Why do gold medals not matter?

General Discussion
1

I cannot understand why people think this, say for argument sake that gold damage is 2,500 it’s round 2 and Ana has that gold medal and Tracer has no medals, How is that useless information? It shows that the supports are doing more damage than the DPS, meaning the DPS should probably switch

Another thing, gold medals are the ONLY way to check how your team is preforming, if you’re a Moira and you have bronze damage, then DPS are probably doing their job right?

I just want someone to explain the logic behind why gold medals are less than useless information, if anything gold medals are the most important thing to look at when losing badly.

2 Likes
2

It’s easy to get a gold medal for doing damage or healing or what-have-you, but are you earning those numbers in ways that actually mean something?

Roadhog can have gold healing from his Take a Breather ability. All that really means is that he’s taken a lot of damage and healed himself in it, but it doesn’t reflect anything about how well the team has performed in the match.

12 Likes
3

Medals are not a good indicator of how well people are playing. Damage is worthless if no kills are finished. Eliminations mean nothing if you’re contributing 1 dmg point on other people’s kills. Healing means nothing if you’re roadhog feeding dmg, healing yourself, and not getting kills.

They just don’t give a big enough picture to take as meaningful data on their own.

edit:

if you’re a healer with gold damage and gold healing, is it because there is no other healer on the team and you’re farming damage instead of keeping teammates alive? Or maybe your dps really do just suck. Can’t tell looking at medals.

13 Likes
4

Sometimes it matters sometimes it doesn’t.

Like if the team say, asks the junkrat to switch because he’s being picked off continuously, but he says “no I have gold dmg” he’s junkrat and should have gold dmg regardless. but in this case it’s not helping.

but if the team tells the widow to switch and she has 3 golds in obj kills, elims, and dmg, she’s doing her job and doing it well and the team is failing to follow up on her picks.

and like you pointed out if a support or a tank has the gold dmg or elims there’s a problem with the DPS

I had gold dmg with only 2.7k as Moira while also having 16K healing. Moira should by no means have gold dmg when she has that much healing done. There was clearly a problem with my team’s DPS then.

3 Likes
5

They’re a good generalization, but they should not be a determining factor in most cases. I get gold healing a lot as Lucio and yet I still think my other healer is always doing a great job if they’re preforming their duties timed perfectly.

6

They aren’t useless, but they a lot of the time might not be an accurate representation of someone’s performance. For example, if the tracer with no medals is getting no medals because she relentlessly hunts down the supports without fail, and as a result the rest of the team gets more elims and damage, is that tracer useless or not performing? Or lets say the opposite. The tracer doesn’t flank and just tags everyone from a distance and as a result gets gold elims, is she performing?

4 Likes
7

This is why we need a damn scoreboard already. The medal system is a failure.

9 Likes
8

i wish theyd drop the whole medal system (as it is). maybe it could be more useful as a comparison to yourself on the same hero, or on the same map in previous games or on average. i think it would be a lot healthier to hit tab and see how youre doing in relation to yourself than to how you are doing in relation to your team. just an idea, but i definitely dont like how people are always complaining about hero picks based on their own medal count

4 Likes
9

One word, context.

Those medals don’t matter if you lose, if the team needs a reshuffle, or if having those medals isn’t part of your specialized role.

Ex 1: A rein that has gold elims probably is doing a poor job protecting his team.
Ex 2: A soldier with gold damage is very likely dealing trash damage if he isn’t also carrying gold elims
Ex 3: A mercy with gold healing is good yes but if her assist count is low chances are shes not an active participant in the fight.

10

Why do gold medals not matter?

In one of the NYXL/Mayhem maps last night, NYXL had 33 elims, and Mayhem had 8. Logix (on the Mayhem) had gold elims.

What good is that gold medal?

