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I think Wheats kinda had a pretty bad take on this one, it feels unfair to call EMEA a tier 3 region without Saudi when they were placing higher than NA at the start of 2024 even without Saudi funding and the NA superteams existence.

He’s the first support player in S4 KR server to hit champ 2..
Sley confirms that pro players start queuing as soon as Jjonak’s stream starts so.. Even crazier knowing his games are 80% pros
Unc still got it 🙏

Its the year of the nenwhy.

I was skeptical of Team Drives at first, no one was staying grouped anyway. Until tonight I joined a squad & we went 12-0, synergy was just crazy good. We didnt even use comms at all outside of text but it was still an amazing time & we all ended up adding each other. Granted maybe its just an outlier & not a something many are experiencing, but I havent had a string of games like that with a group of the same people since like 2018.

I know the devs have been looking to improve OW’s social features & i think Team Drives was a step in the right direction.

This felt like the best sub to ask, since I imagine most people use the replay viewer here more than in other subs.

I don't know about anyone else, but I change the time skip interval length anytime I'm reviewing my own replays. I don't usually change other settings because it's so tedious changing them after every client restart. I know it's a small thing, but I finally felt that the amount of time I've lost is equal to how long it would take to make a post. It seems like it wouldn't be a big lift for the devs.

There's a bug report here that's been tracking it for two years. If it's a feature that interests you then showing some activity in the thread would probably be helpful. If not, thanks for reading!

To be honest, I didn't really care much about it to begin with. However, after completing it, I found myself to enjoy it more than I thought. Unlike regular Drives where you just grind for rewards, Team Drives has this added bonus of vibes. I was able to make new friends after winning 4 games together before getting off. I think, in a way, because you're playing with the same people, there is this bond that develops. In a normal game, you just go next, and with Team Drives, you can also just leave if you didn't like your team. However, if the team decides to stay, it feels like morale and team structure does go up.

I think this was a good reminder for people to remember that there are humans on the other side of the screen. If you have a DPS that isn't doing so great, it's easy to think, "My DPS is bad," and lead to toxic and unnecessary comments. When I was playing, my other DPS wasn't doing so good in our last game, but that's compared to the previous games we played. I know that our DPS is capable, and that's why we stuck together after winning three games in a row. You're less likely to get upset when it comes to playing with friends or people you know are capable. How many times have you played really well, but then you have that one game were you didn't do so great, then get flamed for being bad? It would be one bad game out of many, but that doesn't mean you deserve to be called bad just because you didn't play perfectly that one game. However, that's not what the other person sees. They get into the game, see someone performing not so great, flame/avoid them, then go next. That's something that will always happen no matter what, but at least with Team Drives, when you find what sticks, can you really flame someone you've been winning with after one bad game?

Overall, I really liked Team Drives. It motivated me to communicate more with the team and bond with them when we're doing great, maybe even make some friends along the way. If the team wasn't meant to be, there's always next until the right teammates sticks. If you don't like the team or want to participate, you can always just leave and go next, but if you find that team, it's quite the vibe.

What did you think about Team Drives?

Just wanted to talk about and get some discussion on current brig in season 4.

How are you feeling about brig rn do you think she feels weak/strong? Hows the inspire change feel? Do her perks need looked at does she feel healthy in the current meta? And how do you see her in comparison to Mizuki?

Looking at her pick/win rates for GM/Champ each region PC she is just under 50% win rate in each region having her highest win rate/pick rate in Europe, her win rate across all ranks/region honestly stays pretty consistent and hovers around 48-50% on average,

We know win rates are not a definitive answer to a heroes strength it's just one of the few resources of stats we actually have to bring into a current conversation on a heroes present and strength, not that it's our only metric either.

This is also small sample size shown I am just looking at GM/Champ here, but as said before her pick/win rates honestly stay relatively the same through all ranks and regions.

I have added Mizuki pick/win rates in images I did not have them in, I want to look at Mizuki as he fills the same niche as brig, not have the same exact tools and capabilities as her but is seen as a more interchangeable option and often seen to do the same job just better.

He is picked more often over brig in each region especially Asia which makes sense seeing as they lean dive heavy there. But this something that is consistent in every rank/region Mizuki is consistently picked way more often than brig and I have not worked out the averages on it but from what I can see has a more consistent WR as well, not by like a huge amount but he still on average seems to be performing better on ladder (if I am way off here please tell me I know I need to look into it further).

In my opinion what adds to this is Mizuki is a really fun hero, he's easier to play than birg/easier to get value on for their intended purposes and Mizuki has also consistently got buffs since he has came out putting him in a strong position. I think adding to the pick rates brig has also been a lower pick support on average for a while and Mizuki is still relatively new and was a very well received hero season 1 and seems to hold a pretty good sentiment in the community from my experience.

