I know this topic has been beaten to death but I just wanna vent after doing some placement games for tank
So I don’t dabble in ranked a lot, just because it’s awfully managed, but if I do it’s for DPS or open queue. I actually do play tank quite a lot in qp, just haven’t for ages in comp. But kinda just was in the mood tonight and thought why not how bad could it be.
So since I haven’t played tank for ages it put me in bronze 5 (even tho it said my predicted rank was much higher but whatever), you can laugh if you want idrc.
And I know that this sounds like copium and I know what ppl are gonna say, but the players in there (mostly DPS) are SOOO hard to carry. I’m talking like 6-16 junkrats who just walk up to the enemy team at the start of every teamfight
And I’m sorry but I’m just not a bronze 5 tank. I wasn’t when I last played tank in ranked, and I’m able to do well most of the time in qp on tank (I get qp isn’t the most accurate unit of measurement, but it’s something)
And I know the answer is to just carry these rly bad teammates, so I’ll get to my main point: It is not fun. I did not sign up to babysit a bunch of toddlers
I’ve been low bronze before when I 1st started playing. It took some grinding and wasn’t fun at all.
And something that makes it way more unfun is my other main point:
The teams are so unfair. I’m either facing stacks, smurfs or the matchmaking is just awful because why, for every single game I’ve played today (3) do I get DPS who die at the start of every team fight and end on something like 8-14 and the enemy DPS have kills in the high 20s and no more than 5 deaths?
I know some might say “um actually stats don’t matter ” “it’s because you’re not protecting them” “you need to kill the enemy DPS before they kill yours”,etc
How are they providing ANY value if they die at the start of each team fight and if they are alive for long enough, all they do is shoot an Orisa? Even if I did act as meatshield for them the entire game, they wouldn’t do a thing. And do you know how hard it is to kill someone if they’re next to both supports and I’m the only 1 shooting them?
And circling back to my 1st main point, I can carry teams like this. In 1 of the rounds I just went schizo mode and hard carried. But again, it’s hard, it’s not fun, I did not sign up for this and it’s not fair how much worse some of my teammates are compared to the other team
On DPS it’s a bit different. Your 1 and only job is to get kills regardless. So if your team is really bad, you just have to get more kills.
But your job as tank is to create opportunities for your team while drawing most of their attention. If your team isn’t doing anything it becomes so unfun and frustrating
Basically what I’m trying to say is that if I’m placed in low bronze at the of my placements, I’m just not playing the role in ranked. And based on the number of tank players there are in ranked, I don’t think this is a unique thought
It is frustrating! Do you think your higher hidden MMR from your DPS games might have affected the level of team mates you got during your tank placements? I do not really know how that works, but yeah. There is a Spilo interview with 2 OW Devs that kinda explains this. I am too dumb to fully get it though lol.
Also, I think they are doing a rank reset next season. If you can find 2 people to stack with you during placements, maybe you will place higher .
Maybe try asking on Discord gaming servers or OW Forums for people who might want to stack .
I appreciate the advice. And I know I’m being awkward and I’m aware that I’m shooting myself in the foot by not playing in a stack, but I want to play solo.
And my main problem is that solo queuing is falsely advertised. If it was named “play with a bunch of 8 year olds on your team ,while your enemy doesn’t face the same disadvantage, and grind your *** off to get to get to bronze 2”, like it should be, I’d avoid the mode because that isn’t fun and I don’t want to do that. But it’s obviously not. Based on how they advertise it, I’m lead to think that I’m about to play a game of OW where the teams are about even, not a game of babysitting simulator where I’m tested to see if I can win 1 or 2v5s
And in the nicest way, idrc what Spilo and the interviewees have to say in that video. Why would game designers talk bad about their own game? And Spilo is an odd fellow who takes himself and the game too seriously and bends over backwards to defend it
I can clearly see that the matchmaking is an unfair unbalanced mess and that ranks don’t mean anything half the time. I will not be gaslit into thinking that the 8-14 Widow on my team who stands in the middle of the open is on par with me or the enemy Ashe who’s able to instantly kill them whenever they see them
And it’s not just me experiencing this. Why do streamers doing unranked to GMs struggle in gold and plat games? If the matchmaking is good, a GM who literally plays the game for a living should not lose in gold and plat lobbies.
