There are an abundance of people calling themselves flex players that are not really flex players. They have a very small hero pool and are basically 3 or 4 tricks. More like Hero puddles.
Having a very limited number of heroes that you can only flex to is not being a flex player.
For example their hero pools look like this:
Mercy, DVA, Sym. (Could be any similar combination)
They basically 1 trick one hero from reach role.
They hate role Q and say they can’t flex any more, because their idea of “flexing” is switching to the other 2 heroes they 1 trick from different roles. They can’t play any other heroes from the same role.
These aren’t flex players lol.
I have a bigger hero pool than most these “flex” players and I have never considered my self a flex player.
I’m a DPS player though and though.
I have played heroes from other roles pretty extensively though in game modes other than comp like quick play , mystery heroes, custom games, etc. So I have got pretty good or decent to my skill level in a number of them.
My current hero pools are:
DPS - I can play all the hitscan and a few others. Total number of heroes from this role = 8 (Ashe, McCree, Widow, Tracer, 76, Reaper, Sombra, Mei) and I can also play Torb, Bastion, Junkrat and Hanzo even though I don’t like playing them.
Tank - I can play Roadhog, Orissa. A can also play Zarya even though I don’t like playing her.
Support - I can play Bap, Moira, and Ana. I can play the rest half decent even though I don’t like to.
It’s silly to me that these “flex” players hate role Q or hero pools because they can only play 1 hero in a role and in order to “flex” , they have to jump to another role to pick the other hero they 1 trick.
That’s why changes like Role Q, and Hero pools, hero bans , etc, don’t really affect players that can play multiple heroes.
It isn’t a big deal.
It isn’t dead. That makes no sense.
In the DPS role I can flex to like 10 heroes.
In the tank role I can flex to 3 heroes.
In the support role I can flex to 3 or 4 heroes.
To be good at overwatch, you can’t actually be a true “flex” player.
It’s impossible to be proficient at most of the heroes.
Sure, a lot of them have transferable skills, but you’ll always have 1 that you’re best at, and a few others that you are decent at, then everyone else is just a play them when you feel like even though you’re not that good at them.
Someone who plays an extremely large hero pool will never improve.
I don’t have a large hero pool.
I specialize in hitscan. Those are the heroes I excel at.
But I can play the other heroes I mentioned almost as good as my mains if I’m forced to. Even though I don’t enjoy playing them most of the time.
Flexing is switching to whatever is best for the team, considering the enemy roles and your teams; it is pretty much dead. As it requires someone to switch based on the match but how can you if the best option cannot be played because of roleq?
Flexing is still there for certain players that don’t have very limited hero pools.
Besides when there was no role q, what flexing meant was players switching to DPS the second the first team fight was lost. Leaving the team without a support or tank the rest of the game.
I have a few points I’d like to make, both agreeing and disagreeing with you.
I will say that A LOT of the “flex” people who hated RQ at first were mostly salty people who got mad that they couldn’t swap to DPS for spite or to “show us how it’s done” when they got tilted / were losing. That WAS a thing.
I never considered myself a flex player, but the part I hated about RQ at first was similar - I hated having a bad game on DPS and not being able to swap to something more helpful. If I happen to suck at aiming that day? Oh well, now it’s pick my poison rather than just swap with a healer or something.
I’m sure my situation isn’t unique. So yes, some people do hate being unable to flex in that regard.
That being said, the definition of “Flex” has evolved since the game’s launch. Used to being semi-decent on two heroes per role was sufficient and even considered good. Now people need 3-4 heroes from each role that they can perform well on, especially with the addition of hero pools. This isn’t the player’s fault.
Lastly, I can agree that it’s a good idea to be as proficient on as many heroes as possible, but I also realize not everyone has time for that. I play a ton of Mystery Heroes, too. I think that’s an underrated game mode, because it really does at least get you to “not completely useless” status on every single hero if you play it enough. It’s helped me loads.
But again, not everyone has time for that. And realistically, people shouldn’t be expected to be able to play the whole darn roster. Like, seriously. Expectations are getting ridiculous.
I can play ever role and almost every hero ( genji is too complicated )
Either way, flexing doesn’t allow me to switch to the best hero for the situation anymore. If I am playing reinhardt I have no option to switch to the best pharah counter, I am restricted to playing said role.
I mean, flexing meant switching to what your team required considering the match, whether its dps or support.
a tank player is a player that plays lots of tanks, a dps player is a player that plays several dps characters etc.
a flex is someone who can flex between roles.
it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 from each role, it’s still flexing to another role.
there’s also hitscan, projectile, and singlepoint players who plays flex aswell and they are very particular about it.
the truth is the more specialized you get and narrow your selection down the higher degree of investment you can put into less characters and perform higher with them than you would if you spread out your time on a lot of characters.
just because you can play all characters don’t make you better, it just makes you very versatile.
for example i can play every character except maybe 3 to an average level, but still i will get whooped by a specialist who knows the ins and out of their character, and as such i have tried to limit my hero pool down to 2 from every role that i really enjoy so i can compete with specialists better.
but even so i’m still average at the rest of them except now i’m better and worse at 7 characters specifically.
The thing is that this is the mentality of most players. Everyone want to be the team’s problem solver and take over other people jobs because in their heads they can always do a better job than the current person you want to replace.
You think your the only person that want to go hitscan on the team to kill the Pharah because the current DPS cant kill her fast enough?
Nope. I bet 2 or 3 other players on your team want to do the same.
I seen this scenario many times. They all switch to DPS leaving the team with no heals or shields.
Because flexing as a whole is impossible now. You can swap amongst the chosen role, sure; but you can’t flex to what you think the team needs most anymore. We are incapable of swapping roles, ergo we are incapable of truly flexing.
Also what I have left it is the countless of arguments and toxicity that occurred when you want to take over DPS duties and are trying to get the current Genji 1 trick to take over the healing duty or tanking duty (which the current DPS rarely ever agreed to).
I’m seriously glad all that nonsense is gone tbh.
Those in game argument resulted in an auto loss most of the time.
I’m not. It eliminated my playstyle. It doesn’t matter if the match is one tank, three dps and two support. Some might’ve used the “i am flex,” while being a dps player wanting to play dps but they werent flex.
)