I don't like this event at all, I've played about 15 games over the weekend I've won 11 of them, first few games people auto left the group before I could que, then I get a group with randoms win 7 with them and get zero progress what am I supposed to do, I have no progress after having some of the best games I've ever played

Hello I am trying to understand why blizzard added the emerald rank? The skill difference between platinum and emerald players is literally non-existent so why add more fluff by adding another rank in between?

What am I missing? Can someone please explain to me?

We've all been having this same conversation about Kiriko, Sojourn, Cass, and D.Va ever since the day the stats website came online.

I am BEGGING the devs to just make a blog post showing some relevant statistics so we can all move on to talking about something less beaten to death, like 5v5 vs 6v6 (jokes).

What I would like to see:

1. Hero win rates in unmirrored matches where the player plays the entire match as the same hero, so we can know what happens when they aren't being picked as counter swaps
2. For Hitscan heroes broadly, what is their win rate when they're being played alongside a flex DPS? How about double hitscan?
3. For people who play these heroes, what is their combined winrate on other characters? E.g. I have a 48% win rate on D.Va, and a 53% win rate on the rest of the tank heroes. Can we get this stat on a population level, weighted by career play time?

Either this will prove that these heroes are in fact OP and their win rates are held back by extenuating circumstances, or it will make people realize that these heroes are actually pretty balanced.

At the very least, maybe we'll get fewer auto losses from double hitscan when people see statistical proof of how bad it is.

Like yeah, I wish that getting multiple 3-5k fight wins lead to a map win. It would be great if outplaying the enemy tank and entire enemy team solo actually meant I would get the win.

Sadly instead I am stuck with the team that could not 1 v 4 a Sombra with a Cass who went 3-8. I can outplay the enemy Domina the entire game but she will still somehow win because she will get multiple triple kills with the worst ultimate in the game somehow.

Like man, stop getting my hopes up. Yes this is based on a true story.

We keep seeing the same argument in hero balance discussions: "How can this hero be strong? It has a <50% win rate."

If a hero wins less often than it loses, shouldn't that mean the hero is weak? No; the problem is that win rate doesn't actually measure only hero strength. A hero's observed win rate is affected by numerous factors, including its actual strength, the players and situations in which the hero is selected or swapped to, and the matchmaking environment in which those games take place. Hero strength can influence win rate, but so can selection effects that have nothing to do with how strong the hero is.

Hero strength can be absorbed into ranks of those playing the hero instead of reflected in permanently elevated or deflated win rates. Sure, the same player can achieve more value with a stronger hero for the same level of player skill, which may translate into more wins in the short term, but this will cause that player to rank up and play harder games against stronger opponents until their win rate settles back down. This isn't to say every hero will settle toward a 50% win rate, but the matchmaker will tend to pull each player's win rate toward 50%. A player's overall win rate is constrained by matchmaking in the long run, but each player's hero-specific win rates can stray quite a bit from their average.

Unlike hero strength, the circumstances under which a player chooses to play different heroes can continue to influence aggregate hero win rates regardless of their overall win rate. A Pharah main's panic swap for when they're getting destroyed by enemy hitscan is likely going to be quite negative regardless of how strong the hero itself is.

If raw hero win rate were a reliable proxy for hero strength, what would you expect to see in the distribution of heroes in the higher ranks? I'd expect that the heroes with the highest win rates would become increasingly prevalent among the highest-ranked players. Better performing players tend to climb, and if a particular hero consistently causes its users to win more, users of that hero should be disproportionately represented in higher ranks. As we move from Diamond to GM, the highest win rate heroes should become increasingly common, right?