1 of Chazm’s most popular videos is him saying how hard plat games are. He also struggles in Masters games and says that he can’t rly notice any difference in some masters games and plat/gold games
Greed EU has done several videos saying that the matchmaking is barely functional. I haven’t watched most of them tho, but he’s a GM coach who’s gotten to rank 1, so he knows what he’s talking about
I watched a video a couple days ago (by NickyOW I think) where he, as a GM, played in a silver lobby and talked about how hard it was
I don’t watch a ton of OW content so there’s probably better examples, but hopefully the point has been made
The matchmaking is dog**** for this game, ranks barely mean anything, playing solo gives you a stupidly big disadvantage and the matchmaking and ranks are probably so bad because of how much of an advantage playing in a stack gives you
Going by back to my title, solo queuing as tank is ******* awful and I wish something was done to improve it. I get that playing in a stack is naturally always gonna give you an advantage, but the disadvantage for playing solo doesn’t have to be THAT big and there is things they can do about it. 1 idea I have is that if someone produces a negative KD and loses a lot of games, they should be kicked from comp until they do 10 or so games in qp.
It is awful. All odds are stacked against you most of the time. In order to rank up, you have to hard-HARDcarry potato teams, and you have to more or less be able to play all the tanks; you have to be a Swiss Army knife. The better you play, the more the system tries to sabotage you to bring you closer to that 50/50 and artificially increase the grind.
As you have already seen, potatoes/NPCs/bots exist in all ranks, just some ranks are more packed with them. This game has zero competitive integrity with rigged MM, W/L-based rank, and cheater infestation in all ranks.
Again, in order to rank up as a solo tank, you more or less have to:
Hardcarry your games and not expect your team to aid you in any way.
Be an all-trick, jack-of-all-trades, Swiss Army knife; you have to be decent at a minimum of 3-4 tanks, preferably generalist tanks, and at least one dive tank.
Know that there is an ideal tank pick for every situation, but you have to identify who is/are the best player/s in the enemy team and hardcounter them. Sometimes it is better to play into your tank’s hardcounter enemy tank in order to counter the enemy DPS, like, for example, playing Zarya into Rein if they have a Junkrat that is feeding you good charge.
Learn to play Zarya, a very versatile tank. She can more or less play into all tanks if enemy DPS are feeding you good charge, one of the best tanks to counter cheaters, protect potatoes, and cleanse yourself of all the BS like Discord and Ana’s nade.
Try to synergize with your team’s composition, though not always if they are potatoes.
Before picking a tank, ask yourself if you have the right supports and if they will be able to heal you. A dive tank can be very hard to play if you have slow supports that can’t keep up or heal you accurately at a distance.
Identify cheaters in your and enemy teams. Always hardcounter enemy cheaters; swap after each death if you have to. Try to enable friendly cheaters if possible so they can take out enemy cheaters faster.
Memorize tank counters and try not to play your tank into more than 2-3 hardcounters.
Try to trick the system. Try to estimate approximately when forced losses are coming and stop playing ranked tank for that day. If you have one victory left to rank up, stop playing for that day; it will be a forced loss 70% of the time.
Identify forced losses and try not to burn yourself out. If your team consists of complete potatoes while the enemy team is a coordinated stack, a few ranks above your teammates, or cheaters, then do not try hard and try to win these matches. Soft-throw and save your energy, make the game end faster, and use matches like these to practice other tanks.
Try to ask nicely in text chat for your teammates to swap from time to time or just suggest they try other heroes based on the situation. You would be surprised how often it can work.
Understand the concept of dive/poke/brawl/hybrid*.
On offense, since your spawn is much closer, it is always better to go back to your spawn and switch tanks if you are hardcountered right off the bat.
Swapping tanks after death is often better than staying on the same hardcountered tank just because you have ult charge unless it is a good ult, like Rein’s or Zarya’s, but often it is better to swap.
Ignore the flaming and blaming by your potatoes; they don’t know better.
That is all for now; I could write way more. Good luck on solo tanking, fellow masochist.
I really appreciate all the advice and the time and effort put into it, thank you. But I rly don’t care about rank or sweating my *** off just to get to bronze 2, I’ve already done that before
I just want genuine 5v5 games, not 1,2 or 3v5s where the enemy team has access to ults every minute
Forum tip. Ignore mistikas. He’s a cheater that spends his time crying about others cheating.
Secondly, you are already in the right mind set. Don’t worry about the rank, just focus on enjoying playing and doing a little better each time.
If you are solo queueing, everyone is going to be around the same MMR as you.
Now, you can’t factor for people doing dumb things, or just playing badly (you will do them too). So there will always games that feel unwinnable. But if you focus on doing the basics right. You will be fine in the long run.
I hope it doesn’t come off like I’m under the illusion that I’m some great player who deserves diamond or something. I just know for a fact that I’m not low bronze on tank for 2 reasons 1) I’ve climbed out of low bronze before on tank and 2) I’m not on par with some of the teammates I was getting
I hope it also doesn’t come off like I’m mad at teammates for having bad positioning, using a bad ult or losing a 1v1 to a Moira. These ppl were throwing, intentional or not, every time they respawned I heard the death sound and they overall provided negative value because all they did is feed and give the enemies access to ults every minute. I’m being fully serious when I say I would’ve preferred if they left
I don’t want to be fine in the long run if I have to sweat my *** off carrying these ppl who don’t deserve to be carried and shouldn’t be playing comp in the 1st place.
