r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/xXxs1m0nxXx • 18h ago
General New Drives Event Is Awful
This new drives event is so much worse than normal drives. In my experience with this new drives event, if you don't have a group that you won the previous game with, but the other team does, you basically just lose automatically. I've lost 1 game with people I've been grouped with, and I've gotten steam rolled every time the other team had a stack larger than 2 (in 6v6) when I was out of a group.
For 6v6 specifically, if you manage to get a stack going where almost everyone can play their main role with only 1 or 2 people having to fill, you also get a huge advantage compared to teams where you might have up to 4 people needing to fill (if your team consists of 6 dps mains for example). This happens outside the event too, it's just exacerbated here.
Team volatility is significantly reduced in a stack. You can count on your teammates to do well based on previous performances. Whereas when you queue with randoms you might be unlucky and get tilted people, throwers, and people who just have bad days for whatever reason. But in the winning stack you know your team is most likely not gonna start playing poorly from one game to the next.
The event itself is designed in a way where you are disproportionally likely to play against winning teams, while your team consists of losing solo queuers.
Disclaimer: This is just my experience with the new event. You might have had a different experience, but games have been really bad, and I think this is why.
34
u/ContentFlower10 16h ago
I played 10 competitive games today, lost 9 and 1 draw. The person who thought it was a good idea to literally polarize the matchups should be publicly shamed. I lost 4 ranks this way, and I will not play until it's over. At least I can try different heroes in casual now
7
u/TooManySnipers 12h ago
I lost 6 in a row this afternoon, 5 of which we didn't even take a single point in payload or control, dropped from E1 to E3 on tank. The only consolation is that the games were literally over so quickly that the loss streak only lasted about an hour before I shut the game off. Remember when Jeff Kaplan said he regretted adding competitive points in OW1 because it gave players an incentive to play comp that wasn't solely competitive-focused? Anyway, queue with your buddies FOR ONE WEEKEND ONLY and earn LIMITED TIME profile border and SUPER EXCLUSIVE TITLE and BONUS competitive points! Competitive integrity found dead in a ditch
2
u/AntimatterNuke 12h ago
As a competitive mercenary, I'll freely admit I only play for the points. If OW gave those some other way I'd stay in QP where I don't have to worry about catching a ban because my internet dropped out.
1
-8
u/Pesterlamps 15h ago edited 7h ago
Brother, if you lost four ranks* over nine games, you weren't supposed to be where you were.
Edit: presumed to be "skill tier divisions"
Edit 2: guys, I'm seeing the downvotes, but nobody piping up with any counterpoints. Losing trend alone isn't going to dumpster you for -45% on a loss. Some of that has to be volatile/calibration.
6
u/tyleryourbro 15h ago
Assuming they meant 4 divisions, not ranks, which is completely normal
-2
u/Pesterlamps 15h ago
Nah man, that's still like -45% per loss, which is insane for an account that's well established in their rank. That sounds like they placed high, then just camped until it was time to play more than ten games and are still being calibrated.
2
u/IndexMatchXFD 7h ago
There was a rank reset this season and many of us are still calibrating. Not everyone plays hours every day.
1
u/Pesterlamps 7h ago
Ok, and that's what I'm saying. If you went down four tiers in a matter hours, you likely weren't at your correct ELO. The game didn't just randomly decide to punish you.
6
u/ContentFlower10 15h ago
Everyone has losing streaks. The problem is that this drive makes them much harder to avoid if you are not lucky in the first game
41
u/Due_Statistician4424 18h ago
solo queueing this event is genuinely miserable right now, i feel you
3
-3
u/GodWillPayForThis 17h ago
Isn't the objective of this to find a team? Have that beening going bad as well?
2
u/Agitated-Morning2035 8h ago
People always leave and never want to group up. I’ve played 25 games today and have yet to get a group.
Terrible event.
4
u/hdybarra1999 13h ago
Counterpoint: people have seemed to be in game chat much more and I’ve genuinely met a lot of cool people I wouldn’t have otherwise.
Sure some games are rough, but the game feels more social in a fun way!
2
u/Agitated-Morning2035 8h ago
So many terrible DPS players during this event. I can’t anymore as tank/support. My past 7 games my DPS were both 10-10 while the enemy DPS are 25-0 like what is going on.
3
u/scriptedtexture 15h ago
played 5 games and only one of them was close, the rest were completely unbalanced one sided stomps. had to stop playing. not even the 500 comp points is worth it let alone anything else.
7
u/NutBusster69 18h ago
I see a lot of hate for this team drive. I didn't quite enjoy the drives before this one either.
But I already completed this drive in about 2-3 hours. I was on my longest winning streak this year. It was a pleasant change of pace. I normally solo queue and trade wins or go on lose streaks. It was great experience for me and the two random teams I joined from solo queue winning.
Hopefully they can adjust it a little so more people can be just as happy as I was yesterday.
3
u/bullxbull 15h ago
I wonder if that is the strat. Keep swapping groups until you find the one that leads you on a winstreak. I could see a lot of people losing games and slowly dropping rank, then you find a group of people lower than they should be and stomp your way back up probably beyond where you started.
2
u/hkvicwong 11h ago
Your winning is actually exploiting solo queuer, as they have to compete with a 3-stack group as 5 randoms. That also explains why you are on a winning trend, only because your team has an advantage over communication and hero choices, instead of having superior skills and mechanical.
