Hello!
I had never played Overwatch until two weeks ago, when I played while it was free. During that time, I might have played about 15 games or so, of which my team won about 10. I didn’t know too much about what I was doing or how to accomplish the objectives, but I had fun playing the heroes and seeing the maps.
A few days after that, I decided to purchase the game because I thought I could play for a while. However, to my surprise, since I bought the game, I have played about 30 games and my team has only won 4 or 5, which is becoming quite disheartening. Not only that, but games are usually one-sided, so there is not even excitement in losing.
I understand that I am new and there’s so much for me to learn, but I don’t think it’s my fault to lose this many games, especially when I’m supposed to play with/against low-level players, just like me.
Besides learning and stuff, I have a question for you guys: Do you think the matchmaking thinks I am better than what I really am and expects me to carry my team when, in fact, I’m just new to the game? Also, is there an end to this? Will the matchmaking place me some day where I actually belong to?
Thank you! 
There’s many things you can blame Blizzard for, but skill estimation is not one of them. It is relatively accurate after even 10 matches or so, but will increase more in time. Once you reach level 25, it should have a good idea on where you stand (given you play the same heroes and don’t play something completely different once you reach level 25.)
That being said, as a new player you might encounter some smurfs (but much less than people will lead you to believe), or your skill is difficult to estimate (for example, if you play a lot of roles, heroes). Also, keep in mind that winning or losing in QP doesn’t mean much. Aside from control maps, you only play one round, and some maps favor the attacker, other the defender; that why in comp you play two rounds at least. Pushing the cart all the way to the end in OT does not mean that you are better, the opponent might have done it in 2 minutes for all we know.
Also, many players treat QP as something to dick around in.
tl;dr: Don’t worry too much, just play the game and have fun, you will get better. Once you are level 25, consider playing competitive, but don’t be distraught if you get placed in bronze or silver. Ignore the SR and have fun, you will improve when you stop worrying about winning or losing.
Tips to get better: watch the replay of your matches and see what you did wrong. Go into the next game with a plan, like “i won’t do/will do this particular thing” and focus on that.
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If Blizzard is incapable at only one thing (spoiler alert: they’re actually bad at multiple things^^) it’s building good ranking systems. Look at Hearthstone - achieving a high rank doesn’t mean you need to play well, just that you need to play a lot. The same goes for Overwatch. Don’t bother with the ranking, bother with your skill.
My usual advice for new players is to use the play vs A.I. option. Bots are bad, but it allows you to learn the maps properly, fool around with different heroes and experience all the different stuff that’s in the game without anyone on your team being to bothered about what you do.
Once you know all the maps and feel solid on the heroes, Mystery Heroes is a really good mode where you in addition to everything you had before you also get all sorts of enemies and experience how abilities and ults feel against you. Still, very few people will get properly mad at you for messing up, so you can still take your time to learn.
This also has the benefit that you get a feel for which role you are best with. Not only that, being able to play any role also means you learn how to play to help out other roles. I can always tell DPS-one-tricks because they don’t seem to know that Ana needs a sight line to heal and Lucio only heals while you’re close to him. That’s really, really, really basic stuff, but if you never had the “for god’s sake, don’t run away from your heals” moment as a support, you’re more prone to make that mistake.
After that - go for competitive. Losing in comp has the major benefit of dropping your SR until you are where you have an easier time. Generally speaking, you will get overvalued when you first start the game - which is a necessary trick on Blizzard’s part because otherwise SR would inflate with every new player.
If you want more specific answers as to what lead to your situation, you’d have to be more clear about the game modes you were in. Just remember: during free weekend, there will generally be more new players around than otherwise, so the overall skill level is logically dropping a bit.
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Hi Joghurt,
I appreciate your reply very much. I have played other Blizzard games and I know that, after a while, I should play with and against players that have my skill, more or less, but I thought that after 40 or so games, my winning percentage would be closer to 50%.
Because it’s hard for me to actually understand if I’m doing a good job and I’m just unlucky or if I’m a burden for my team, I feel a bit lost and, as I said, disheartened. But your message helped me see it from a more optimistic perspective and I will give myself more time to learn more about the game, which still looks fun to me.