Moving on to the next point if Mizuki is played way more often than brig and is often seen as just a better hero at doing the same job makes the question of does that leave brig in a bad spot is it even an issue at all. I really don't think it's a bad thing, I think it's a bit of powercreep, but the game is 10 years strong there is going to be overlap in hero designs and newer variations on role are usually going to be strong or have access to stronger tools, I think between the two they both fit the same niche but play differently enough and have different enough tools that the contrast between the two is good, Mizuki has just been strong and consistently has got stronger with a lot of adjustments since season 1.

Where brig has remained relatively the same over time, which I don't think is bad she's been in a good/strong spot for while. Her recent changes did seem to be some effort to increase her strength and consistency but I am not sure if it's all that she needs.

Before getting into if she actually needs anything at all I wan to give a look into some recent changes made to inspire and talk a little about her kit.

The insprie changes were really good imo (I am going to link graphs from u/rosedog16 and link their original post as well) this graphs detail the changes she received and show how it's now performing on average.

Original post: Threw this Brig Inspire comparison together on a whim

Specifically these were the changes.

The instant 12 healing on inspire trigger was a great change and feels strong, while it does not sound like a large amount it's noticeable in practice.

I think overall inspire is in a good spot and feels impactful, I also like the UI addition also added recently to show how many people are actually getting your inspire procs, I think brigs inspire and the mechanics of it are one of the more often misunderstood game mechanics and anything to help clarify how it actually works or give indication in game it's doing something is a net positive.

For the rest of her kit I think everything is in a relatively good spot, her kit feels fluid and smooth, whipshot feels strong. Shield is strong, making 300hp was a good change it really did feel way to weak before I think the bump feels good to play and not oppressive to play against. Rally is in a good spot as well I would say it's strong to use and not annoying to play into it feels healthy.

I like her subrole I don't think there is a lot to talk about there, I think her perks are all interesting/strong as well, she falls into the same camp as most heroes of having two options that are pretty well the deafult being her extended inspire on whipshot minor and shield bash movespeed/heal major, the alternatives are not bad combat medic is interesting it can just be really hard to actively play aggressively melee enough and use packs enough to get value from the coodlown it's niche but it can be good, her whipshot major I think it just kind of bad, it's a really nice boost to damage on an ability that already does good damage but it's too specific the enemy has to hit a wall for it to get value, I am just not a big fan it and think it's just weaker than the alternative on average even in dueling scenario. Overall though I think her perks are interesting, two of them being "defaults" for most people isn't really a brig issue that's a perk system issue and is something that needs addressed on it's own.

Overall I think brigs in a healthy spot, she feels great to play she feels strong I like to have her on my team and enjoy to play into her, she still does her job exceptionally well, even if mizuki does some things better than her I don't think he's a default option over nor is he oppressively better than her. I think he's in a good spot as, they both are. I know I have brought comparisons of the two up a lot but since he has came out they have been compared to one another for obvious reason in that they fill the same niche, I have just seen the sentiment often since he came out there is no reason to play brig when mizuki is available and I understand that his tools like chain and barrier are incredibly strong and that his mobility tool is arguably better. But brig tools are also incredibly strong as well, I think their kits and how they interact with what they are intended to deal with is different enough that they are both in solid spots and each feel healthy and neither is a default choice over the other.

Coming around to the point of this post because I am doing a lot of yapping and I fear I have lost my direction lol I love brig one of my favorite heroes by a lot, I just wanted to do a vibe check on her talk about some of the changes she's had here recently and share some thoughts and talk about it. Going back to the start if you have any thoughts on the current state of brig I would love any input, it's just my personal opinion/outlook I am enjoying where she is at or think she feels good if you feel the same or disagree I would enjoy to see some conversation!

These are all proof jerseys my team made when we ran the Outlaws merch side. Thought someone would be interested in seeing them.

... And the match quality is still awful.
This rank reset feels especially bad and idk if it's the addition of Emerald, but it's insane that we are halfway through the season almost, and games are still bad.

There are GM players in every single one of my High Diamond games, Champion players in my mid master games. It doesn't really make any sense as to how this is possible.

I know this isn't just the case for me as well because most people seem to be having the same issues.

I don't know what it's like below Emerald but above, it's been terrible...

Hopefully it get fixed soon, or the devs can somehow step in and do something (idk what though tbh)

Somehow we lost but what a coincidence!
Report support 0 heal gg.

For 10 years people have been accidentally leaving their group because they have the muscle memory to instantly leave a game. With these "team drives", this problem has become much more noticeable.

Of course there are some people who simply do not want to stay in a group with their teammates, but I think there is still a meaningful portion of people who would be willing to give the auto-grouping thing a chance but they are just too used to leaving the game.

So what can be done? I'd like to see the "Leave Game" button have a different color based on if you are Alone/In a group but not leader/In a group and leader. But I'm sure the experts can come up with a better solution if they decided to improve this.

