Ranked is literally unplayable

I would not call lfg a complete failure. The idea of implementing a lfg system in overwatch is the best thing that could happen to the game. The few games I have played with a 6 stack using the lfg were by far the best games I’ve had in overwatch and I’ve played this game a lot. 6 stacking makes the game more competitive, people are actualy trying their best and they were usually more positive and working as a team.

This might be less effective if lfg was by default maybe (overall people might not try so hard or always be possitive for example). However if we had at least the basics ideas of lfg by default in ranked I think it would improved competitive overall. At least it is by far better to play with 2-2-2 than being either forced to compensate somehow the 3 or 4 dps insta picks on your team or no tanks or no supports. Also I’ve come to the conclusion that flexing in this game is a terrible idea. As a main tank whenever I have to flex on support I feel like I am underperforming a lot. If i were able to select tank as my prefered role then i could be sure that my teammates know how to play their roles too and games should be more challenging and fun.

Idk what you’re on about. To say skill in ow is in any way chance related Is idiotic. If you’re 4500 material you’re gonna get to 4500 if you’re not you’re not. At lower ranks sure there are throwers but they’re on both sides dude. Plat players cannot stand up against a 4500. Idk what else to say if u don’t want to improve there’s no point in playing it’s a game of skill not who has the better gun unlocked.

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I don’t want role queue. I want the game to encourage team play by making it so grouping up and communicating gives you an advantage and solo play, if you are not a team player, will hinder your ability to be ranked high.

You do this not by enabling solo q people to have better comps… comps really only matter once you start getting to high diamond or maybe masters. Heck, even GM games a “good” comp doesn’t always win as long as the team works together.

This is my solution, like someone else also mentioned. Get rid of group priority in matchmaking.

Yes, it will suck for solo q people. But LFG is here now to help form groups to make it easier.

I would be ok with a secret back end side to the matchmaker that will use your placement games and then your play history to soft sort people. Balance out the teams based on what the people naturally play in comp to get the rank that they are… and if they go against their mains, they will suffer a penalty in having a bad comp.

But the best part is, that its invisible to the player… so that like what will hppen in an unenforced role selection, the team will get triggered if you queue for Tank, then go DPS.

If you are a flex person, the game will throw you into one of the flex roles. If you main a role (over 50% playtime in a role) then you will be pigeonholed into that. Want to get out of it? Play LFG, form a group and get your playtime changed.

Here is the problems with role queue, which everyone who claims that it will “save” comp keeps overlooking.

  1. Roles won’t be enforced. There is no way Bliz will start off RQ with enforced comps. It will prob be handled like Mei’s snowball offensive’s yeti mode. Thus, it will effectively make RQ pointless, because they’ll just play whatever without penalty.

  2. Queue times will vary based on role. Obviously everyone loves to play DPS. There are just simply more of those heroes then any other. So after a couple weeks, everyone will discover it will be faster to queue as Tank or Support… then just swap to their dps main. Queue times matter!! No one likes waiting 10min for a game, otherwise they would use LFG.

  3. Player will get too specialized - Need someone to flex? Oh too bad, no one will know how to because they will never have been forced to flex off their main on their climb. No one will feel compelled to flex because, “I picked healer, I shouldn’t have to swap because my person gets countered and the team doesn’t have the players to counter the enemy” The hero mecanics of a lot of heroes span different roles on purpose. Someone that is good on zarya, can pick up Symm or Moira…

  4. Troll field day. Trolls will of course select one of the most important roles, then use it to completely tank a team by hero selection. Since everyone is specialized and will get used to only playing one kind of character and won’t be able to try to pick up the slack of someone going off script.

Don’t believe me? go into LFG and unlock roles and wait until you get a troll that comes in. When things get bad, they will swap without asking the team… it will completely tank your game. It will be even more pronounced then most people realize if it happens in solo q then when it happens now, because there is just as much of a possibility that the enemy has the same problem or people on roles they don’t have experience on.

  1. Death of the flex player. More in line with #3, but the flex player that likes to play different roles on different maps or modes. These players will have to start and specialize, because they will have to queue for their role before they know what map they are on.

Sure, you could have the matchmaker go and put 1 tank 1 healer 1 dps and 3flex together each time… but that doesn’t solve the big problem in team comps that RQ is suppose to solve. You’ll still end up with 4dps in some games.

  1. Not all characters inside a role are equal. You don’t necessarily want a game where you are running a Road, Zarya, torb, Symm, lucio, zen… do you? But thats what the RQ matchmaker is gonna give you. RQ isn’t going to magically give you that barrier tank along with a Moira/ana every game.

  2. Which leads to even more one-tricking. One tricking in the RQ system will be even WORSE then it is now. Why? Because the OTP will be rewards even more often they are now because they’ll actually be more likely to have teams that will enable them. Also, the skill differences needed between heroes is drastic!! A person that is good at mercy, isn’t gonna be likely to play Ana go help deal with the pharmercy that the Junk and Reaper you got paired with can’t deal with by going widow.