Thank you for your time
Hi Myrion,
Thank you for your reply! Even though it would be easier for me to just put the blame on Blizzard, I don’t think this is the case. My guess is that the matchmaking is still trying to place me or, because there are not enough people in my level (it’s not a new game after all), I get matched up against better/more experienced players.
I have been playing around against the AI but I soon found it boring and I felt like I wasn’t learning anything. I have also tried Mystery Heroes, but I don’t feel quite comfortable because I can’t play all heroes yet. But anyway, it’s fun!
About my role, I always play support or tank, because queues for DPS are very long. I’m trying to play offensively, defensively, more active, more passive… but nothing seems to work. I hope it’s just bad luck and I will eventually get closer to 50% winning percentage.
Again, thank you very much for taking the time to reply!
It’s the same for every pvp game that’s been out for a while, a lot of players will know how to play, people in diamond nowadays for instance are at the level that GM used to be.
The same happened to me when I started to play Heroes of the Storm, I got stomped at first until I managed to understand the mechanics a bit more.
Give it some time and you’ll get there but don’t focus too much on winning at first.
2 Likes
Hi Spyro,
I was in same situation as you are now about 1 1/2 years ago. OW is my first shooter-like game and I was also trying it out on a free weekend.
First time I played game or two and decided its too much stuff going on for me to properly understand it and play it correctly, so I uninstalled.
Few months forward and there was another free weekend, I played it as best as I could at that time and decided to buy the game.
For a new player a lot of stuff can be confusing and unfortunately game don’t give you much tips or a good tutorial that can help you understand better what’s your role etc.
Since I play only Tanks and Supports maybe I can be of some help. I’m online almost daily, if you’re interested add me, SpikeSpiegel#21497
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Hello Honkler!
I try to stay positive and enjoy the game as much as I can. It’s not that I don’t like the game when I lose and I like it when I win, because some losses may be really fun and there’s much more room to learn from them. I am not even mad after all these losses because I understand that this is just a game and, if it irritates me, I only have to log out, but I was genuinely curious about what is going on for me to lose constantly. Anyway, I will still be playing and, hopefully, this will change in the future.
Thank you for your kind reply!
Hello SpikeSpiegel!
Like you, Overwatch is my first shooter online. I knew that it was going to be rough in the beginning because my aim is not the best, but because I had such a good experience during the free week, I thought I’d purchase the game to play longer. This week has been quite different from the free week, but as I said earlier, I try to stay positive and enjoy the game nonetheless. I have to say that I haven’t encountered any jerks in the game so far, which is very nice!
I am very, very grateful for your offer, SpikeSpiegel, but I’m erratic in my play sessions and I would hate to bother you. Some days, I can play for two hours and then, because of errands, work and other stuff, I can’t log in for a few days.
Thank you so much for your reply All of you who have replied to my post have been nothing but extremely nice to me, and I appreciate it a lot.
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No worries about being erratic in your play sessions, I also work, have obligations in life and stuff to do.
Some of my friends also play when they can, so whenever you’re up for OW you can poke me on Bnet app, my offer still stands.
I play OW as a casual player, don’t have ambitions to make it to GM or stuff, kinda too late for that, but I love the game and while sometimes it can be frustrating I mostly have fun.
Ty for your reply, its rare opportunity to read something nice on forum, have a nice day.
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‘Disheartening’, ‘one-sided’, yes, that’s Overwatch all right… Last week I had a new personal record: twelve losses in a row, out of which two games were close calls and ten matches were one-sided steamrolls.
I often wonder why do I keep returning to this game? All of my friends have quit a month or two after release…
Same reason as alot of us i guess
We want to love the game… we boot up with wide eyed wonder and enthusiasm for a good gaming session… but majority of the time we come away frustraited and with a bad taste in our mouths
This fades and we once again return hoping for it to be different… kind of like checking the empty fridge every 2 hours when you’re hungry hoping that that half eaten packet of ham and sprouting onion and 2 year old jar of mayo turns into something edible spntaneously
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But the darn fridge is quite fancy on the outside, a shame its contents keeps disappointing… x)
Nostalgia. We had fun with the game once, we want to have fun with it again. But it doesn’t click. We still have hope though so we stick around and wait.