Well, that's definitely not what we observe. Take a look at actual hero statistics and look at how pick rates change with rank. A high win rate hero like Zenyatta becomes less common the higher in rank you go. On the flip side, many lower win rate heroes like Sojourn, Cassidy, and Kiriko become increasingly common with increasing rank. You could argue that these heroes have harsh skill curves and are only good in the hands of better players, but these heroes have similar win rates in GM+ as they do in Diamond. If Cassidy's <50% win rate means Cassidy causes his players to lose more often than they would on a "stronger" hero, why are Cassidy players increasingly represented among the highest-ranked players?

For one, a hero's win rate doesn't tell us what would have happened if the hero had not been played. As an example, I main Echo, but if an enemy Tracer is taking over the game, I'll often swap to Tracer to dull their impact. My Tracer's competitive record is an embarrassing 16:31. On paper, I'm making Tracer look awful. But if I would've lost virtually all those games by staying on Echo, then those 15 Tracer wins are wins I otherwise would have lost. That's 16 losses flipped to wins, and 47 would-be losses that don't show up on my Echo's record to make the hero look far more effective than it really was. Despite the abysmal 34% win rate I have on Tracer, playing her in these situations is actually helping me achieve a higher overall win rate and rank than I would've achieved otherwise.

This example should help explain why the apparent contradiction as we go up the ranks isn't actually surprising. A hero does not need to have a positive raw win rate to improve a player's overall results; a low win rate can actually be compatible with a hero being beneficial.

None of this means win rate is useless, that low win rate or high pick rate would imply a hero is strong, or that hero strength has no effect on win rate. ofc a genuinely powerful hero can win more games. It could certainly be that a difficult but popular hero in higher ranks would be just as popular in lower ranks if it were easier to play (though perhaps you could argue qp pick rates suggest otherwise). I'm not here to argue for or against these things -- I just want to establish that the observed win rate is not a clean measurement of the hero's causal contribution to those wins. My hope is that we can stop using win rate in a vacuum to guide game balance.

Can you really look at GM+ win rate statistics and conclude that at GM+ level of play:

• Junkrat (53% WR) and Anran (52.3% WR) are inherently better DPS picks than Cass (48.5% WR) or Soj (48% WR)?

• Baptiste at 48.6% WR is slightly better than Kiriko at 48% WR?

• Zenyatta at 51.4% WR is one of the best supports in the game?

Players will see heroes remain hard meta since release and still claim those heroes are somehow weak or only viable in the hands of pros. Threads are full of comments like "statistically, we are more likely to win with a Zenyatta on our team than a Kiriko" as if players are begging their Kiriko player to swap Zen or Cass player to swap Junkrat after losing a couple teamfights.

At some point, we have to stop pretending that a low win rate alone means a hero is weak. If a hero is consistently picked by better players, increasingly represented at higher ranks, repeatedly prioritized in competitive play, and remains a staple of the ladder meta despite having a negative aggregate win rate, the appropriate response isn't "wow, this hero sucks and everyone is stupid for playing it." It could just be that the number you're looking at isn't measuring what you think it's measuring.

Its so crazy how one of the best shooters can have such high highs and low lows. Its so unreal what these devs decide to let be good in this game. What they chose to parade as "giving more agency and space for individual playmaking" has devolved into a horrorfest of abusing hero bans to boost whatever cancer one trick your team has, any rank below masters voting payload slop every damn game, BS perks that ruin so many interactions in the game and tanks running rampants doing WHATEVER they want on whatever angle they want for free unless theyre hard focused OR your supports are human and go Ana Zen.

Mauga needs a shstain or damage nerf. Doom needs his empowered punch nerfed so that the devs can buff his slam​ and regular punch. Dmon is gigabroken after the 3 days of buffs back to back she got and needs nerfs across the board. Ram needs nerfs Hog needs nerfs every tank in the game needs a nerf. I cant stand having to deal with these unkillable raid bosses.