2 Likes
11

The numbers don’t really give you answers. Sure, it may tell you the DPS aren’t doing well, but that doesn’t tell you why.
Let’s say I’m on Zen and I have gold damage. Maybe the DPS needs to switch or:

  • Maybe I’m not healing my DPS enough to give them a chance to do much, or maybe my co-healer isn’t
  • Maybe they keep dying when our Rein unexpectedly drops his shield, but I’m far enough back to live
  • Maybe I’m farming damage from easy shots on a Hog I never manage to actually kill instead of trying for a harder to hit but more valuable target
  • Maybe they don’t need to switch, just group up a bit
  • Maybe one of them is trying to focus down an Orisa barrier and no one is helping him because it doesn’t show up in their medal count
  • Maybe I’m just hitting a lot of shots, which doesn’t justify talking trash to my DPS or even mean they’re playing badly at all
  • Maybe my Widow is getting first pick and I’m getting a ton of cleanup damage on tanks when the fight’s well in hand
  • Maybe my DPS are being suppressed by an enemy that I could counter if I switched.

There’s several possible reasons off the top of my head, and I’m sure people can come up with more. And knowing which it is comes from paying attention to what’s actually happening, and not medals or an ego-saving fight with your teammates.

8 Likes
12

This kinda defends my point doesn’t it?

Ex 1: Rein’s gold medal shows that he’s not preforming well on protecting his team
Ex 2: If soldier has 1 gold medal in elims but not in dmg that shows he’s probably doing bad damage.

This post isn’t defending the players who don’t switch because they have gold medals, it’s asking for why it isn’t useful information, but your post kinda goes with the argument that it is useful

13

That’s why I said CONTEXT.

1 Like
14

A 76 that has gold elims but not gold damage is finishing kills, not starting them. If he’s getting the right picks he’s certainly doing his job.

A 76 who spends his time just picking off Genji and keeping your supports up is doing way more than the 76 who is pumping damage into a Roadhog and ignoring the Genji slaughtering your Zenyatta.

The converse to this hypothetical would be a Junkrat with gold damage but no elims–he’s not actually killing anyone, he’s just pumping out trash damage and feeding Zarya energy and support ults.

15

IT depends. Alone, gold medals are worthless. Having gold elims as Moira or D.Va is easy because you can touch everyone at once, and you get credit for their deaths. Having gold elims and gold damage, as well as objective kills means that you’re defending the point and doing a good job at it, which is fine. A healer with gold healing and silver damage, especially when the healing is high, is doing their job. A healer boasting about their gold damage and silver healing is not.

16

It can all vary. The reason why you see someone say a response with “Golds don’t matter” or “medals don’t matter” is because they are usually replying to someone that rambles on about all their medals. Saying everyone else is doing a poor job.

That’s why, on that aspect, it doesn’t matter. Because of the toxicity that comes with it from those type of people.

17

The only reason I would say the medals don’t matter is if you aren’t working with your team. I could be doing all the DPS I want, but if I’m not working with my team, we won’t win.

18

I generally look at medals between deaths. If we’re losing and I see, as a Zen, that I have gold elims, I know that something is wrong because I have terrible aim. :stuck_out_tongue:

19

doesn’t represent how effective you are compared to the enemy team. Could show you’re focusing on the wrong areas and not enabling your entire team to perform to their potential depending on the situation. Medals are much more often than not, extremely misleading and fairly useless information in the grand scheme of things.

If your team is getting wrecked and your DPS is on a hero they are really struggling with, but says they have gold damage and elims so they aren’t going to change to compete with the enemy, it’s a complete lack of understanding that compared to the enemy team they probably arent even in the top 3 of w/e they’re bragging about because they are playing selfishly rather than playing to win.

We compete against the enemy, not our teammates. Play to win, not for medals.

4 Likes
20

It’s not that they don’t matter, but they don’t always mean what you would think they mean. There is a lot more context needed to make any conclusions on what to do just because a tank or something has gold damage.

At their core they simply mean only exactly what it says they mean. If you had the most healing then you have gold medal in healing. That doesn’t really mean your other healer is worse.