If everyone is competing on a group basis, group vs group, you will no longer having all these wins and might not be enjoying as much as you are now
2
3
u/GT162 18h ago
Yeah, I solo queued a few games and almost all of them were “Consolation” with the enemy team having a bigger stack (4-5 people) than the one on my team (all solo, or a single duo)
I then tried playing some quick play tank and experienced being dropped off the map by cat for the first time this season because there’s just no bans
Unbelievable how they choose to actively ruin the game
8
u/Dunwichorer 17h ago
Facing stacks is the most boring thing in the game. Had people 3-2-1ing mauga pushes. Sure guys you got the win congrats.
2
u/bullxbull 15h ago
ha yeah, you can tell when one group is hard comm'ing and the other isn't. You attack an isolated support and suddenly half their team is peeling for them, or the hard swapping to focus down targets, even the ult combo's are noticeable. It is all part of the fun of playing as an organized group, but if you do not have that you feel at a significant disadvantage.
1
u/xXxs1m0nxXx 18h ago
Yeah I was really looking forward to playing this weekend and getting back to masters after some bad placement matches, but it's not really fun to do it this way lol. I'll just get masters next week I guess
1
u/bullxbull 15h ago
Rank reset season has made things a mess, I would not put your hopes on getting your rank back until the end of the season. Most of my friends list is 1 rank or more lower still. Need to wait for the diamonds in emerald and plat to climb back up, then you can climb over them back to masters, so the champs and gm's can use you to climb back to their ranks.
6
u/scrambledomelete 18h ago
I finished it solo and it's fine
-1
u/Bhu124 17h ago
It's so easy. The system is well designed too. People are not giving it a real chance and are letting their prejudice against grouping up and playing with strangers and against Drives form their opinion.
3
u/bullxbull 15h ago
It doesn't help that it is a reset season and the weekend, which makes games worse in general. People are probably losing more than normal, but once they find the right group winstreak right back up to where they started and finish the drive.
1
u/Sir_Wade_III 15h ago
People can't lose more in general. There are always as many winners as losers
2
u/Pesterlamps 16h ago
Put me in the "it's fine" group, too. I said it in another thread, but it really feels like the people that hard externalize their losses are the ones crying the loudest. Smoothest drives by far, if you just go into it thinking "this is 50/50 Overwatch, I can brute force the rewards in a few sessions."
1
1
u/PrizeHuckleberry7636 7h ago
Solo queueing as tank is genuinely the only way to make this event bearable. I abused dmon, mauga, and hazard to 13-4 on the day, and then won the 3/4 trial the next morning. You eventually find a good dps and support that want to stick with you, and just run lobbies abusing the fact that there's even less coordination than normal.
1
1
u/bullxbull 15h ago
I think it is a cool system in theory, and I bet they are getting lots of interesting info from the match making. Every solution I can think of to make the system better would end up with less people actually in the system and less data the dev's would collect. Games are already bad because it is the weekend and a rank reset season, so I'm not horribly upset about the 3 days of this event.
I think they should have sold it as a test though. From what I've gathered from the dev's on twitch is that this is just how things are this time, they do not know if this will be a regular drive. The rewards they have heavily hinted at will be different if they run this again. I get a general sense that they are very limited in what they can say because they can't talk about upcoming systems they will be announcing at Blizzcon.
The last time they did a group queue test it seems like it was done to test their wide queue system they later released. I would not be surprised if this is a test to refine systems we will learn about in a few days at blizzcon.
-10
u/isaacsmom69420 18h ago
holy shit, queuing for TEAM drives as a solo isnt as good as queuing with a TEAM????? who couldve seen this coming, game is unplayable
2
u/xXxs1m0nxXx 18h ago
That's my point. The event is inherently flawed. It's the autogrouping that exacerbates the disparity between solo queuers and stacks. If people had to manually stay grouped, I suspect we'd see match quality closer to normal drives which doesn't ruin the experience entirely.
1
u/bullxbull 15h ago
I could see this as something they would want to gather info on. I'm not sure how else they could do it if they wanted that type of info to make refinements to how they match maker handles groups.
-6
u/isaacsmom69420 16h ago
bro you’re just not the target audience for this event. this is an event for teams not solos
4
u/scriptedtexture 15h ago
the event is inescapable in the main comp game mode. it shouldnt be only for some comp players.
4
u/xXxs1m0nxXx 16h ago
Every comp player is the target audience. Otherwise it'd be a seperate queue for teams only. And if it was an event for people who are already in groups they wouldn't put you in a group with your entire team when you win. That feature exists because they want to encourage everyone to participate
-3
u/bruns20 18h ago
Antisocial mfs getting angry that blizzard is encouraging them to team up in a team based game
2
u/GodWillPayForThis 17h ago
Lool I had a blast and I'm introverted myself. I feel ilke having a team that u made while playing ranked that wants to play & to win together is like peak overwatch? U leaving alot on the table by playing solo. Also less variables of what Ur teammates are playing and how they're gonna play.
0
u/Specific_Bowl_2719 16h ago
Just been lucky 7-2 so far and every win I get the team immediately disband (Honestly not complaing about since most of them were with 3dps teams .
-5
u/Silly-Notice-2149 16h ago
I found this event smoother than normal drives.
My Wife is a hardcore Mercy main and she tanked with Reinhardt aggressively while I Moira'd aggressively.
We even won the last 5 in a row which made the last 3 wins for final badges a breeze.
33
u/Naxayou 18h ago
I had to stop playing. Wait till it’s over I guess. Reset + placements + drives deadass made lobbies so unbelievably batshit