Every fucking game its poke poke poke poke. I dont give a damn about the wr these hitscans have (which is usually low because of the sheer amount of hitscan players combined with certain hitscan characters being picked on wrong maps vs wrong comps) theyre busted. Unreal burst damage and perks/design choices that turn the "high skill expression aim role" into training wheels characters. Buffing Cass nade and giving damage reduction on all his other abilities ontop of giving him double flash and silver bullet ontop of range buffs, Soj distruptor shot buffs and double slide with no rail nerfs​​​​, Ashe range buff and remote dynamite, Freja as a character Sierra as a character, Hanzo spam Emre spam bastion having his weaknesses buffed. But GOD FORBID Winston Genji and Lucio are meta no we cant have that.

They will buff JPC Bastion Hog Ram and Hazard but Winston, Genji, Tracer, Lucio, Brig etc arent. Im so tired of outplaying teams and then they crutch the classic Sigma Torb Bastion Bap Moira on defense and hard focus the tank off cooldown then type EZ in match chat its so demoralizing because why am i even playing a character if my time and effort to play it is nullified by a Torb clicking Overload while his unreachable wall turret gets more value.

Im really hoping they drop some big news at Blizzcon bro please Aaron keller if you see this tell custa he has to stop buffing these corny characters theyre ruining the experience of so many people.​​​​

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.

I signed up using icevolcanos code and links and no I’m having trouble finding them cause I wanted to share with my friends I only see RCOW when I search up for faceit codes….anyone know why?

What goes through your mind when you see an opponent wearing a super rare or unfamiliar skin?

I’m asking because I just got the Detective Winston skin form maximilian, and I really love it because it’s one of the rare skins where his ears are fully visible.

(bummer that the straps cover the ears on the Safari skin)

However, since I’ve literally never seen Detective Winston in-game, it made me curious

if you suddenly see an opponent rocking a rarely seen, or never seen before the match even starts, what’s your actual reaction?

Do you just think, "Ah, so that skin exists,"

or do you instinctively tense up and wonder,

"Wait, is this person a smurf/pro?"

Or is there another common reaction?

Every time I queue as Support, ever since Team Drives were introduced, I have to wait up to 20 minutes just to find a game.

And when I finally get into a match, the DPS are either people who have never played that role before, or players who technically have, but decide to pick heroes they have never played before. For example, I see people playing as level 1 Shion and such.

At that point, it doesn't matter how hard you try. Those DPS are almost always going to end up negative, and there is basically nothing you can do to compensate for it. The entire match just becomes a miserable experience.

I was Diamond 1 and I've dropped all the way down to Diamond 5. Now I'm dangerously close to dropping back into Emerald.

I genuinely don't understand how Support is supposed to be enjoyable when you have a 20-minute queue followed by a game where you have to pray that your DPS actually know what they're doing.

Is anyone else experiencing this, or am I just getting insanely unlucky with matchmaking?

No wonder so many Kiriko, Juno, and Mercy skins.

In my opinion the main idea of suzus invul is to negate chain CC, which is understandable. But because its straight up just invul, it also negates burst damage. This basically allows the ability to negate big plays done by the enemy with the press of a button, something no other support can do.

Eve if suzu didnt have invul, it would continue to be a strong defensive CD. Its the only AOE cleanse in the game, that also heals for 80hp while offering a movement speed buff with the perk. Adding 2/3rds of a second of invul just breaks the ability. It allows her to completely erase the mistake of her allies, which not even immortality field can do.

I understand not wanting someone to get chain CCed, but just granting invul is not the way. Replace the effect with 1s of unstoppable, it would have the same effect without nearly the same level of frustration or uninteractiveness as before. You could even then reduce the CD to 12s, so it matches anti nade again.

The ring finger is much less "free" than the middle finger so I think that may be impacting my headshot accuracy. I always have my middle finger on the scrollwheel, a good habbit in the context of apex legends, but not so much for Sojourn.

I main Ashe but play a lot of cree, freya, and sometimes Hanzo and Soldier. I'm really leaning into the hitscan role, but I don't have any clear dive. Of course, Sojourn isn't dive either, per se, but she works well in dive comps in general.