It’s completely unfun and unfair. Like, again, when did I sign up for this? Why exactly am I assigned to babysit a bunch of toddlers just to prove I’m not apart of a rank that I’m obviously not deserving of?
The game, in its current state, is not designed to allow for 1v5s. Jay 3 has a ton videos on his channel proving this where he pairs a top500 with a bronze team against a plat team, and they’re unable to carry. Or he has to give a bunch of buffs to a top 500 so that they can 1v5 a bronze team.
So why do I have to waste my time proving I can carry these bs and unbalanced matches? Can’t they just balance their matches properly? I’m not asking for my rank to magically change, I’m asking for decent matches where teams aren’t completely lopsided
Sorry if it’s starting to sound like I’m moaning and harassing, not my intention.
My issue isn’t the climb or the rank I’m assigned to. It’s just an awful experience.
At what point am I allowed to call it unreasonable to win with these teammates and unfair that the enemy doesn’t face the same disadvantage, when GMs and top 500s struggle to solo carry low ranked games?
Ppl aren’t going to like me saying this but imo ranked should be solo only, or maybe they should add a separate mode for teams (queue times would be an issue tho). It doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to deduce why playing in a stack gives an advantage, or that it’s the main thing that makes comp a mess. Imo playing in a stack should be a qp thing only. It’s uncompetitive so why is it allowed in competitive mode? It’ll give more of a reason for qp to exist to, because that’ll be your multiplayer mode, and comp would be your single player mode
Or they could just make an effort to make solo queuing a viable option. There’s literally people who create bots that intentionally throw in lower ranks, and then sell those accounts (no idea why), and they haven’t even dealt with that problem. Imo they should ban anyone who can barely put a positive KD together from comp, until that person plays a certain amount of games in qp. Instead of lumping solo queuers with these bots and 8 year olds.
If they communicated with players and said “hey, if you’re solo queuing your gonna be role playing as cannon fodder for stacks, so we highly recommend you play with a team” I wouldn’t have a problem with it, but they don’t even do that
You’re playing very low ranked games with total strangers. It isn’t going to be a fun grind.
Allowed? Any time you like.
Isn’t going to help you. No. Are they stopping you climbing. No.
All they do is slow you down a little.
You put a plat player in a bronze lobby. They’ll stand out like a sore thumb. Doesn’t mean they’ll carry to victory. But they’ll be noticeably better than everyone.
Last night I played on an account I’d not touched in months. First game, I utterly rolled them. Was I the reason we won. No. Did I give my team all the space in the world to earn that victory. Yes.
I think people misunderstand about carrying. You don’t need to to win consistently. You just need to consistently do your job well. Then you’ll maximise your chances.
Blaming your teammates, or criticising them is just silly behaviour for the smooth brained.
I mean what happens when you create all the space in the world for your team and they don’t do anything with it? That’s what makes solo queuing as tank so awful. If they removed (literal) bots from comp who dont know how to play the game, this issue would be minimised
And I’ve never heard of players from other games creating multiple accounts; OW is the 1 and only game I’ve heard a lot of players doing this for. I watch Cyx pretty regularly and he has several different accounts and whenever he’s on a loss streak, he switches account.
On top of that, a lot of players have accounts that they just abandon because it’s hard stuck. GreedEU regularly talks about how he has an account that’s hardstuck in masters and he can’t do anything to climb on it
If the matchmaking wasn’t awful, there’d be no need for this
You can’t win every game. You only need to win about 55-60%, consistently. If play say 200 games. you only need to win about 120 games a season.
All the wacky nonsense that can happen in games, they won’t stop you. But as I said, it takes time, and it is a grind.
If you are someone, like I am now, who only plays maybe 10 games a week max. You aren’t going to climb unless you are noticeably in the wrong rank to begin with.
There’s some merit to say most players below diamond don’t really know how to play the game, and many above who don’t either.
200 games!? Just so I can get to Bronze 1 or something? **** that. That’s an awful ranked system if I need to play that much to climb. Hopefully most of us can agree on that
And when I say “don’t know how to play the game” I don’t mean that they’re bad at the game and their strategies are off, I mean they literally don’t know the controls, the maps, the abilities, etc.
Again, imo if someone loses a lot of their games and produces a lot of negative K/Ds, they should be kicked from comp until they do a certain amount of qp games. Idk how the ins and outs of this would go, but as Bliz has billions and has a team of ppl specifically hired to improve the game experience, they can figure it out
” “it’s because you’re not protecting them” “you need to kill the enemy DPS before they kill yours”,etc
.