And these are just the problems with an unenforced role queue. Enforcing a RQ (which we arn’t talking about here) leads to meta and balance problems… along with empowering trolls and one tricks even stronger to ruin games.

No thank you. I would rather solo q against a 6 stack then deal with the problema associated with a role queue.

It may sound wonderful if everyone played nice and it was a perfect world… but if it was, we wouldn’t be asking for a RQ in the first place.

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A lot of people asked for LFG feature, specially the entitled ones with too much expectations of the competitive mode.

Bizzard listened, and they gave them LFG.

So these entitled people though : “Cool, thank you blizzard you are the best ! I can now win more game and gain moar precious SR play in a proper comp environnement”.

But soon they realized the LFG didn’t make them gain more SR. Also many of them coudn’t handle being crushed by better teams.

“That’s unfair, why i have to face well perfectly 6-stack teams”.

And so the frustration begin and these people went back to soloQ.

But it’s totally blizzard’s fault right ?

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LFG died because it was nothing more than a solo queue with role locking that sabotaged players who flexed. Most teams locked roles, and it’s oppressive to play in such a system unless you’re a one trick and get the role you need when you join the group.

When the team comp needs to change, the role locking becomes a huge problem because someone who’s playing Mercy may not be great at other Healers, but they may be a good Soldier, while the Reaper may not be great at other DPS, but may be a great Lucio.

Flexing isn’t just about inter-role hero swaps, it’s also across archetypes. The Role Queue was always destined to be a failure for this reason.

Locked roles only work in organized/practiced team-play, where specific people specialize on certain roles, and don’t really bother with the others. This is why OWL works fine with people who ONLY play Support, Tank, or DPS… but Role Queue really doesn’t.

Without Locked Roles there is really no reason to even bother with LFG. The reason people whined for it was specifically for the “Role Queue,” but most quickly realized just how terrible this is in practice.

People are mostly doing Quick Play and Arcade Modes with LFG, and for QP it isn’t worth it as it will give you 10x the Queue times between matches (almost instant solo queue, often 3-7 minutes in an LFG 6 stack). That’s, potentially, hours of your day you can be wasting in Queue (“Searching for Match” or “Waiting for Players.”). How much do you value your time?

Most LFG 6 stack teams are not “true” stacks in the sense that they are not people who know each other and play with each other on the regular, like a sort of “team” in the queue.

They are just randoms matching themselves up, instead of letting the system do it for them. The LFG “stacks” are completely overrated, generally speaking. The people trying to form a perfect group are spending tons of time trying to vet any and everyone that joins, to the point that I’d never waste my time trying to do that.

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In fairness anyone with half a brain knew that LFG needed to be policed. It was never intended to be a let’s throw together tool. There are still countless road to bronze teams instead they are now called road to bottom 500.

I wont touch LFG anymore. It’s so sandbagged that I have zero interest in it.

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There is also that reason some good people stop to use LFG :

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amen
all mercy main crybabies are throwing games cuz “mercy got nerfed too hard” so now im gonna play widowmaker cuz I played 8 season on first person noodle and i’m so good

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There have been soo many trolls and leavers this season. Most i had out of any season. 12 in the past 7 days giving the enemy an undeserved advantage. I’ve lost so much SR thanks to leavers. 23xx to 1700 but i won 300 sr today so back to 20xx sr. Unbelievable stop rage quitting or stop going into competitive with mcdonalds internet

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I literally hate it when people misuse the word “literally.” :wink:

LFG isn’t dead. And I’ve not once been in a role enforced LFG, because if I can’t have trust that my team mates won’t play what’s needed, I won’t play with them in a 6 stack. I’ve had good days and bad days, but the games were over all better, and much much more friendly. I find a group within about 5 minutes every time I create one.

I agree with everything you said.
I think the problem is that everyone can throw, one trick, be toxic, etc, etc.
AND THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES

The report system is a joke. Why don’t Blizzard just queue throwers with throwers, one tricks with one tricks… and let the rest play appropriately.

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I’m just coming back from a break so I’ve started this season really late. It is single-handedly the worst season I’ve played.

I’ve only done 30 games but so far I’m at 6 wins, 2 draws, 30 losses. I’ve spent a majority of the time solo-q but I’ve grouped up with a few others to try and change this.

Every single season since S1 I’ve placed gold (or equiv in s1). My highest rating was 2479. Now I’m sitting at 1691 with under a 20% win rate. And I’ve never seen so many smurfs before.

This is the final season I’ll be playing competitive past placements. The dev team simply does not care about the state of it, they only care about the money generated from smurfs buying numerous copies of Overwatch and OWL.

All Comp has done is reminded me why I quit this game and why I have wasted the past week playing it when the quality of this game is nothing compared to what it was two years ago.

And the amount of toxicity and smurfs in comp is why new players are not picking up this game.

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You make it seem like your break hasn’t hindered your skill. It’s like you should have improved and the people who stayed should ha e declined in skill?

