instead play around a better teammate or have someone play around me depending on what role I am. With the private system, I don’t have a safe choice other than to assume everyone is bad and find my own way to win w/o my team.
What if they are bad at their role: If they are bad at their role and don’t want to swap I have a couple of options. I can flex and be the third of that role such as triple tank, triple dps comps. I can devote all my resources to the other player in his role since I know the player in question is bad. Or we can try to cradle the player and have the tanks have their cc ready to save the player.
In either scenario, how reliable my teammates are to play a hero changes up how I play the match almost entirely. With the private profile system I realistically have 2 options. Waste precious pushes and time trying to assess if they are good or not then adapt, or assume they are bad and carry my own way to victory. The last option is often the most reliable however goes against everything that overwatch is supposed to be in a team based objective shooter.
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I don’t mind Private Profiles. But I think the default should be set to Public.
Also, if you join a LFG that specifically says ‘PUBLIC PROFILE OR KICK’. Then I suggest you don’t join if you’re not willing to switch your profile to public. I see this in too many groups where people just get kicked because they aren’t able to read the title.
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I think it’s private on default so it doesn’t put people into the mind set that those with private profiles have something to hide.
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Well it’s been a good while since Private Profiles were added. I’d hopefully assume everyone is aware that they are Private by default, so when you see a Private Profile player that most likely means they are aware, and having something to hide.
You’re telling me you can’t tell why a team fight broke down instantly? Just watch the kill feed.
See who needs focusing, see who is out of position, see who needs peels.
If the Rein is just blatantly YOLO charging, also easy to spot.
In short talk to your team between each team fight to see what the problem is and figure out how to solve it as a team.
ex… “Rein stop charging, we need the shield till widow is dead.”
-“I’m holding my shield up but no one is doing anything, so YOLO.”
This situation could be solved just by more communication. All he needs to know is someone still needs and is using the shield.
Simple example, I know all situations are different. But identifying the issue and communicating to solve it is how you win games.
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Teamwork is not just communicating but also providing information to whoever is working with you. This is how it’s done in the real world.
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so in either of those scenarios, what makes having a profile benefit.
you are in silver… everyone is bad. just play as best you can. last time i played comp was like season 6 or something in plat and even then all of our stats were terrible and we were all bad.
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I think you should make an actual website poll and link to it:
If the Rein is just blatantly YOLO charging, also easy to spot.
In short talk to your team between each team fight to see what the problem is and figure out how to solve it as a team.
ex… “Rein stop charging, we need the shield till widow is dead.”
-“I’m holding my shield up but no one is doing anything, so YOLO.”
This situation could be solved just by more communication. All he needs to know is someone still needs and is using the shield.
Back to my point, Using your example, instead of the amount of pushes it takes trying to coach the reinhardt about why we lost them, I could have just swapped to a flanker/duelist and picked our team to victory. It’s not a “short talk”. Especially if the reinhardt doesn’t believe what you are telling him. Even in your example above, if the reinhardt believe you aren’t doing anything with his shield so he keeps diving, that can take MULTIPLE pushes to convince him he is wrong. That’s multiple times we coulda capped B and won the game if I had just wrote him off at the beginning.
If you think you can win without your tank the problem is bigger than profiles.
If all players are of similar skill levels it comes down to numbers and focusing.
I’ll give you a different example looking at my profile I should never play Pharah over someone with like 50 hours on Pharah right?
But I have over 300 hours on pharah (probably closer to 350 now), so does that mean on this account I can’t play Pharah? Cause some dude has 50 hours on her? 
Profiles can be misleading too.
Maybe I’m just climbing out the wrong elo then idk. Ever since I started autolocking my own champion and doing my thing I have a 73% win rate with him this season in games with no tanks, 1 tank, no healers etc. I had to lose 600 sr before I realized I couldn’t play around my team anymore tho so that hurt. Gained 200 of it back already though xD.
It comes down to reliability. Which is more likely in OW? You are a smurf or you just don’t have the experience? Nothing is concrete. it’s about leveraging your odds to win a game. I find it far more likely in random match making that a 2 hour pharah is just new at pharah over has some hidden account with 300 hours. odds.
Yup. And also bring back the highlighter tool that allows you to quickly see what everyone plays so it’s actually possible to build a fluid composition again and not do a Q&A with your team in a middle of a fight to try and guess who plays what.
Good players have public profiles on.
Bad players, one-tricks and smurfs/trolls have it private. You don’t make a profile private unless you got something to hide.
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Exactly. I love the term you used “Q&A”. By the time my teams are done with their Q&A the round is half over and it is likely almost to late to fix the problem anyway. Just a waste of pushes.
I do understand this I have done it myself. But I would say that is more a product of playing broken teams. When you play a team that is all somewhat competent and without trolls, this will not work unless you specifically belong in a higher tier and even that stops at some point. No one can carry 1v6, no one.
I have won a lot of games 5v6 but when it falls to 4v6 it becomes nearly impossible if all 6 players on the other team are trying.
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I also agree with your points as well. Private profiles were literally the worst thing to come to OW to indulge safe-space type of people that think statistics and data is abuse.
It’s terrible for flex players because I literally cannot form any strategy whatsoever. I have absolutely no clue what anyone plays including my team or the enemy team and I can’t see it quick enough to formulate any strategy in a friggin team FPS with fluid role changes.
And the popular argument that “well you wanna force people to play what you want” is so weak. I literally never tried to force anyone to play anything but if I can see we got a player that can’t play Zen but can play Mercy/Reaper for example I can tell him to get Reaper to deal with Winston and I can get the Zen to fill the support. Literally, simple example (insert X,Y any hero in any situation). Nobody has the time to have a conversation about who plays what while fighting on point. Basically the whole strategy element of the game is gone because of safe-space one-tricks or trolls/smurfs that can now play with absolute impunity.
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