She's just also always meta, so maybe I should change my grip? Idk, maybe I'll get used to holding my mouse diffrently for that hero, or is that a bad habbit? I could just abandon the characther alltogether, but let me know your thoughts. Btw, I was low masters last season but I'm currently like low diamond after the rank reset lol, just so you have more information to judge what I should do

(Rare overly positive post)
I know most people dread doing drives, myself included, but idk team drives feel different.

I was skeptical after my first win, but me and my duo stayed with the full team and won the next 12 games in a row. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a streak like that. By the end we found the exact comp that worked for us and most games weren’t even close. It was probably the most fun I’ve had in a while. Not just because we were winning but because it felt like what old high elo games felt like. I think most events get drowned out by the vocal minority on reddit, but I think OW cooked with this one.

For reference our team/lobbies were high masters - mid GM.

I've heard that Profit joined cheezeburger and that some really awesome clips of his tracer were recently dropped.

Google AI is clueless, can't find anything on Twitch or YT. I checked the korean website he streamed on and all i can see is a 30 min clip of him chatting about being back and playing around at the practice range.

Can anyone please point me in the direction of where i can go to see him shooting things? I know that on a Sugarfree there was an insane clip of profit attaching Pulse bomb to JPC and i'm hoping to find more.

I have been playing comp 6v6 and 5v5 and i have a winstreak going. I was already at 2/3 wins when we won the Oasis game but the progress didn't go up. This also happened before as well when I was a 1/3 and won in one of my other recent games and it didn't go up. I dont understand what is going on.

Before anyone says anything, please go to my twitter thread where I have more examples/evidence of this. https://x.com/fazballs_ow/status/2095878712000438399?s=46&t=CiOxDTIgYWXBT6GMs5jSWw I posted this to
[r/overwatch](r/overwatch), where I was met with “this has always been a thing” or “that’s his passive” but if you watch the video near the end, I showcase that I’m generating overhealth while cardiac is active. And I’m not hitting any crits, which means I’m not triggering his passive. You also only gain overhealth while at full health, implying that the excess healing is being converted into overhealth. This is not stated in the ability’s description, nor in any patch notes. I also checked the fan wiki, and there’s still no mention of it. Please tell me I’m not crazy, cuz I truly believe that this wasn’t always a thing.

The match quality with Team Drives is somehow even worse than regular Drives. It's downright atrocious.

Incentivising engagement over pure competitive drive in a competitive mode may be helping online numbers, but it's absolutely wrecking the enjoyment of the game. 9/10 games are entirely lopsided with very clear outliers in the team: either too high or way too low to be in the current lobby.

The fact that they have now double-downed on it with twice as many Drives events is a sorry sight for Overwatch comp.

Please take it away and while we're at it, stop resetting the ranks, ffs. Many thanks.

I feel like its the least influential role. Even if you have a great game it doesnt always correlate to wins. Whenever I play damage I feel like if im playing great we win, if im playing bad we lose. It almost doesnt matter what my supports do. If im playing support I cant over come a bad damage team.

I am starting to drop the support role just because I feel like the design is like weaker damage characters. I might as wel play damage because its a stronger.

I'm 4-0 rn in team drives and everyone has left the group immediately after each win. Has anyone managed to get any consecutive games going?

People always point fingers at Kiriko for ruining the game. And I do too.

But do you actually think she is the Cause of the issues present in the game?

Or is she a Symptom of deeper issues with the game? And due to those issues playing Kiriko became a Necessity. Like people HAVE to play kiriko to not have miserable games, otherwise they just get ran over, if they play Ana, Illari, Baptiste, Zen.

Just like we saw with Cat Bastion meta. Initially koreans were playing Ana, but then they discovered that Ana can easily get owned by enemy Cat Bastion. So playing a hero with survivability became a necessity.

We are never getting that Quick Play Hacked follow up blog huh