Think about what you said for a moment and realize how it makes no sense. I took a break from the game with a peak of 4300, and left around 4200ish. If I come back after a year or so, even 1 month, I can expect that I’m no longer of that caliber. Why is it difficult for someone of your level to believe that you would have some how improved in skill from taking a break?

Before you say, you didn’t say “improve” you did. When you stayed that you’ve ranked lower than your previous seasons, it indicates that your skill should have improve at the same rate as everyone else playing the game. A lot of people don’t understand how they can’t be as good as before, but you are flawed in your thinking.

If I come back maybe I’ll be masters, but GM? Who knows, but if I started playing against 4200 players I’m sure I’ll be crushed. Also if I played hitscan, my aim wouldn’t be as accurate, my instincts wouldn’t be as sharp, and processing information wouldn’t be as efficient because of all the new information I’m trying to process.

So you having a 20% win rate is quick normal, especially with someone of your caliber. You lack focus and dedication, move on.

我知道!

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Ya apparently i was 3x 2.9 material till i went back to 2.4 2.5 this season

2nd account i can keep around 2.9 while getting people who are at least trying to win the game.

Mmr just seems so off right now, ots insane. You either have win or loss streaks ontop of these stomps every game.

Not saying i belong obviously in dia but cant we just have nice games where people want to work for a win instead of these qp stomps?

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This is the epitome of “Overwatch is a selfless game with selfish players.” I’m learning the game too, and the best way to learn how to counter enemies is to play them. Why not benefit yourself and your team by learning to flex and play together? After all, the best way to win a team based game is to play as a team.

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Can someone sum up what is so horrible and “unplayable” about Overwatch? Ever since I first started playing earlier this year, I’ve heard the exact same vague complaint, relentlessly. Clickbait YouTube channels like Your Overwatch making videos on a weekly basis “Can Blizzard fix competitive?!?” Or “Ranked is broken!” Blah, blah…

Honestly, most everything that people seem to complain about stems from the community itself and is not intrinsically the game’s fault. I have no idea how people fail to realize this. Also, the solutions to these problems are often complex and nonlinear, e.g., addressing “Smurfs”, leavers, throwers, etc. Toxicity? That’s not only a stigma of the gaming community itself, but it’s widespread in other games, too. Additionally, it’s the players’ fault yet everyone’s whining to Blizzard to fix it, ironic…

Biggest complaints I have are the balancing for Doomfist and Sombra. Infinite invis/destroyable relocator are bad designs in my opinion, and hack is a lame mechanic in general. Doom fell into the game’s trend of having too much CC, plus his survivability and escape mechanics are super reliable now, and his ult (inescapable for characters with little or zero mobility) is garbage. Otherwise, Blizzard deserves a lot more credit than what people give them. I love Overwatch.

Yeah and when my team chooses 5 dps

No tanks, no support

Why should I try to help them?

Why not play who I want? 99.9 percent of the player base currently do it.

I have 80 hours on Moira and 25 on Mercy in Comp because no one would choose healers

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In general, people are upset over unfair matches / unevenly skilled teams. There are many factors involved with this, with some overlap among them.

  1. Smurfing. This is a broad term meaning, “Someone using an alternate account to play ranked games below their SR.” The big problem here is that the word is too generic. Some “smurfs” are high-level players griefing low-level players, or remaining in a certain SR range to play with lower-level friends, some are actually cheaters using pixelbots or memory hacks. Right now there is an epidemic of pixelbots. Even that problem is multifaceted – some cheat for status among friends or personal satisfaction, others cheat to boost accounts to sell them.
  2. Boosting. Players who buy high-SR accounts, or pay cheaters or T500 pros to rank up their main accounts to an SR level above what they can achieve on their own. Essentially it’s the opposite of smurfing, while also contributing to the smurf problem during the boosting process.
  3. Metababies. A lot of people can’t play the characters they want because their team is abusive toward them. I have a ~65% winrate as Symmetra after 117 games this season, yet about half the time I choose her, the metababies rage at me, which often results in them either throwing or leaving.
  4. Throwers. This is comorbid with smurfing (for griefers who want to stay at a low ELO), boosting (boosted players unintentionally throw high-SR matches by being incompetent), and metababy rage (throwing/leaving to punish non-meta hero picks). And sometimes your electricity or Internet service goes out, and toxic players make up reasons why you left on purpose.
  5. Toxicity. Comorbid with all of the above. People get upset because they think their team is underperforming either intentionally or unintentionally. People get upset because you don’t join voice chat so they can tell you what to do. People get upset if you choose a non-meta hero, if you switch during a match without asking them permission, if you make an honest mistake, if you choose the hero they wanted, if they get gold medals in DPS categories while tanking or healing. People get upset if they get hard countered by a hero they perceive to be unfair or unbalanced (Brigitte and Doomfist are popular rage targets). Smurfs are inherently toxic because they aren’t afraid of being punished on their alt account, so long as their main account is safe.
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