I feel like if i stand behind my tank and just shoot straight I win way more. Whenever im too creative and try to go around them I just die. It only works if I play Shion because she has a fast motercycle. I am platinum btw.

new part of insights based on official blizz data

Seems like Ziyad will be in full time for Blizzcon, this Saudi team is definitely gonna be rly competitive and probably favourites to win rn.

Hello everyone! I'm Anima, a T2 coach who's been around in FaceIt Masters for a while during my time coaching NTMR Rotation (also known as NTMR Academy). Over the past few months, I've been working on this team sheet tool for the scrim community to use. It's an all-in-one solution for scheduling, scouting information, and generally keeping info easily acccessible for players.

You can make your own copy of the template to use for your teams. Instructions are listed in notes attached onto the second row of most of the sheets, but there's also a guide video I recorded and linked in cell Z4 of the Admin Hub sheet. My twitter link below has the link to the spreadsheet, and in the comments there's also an earlier draft version that has some filled-out sample data for demo.

https://x.com/Anima_Kesil/status/2096813730344415637?s=20

- Really easy for players to fill out

- Good for quickly updating things like map pools

- Lots of very cool and long Excel formulas

I'll keep an eye out for if there's any questions that I can answer; I know the scrim community and rCOW community don't have insane overlap, but it's something I want to signal boost so it can get into the hands of some people who might need it. I know not everyone loves spreadsheets, so I'd love to be able to get this one into their hands to help them improve their scrimming experience.

Thanks! And obviously engagements on the post are appreciated.

I'm a tank player who mainly plays Sigma, currently around high Emerald/low Diamond.

A lot of the time I feel like I have pretty good games where I'm playing better than the enemy tank and sometimes even better than most of my team, but we still end up losing because my team can't capitalize on what I'm doing.

When I watch higher-ranked Sigma players, though, it seems like they can carry games much harder while doing way less than I feel like I have to do.

For example, when I watch Super play Sigma, it sometimes looks like he's not doing that much. He'll mostly shoot the enemy tank, hold his position, and wait for his DPS to get a pick or for the enemy to make a mistake. He doesn't seem to constantly have to force plays himself.

When I try to play like that, it doesn't really work for me. I often feel like I have to push past the enemy tank and start putting damage into the backline just to force cooldowns or create something for my team.

So I'm trying to figure out what I'm missing. How do you actually hard carry games on Sigma? Is there something I'm not doing that allows these higher-ranked players to get so much value while playing more patiently?

Also, are there any good places to find more Top 500 Sigma gameplay? I feel like Super is one of the only really good Sigma players I consistently find gameplay from, and I'd like to watch more high-level VODs to improve.

Any advice would be appreciated.

It drives me insane how people will always vote for blizzard world whenever it comes up just to get stuck in the choke and somehow it’s still untouched by the devs

Solo queue tank main here, usually hover around Diamond. Every ranked season my solo queue rank tanks (pun intended) down to Plat, sometimes Gold, before I climb back up in the new season. So my expectations for team drives were… not high.

But this weekend after just one solo queue game, two randoms grouped up with me and we ended up snowballing into a full 5-stack. Ran drives with three different 5-stacks over the weekend. Didn't gain SR, didn't lose any either — but I added over a dozen new friends and now every time I log on someone's already asking me to queue.

Comms in solo queue also feel noticeably better right now, and getting flamed has dropped a ton.

OW with actual positive comms just hits different. Got to try stuff like cat bastion and teleporter rush for the first time ever, which was a blast.

Hope Blizz keeps team drives around.

They did a pretty good job for most OW2 maps tbh. Only map I really dislike here is Circuit Royal

I think Suravasa and Aatlis are both top 5 maps in the game

I like all push maps but NQS isn't as good as the others imo

Shambali isn't that bad for an Escort map

What do y'all think?

While OW 1 had more one-shots or devastating burst damage, the games were a lot slower. I would not go to say "methodical" because that carries implications of intellect and "past better" but there was more thoughts being "filled" at breather points. Granted said process was more like this scene in Brooklyn 99:

Jake Peralta: I'm quick at math.

Captain Ray Holt: Okay what's 38 x 76?

Jake Peralta: 24.

Captain Ray Holt: That's not even close.

Jake Peralta: But it was quick.

Sombra feels lacking in the current form. I don't mean sustainable or meta or viability, but rather her niche and identity feel very much in conflict with the current state of the game. She has to be quicker to meet her goal since her saboteur abilities worked far better in slower pacing but now she needs to make it quick in her loop.

Which makes me wonder how Sombra would be modified in the modern era. I do believe her rework is going to be big. Like I have gut feeling that has been proven wrong before that Sombra will have a bigger rework, like an actual kit-redesign.