Trying to climb on a DPS role in Sydney server is horrendous

I’m a silver DPS player plaing in oceanic region (Sydney server). At the start of the season, I was having a good time in competitive mode on my DPS role. There still were a couple of unwinnable games here and there, but most felt winnable to me and it was just a matter of me getting good (which I’m not afraid to admit).

But for the past 2 - 3 weeks, I’ve noticed that the matchmaking has gotten increasingly more unbalanced and stompy to the point where I’d consider over half of the games I get unwinnable unless I’m at least diamond or above in skill.

Majority of my losses come from the enemy having diamond+ DPS smurf (while we don’t have any) and my team feeding to that smurf every team-fight, and constantly leaving me in a 1v5 (or 2v5) situation.

The other losses come from the matchmaker giving both teams DPS smurfs (or high ranked DPS player), which technically makes the match"fair". But we lose due to our smurf being outplayed by the enemy smurf.

I just find it so hard to get value as a DPS when I have to constantly compete against higher ranked DPS players. Especially when getting kills is the only way to get value on a DPS role. As a DPS, you can’t really get value by any other means besides getting picks.

I mean yes, there are utility-based DPS heroes like mei and sombra. But in the end, getting picks is all that matters on a damage role. So if my teammates are feeding to the enemy widow or pharmacy, going mei isn’t going to exactly help with that.

Whereas when you’re on a support, you can get value through multiple means, such as by getting picks as well as providing sustain to your teammates. I can’t speak much of tanks since I stopped playing tank when OW2 came out (I preffered the tanking experience of OW1). So I can only speak my experience from DPS and support.

Anywho, I’ve mostly been playing support for the past week because of this very reason. Personally, I just find it much easier to manage smurfs and unbalanced games on the role and still be able to hard carry the game to victory. If there’s an enemy widow that can click heads, if I’m on support, I don’t necessarily have to deal with them and just focus on keeping my teammates alive and get value.

But a DPS, my sole job is to get more kills than the enemy. I don’t have the ability to provide sustain to my teamates like support, nor create space like the tanks. I don’t know about others, but I just find it hard for me to deal with smurfs as a DPS compared to support because of this.

One thing I’ve noticed is that quickplay actually feels more balanced now as of late. At least compared to the abysmal matchmaker in competitive mode. And one of my fellow teammates quickplay brought up a good point on why that might be. It’s because there’s more players to work with in quickplay.

I didn’t think of that possibily at first, but now that I think about it, it makes sense. Especially considering how small the active playerbase is in Australia. Australia basically has 10x less population than United States.

Maybe this is just a skill issue, who knows. But I’d love to get your guys opinions on this matter (especially from fellow aussie players). Do you think that DPS role is actually harder to climb on certain regions due to varying active playerbase? Thoughts?

The OCE server has always been the hardest to climb in any competitive game. Being both culturally and geographically isolated gives us a unique experience where everyone seems to be Tryharding but somehow taking the piss at the same time. GM here especially is hilarious, most lobbies dissolve into trash talking and trolling involving both teams and all 10 players.

As for DPS being harder to climb, that’s not an OCE issue but just overwatch. The support role is overtuned to appeal to whingey American audiences. The heroes are packed with aimbots, immorts, consistent damage, mobility and escapes, all while being much easier to create value than the other roles. In a nutshell, support is easy and powerful, DPS is harder and weaker.

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OCE is definitely harder to climb in than other regions tbh you’re probably not silver in the Americas or EU but it is what it is.

Idk about smurfs but I think there are some parallels playing against XIM hitscans in GM. If you want to take them on you’re not likely to beat them in a straight up fight, the only thing you can leverage by yourself is surprise and gamesense. This works best with characters that can burst someone down quickly and have some mobility or stealth, my favourite is echo or Zen on support. Imo Sombra’s too dependent on the enemy comp unless you’re extremely good with her.
The gameplan is basically hiding, flanking and generally just trying to catch them off guard. If your team is always feeding the smurf then that would be your best chance to shoot them while they’re distracted. You don’t need gold elims if their carry is spending the game fighting you off. This might seem like a big ask given they’re a smurf but trust me even if they’re masters or diamond they still make big mistakes from time to time, you just need to exploit them. If else then mei is the safe and survivable choice, spam right clicks and trap people with wall or block off sightlines Be a tank.

Another option is just feed with your team, 4-5 people feeding is a gameplan. Focus fire if possible, if not then hide from the smurf and kill everyone else. If they have a pocket go for the other support first to pressure mercy to peel for their team.

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It dropped me to B5 on support this season. I can’t get out of it. Full of smurfs, throwers, bad players, and leavers. Comp is ruined for me. It’s been the worst completive game I’ve ever played. It’s complete crap on the American servers too.

The last smurf just killed us all at spawn.

The entire team couldn’t even get out of spawn. This game is ruined.

Thanks for the advice. Also, when I mean by games that feel unwinnable, here are some examples of it:

Y6A26D (Havana) - Smurf zen on the enemy team + massive team-diff. There was so much steam-roll that I don’t think any silver or even gold player would’ve been able to win that match (plat/diamond maybe).

5STPZJ (New Queen Street) - Smurf hanzo on the enemy team, our whole team were annoyed by him. Our moira even thinks he was cheating. Because at 7:56, he manages to headshot her as soon as she came out of fade. I think moira just got unlucky and I doubt he was cheating though, only smurfing. But that’s just my opinion.

The above matches were supposed to be a low silver game, and I highly doubt any silver or even gold player would be able to win them. It’s matches like these that I’ve been getting quite a lot of lately for the past few weeks.

So my only issue with the Overwatch matchmaker is that it almost seems like the lower in rank you go, the harder the matches get. This kind of makes sense given that most smurfs probably want to stomp in bronze and silver, rather than gold.

Maybe it’s time for me to accept that not all games are winnable and just gg go next, perhaps. I really wish Overwatch had a forfeit option for severely unbalanced matches like these :expressionless:

I thought you left overwatch for Valorant like a year ago

I actually started in silver for my main role on support (i even dipped into bronze for a little bit) so ik sometimes it is gg go next but I also think sometimes we give up too quickly. Especially in OW1 my team would do awful on the first round and then their team would do even worse on the second. What I realised is after two losses I’m not playing my best anymore and should just go to QP, probably saved me a bunch of SR.

I had a look at the games you sent, I see what you’re talking about but I do think there are some things you could’ve done to make it closer

Game 1- The reaper and Zen were definitely a duo. But on first point your soldier was too far back, he’s better in the mid range so I would’ve pushed up or flanked and killed a squishy or two and run out. The sombra was a good pick for the zen but you weren’t attacking enough. Without enough pressure from you on their backline your team was taking 4v5s and losing space.
A good counter to the duo on 3rd would’ve been a flying character like pharah or echo, a reaper or mei to brawl the zen or a sniper if they swap. I dont think that zen would’ve been able to take out someone in the sky. 2nd round your side was boomed I don’t think there’s much to say.

Game 2 - Well if he plays like that regularly the hanzo’s not silver lmao but with your hog tank (yikes) he had a lot of space to operate. The hanzo smurf is harder to burst down (I’ve got some issues with the character) but not immortal. Thing is he was pocketed the whole match but usually only engaged by one of your team, you can see he dies when there’s too much pressure. Imo if someone dove in with your moira the game would’ve been closer, you know the power of focus fire from the Havana game.

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