Stop switching ! It's not why you're losing

Competitive Discussion
1

It’s something I’ve noticed happens a lot in my games, and people seem to do it just out of habit.They switch to a new role or hero, to “counter” something, regardless of if they can actually play that hero or not.

I’m a tank and support main, I rarely ever switch off the character I pick at the beginning of the game, unless the map requires it, or I find that another hero in my pool is better suited for the team comp we have (i.e, something like Numbani, where I play Winston on the first two points and rein on the last one/ I picked Rein but my entire team switched to dive heroes, in which case I will play WInston)
I know for a fact that I can only play MT and zen/ana as supports . Zarya is the only off tank I can play. That means, whatever happens, if we need a main support , or an off tank other than the ones I play I WILL NOT SWITCH. It’s not against the team, it’s simply common sense to not switch to a hero you can’t play

Now, I understand the reason behind these switches, they’re often on of these:

  • They have a Winston, someone switch to Reaper: No. That is not how it works. Does Reaper do a crap ton of damage to Winston? Yes. Is it easier to kill Winston with a reaper? Probably, BUT why are you switching? Why do you want to counter the Winston? Yes, the game is about counterpicking too, but you don’t need to counter every hero. Unless you’re playing back-line reaper, your pick amounts to nothing, and a good Winston will not a) jump in alone b) jump into a reaper with cooldowns. A good Winston can kill a reaper.
  • Switching to hero you don’t usually play, for the sake of countering/ other reason Why? If you don’t play that hero, if you’re not actively looking to improve on that hero, do not switch. You don’t counter people by existing, you counter people by taking actions, and in that, any hero counter another, whether it be a soft or hard counter.
  • switching roles mid game I usually see this from supports or tanks, who feels that the DPS are not doing enough and blaming them. Yes, it could be that they suck, but it could also be that you’re not supporting them , or not giving them enough space for them to do their job. If you switch to dps, you might be better than them and you might not, in any case, none of you will live long enought o have an impact in the game, as without a tank or support, you will simply die. Unless you tell your team you are switching, unless you have someone that can replace you in your role, Don’t switch roles. You might feel like you’re doing more, but what you are doing is letting your entire team die by denying the the support and protection they need to be effective.

Finally, I see a lot of people switching the team comp over and over and over, nad getting frustrated because nothing is working, even though they switched to counter etc
Team comp often is not the problem. Switching it rarely is the reason why you win. Coordination, individual skill, and just plain tryharding will get you the win. If people play what they are comfortable with, if they’re enjoyign themselves, then you ahve more chances to win than by having people play " to counter"

Last thing, countering by switching usually isn’t the best of ideas, especially if you want to improve. If, as zen, you’re getting dove by monkey, the answer isn’t to switch to brig, the answer is to use your brain, and ask yourself why you died. “I died because monkey counters me” is probably what you will answer, if you do, congratulation, you’re amongst these people who will never climb and always reject the fault on others.

No, what you need to tell yourself is : Monkey dived me, and I died. Why? Maybe I wasn’t in such a good position, maybe too isolated, or too far from my team to get any help, maybe I didn’t land any shots etc

^ This is how you “counter” truly, you learn from your mistakes, when your “counter” kills you, you keep on playing that hero, even if you die a thousand times, until you know how to deal with it.

There are two kind of people in this game: The ones who lose and blame others, and the ones who loses, sees everyone’s mistakes, but concentrate on their own.

2

No it’s not it is because people go for personal succes. I lost 3 matches where we had them at choke point and with 30-45 sec’s left 2 morons start to rush for more kills they get killed and it’s 4 against 6 (ults)… gg lost…

3

I second that motion - most players are out for personal glory. Amen!

The good of the team has nothing to do with it, sadly.

4

There is basically no reason why you shouldn’t switch to a Brigitta from Zen, unless Zen has his ult ready or like at 80%. Brig does even more healing and can counter the monkey more easily with her kit than Zen who is the weakest of all supports against dive heroes. You are basically telling the forum to one trick their picks. So if your team has a reaper and a Symmetra you wont want one of them to switch to 76 to counter pharah?

But I get what you’re saying. Switching unless it is necessary is stupid. I was in a game today and everytime this DPs died he/she switched to another character and I just couldn’t take it anymore and wrote in big caps. Now stay with me folks: IF YOU KEEP SWITCHING HEROES AFTER EVERY DEATH YOU’LL NEVER GET ULT.

5

No, I’m saying if you don’t play brig, don’t switch.
If you’re in a game to try and improve at zen, and zen only, don’t switch. The more you play against your counter, the better you will be at winning against them. Ofc don’t do that in higher tiers where the monkeys know what they’re doing unless you’re playing counterdive.
But in most tiers, winstons aren’t that good, and keeping on playing zen teaches you where you should and shouldn’t be, and where you should and shouldn’t rotate

If my team had a a reaper and a sym against pharah, and if that is the only hero they play, and we don’t have a dva player, no, I can’t ask them to switch . They don’t knwo hwo to play hitscan and I’m not going to make them.

Pharah is different than winston vs zen, because pharah is a team wide threat, not just to zen like monkey is, so switching there is more team focused

6

If you are getting countered and you don’t have ult charge - you switch or your ally switches to cover you. Just because you aren’t switching, it doesn’t mean that your teammates aren’t switching and playing around you to win the game. 9Quite often it’s not because you are countering your counter, it’s because your teammate has switched and is actively helping you - even if it means he’s playing a hero that’s not his best is the reason you are winning.

ps: I enjoy spawn camping zens as sombra and staggering them constantly while my genji just blades everyone constantly and zen is never there to ult, or gets emped before he can ult. :joy:

1 Like
7

I have no issue with people switching within their role, the real issue comes when the support swaps to DPS, the tank swaps to support and everything goes to pieces.

1 Like
8

Sorry to say that but you are extremely wrong on that.

3 Likes
9

tbh reaper just sucks right now

10

for my 8/10 lose games

  • 1 very low DPS “BOT” players (sometimes 1 leave, and we still manage to get one point or defend)
  • no one is group
  • full team of Tanks :slight_smile: - 0 aim
  • snajper troll - no aim, no tactics, like bot on low level
  • Healers play like DPS
  • team full of onetrickpony
  • play drunk :slight_smile:

Play only DVA/Rein/Orisa/Winston
0 aim so… not play DPS
from the beginning I assume that my team suck, so I do so not play healer

11

that is what you tell yourself.
The real truth is, these players are at this rank because they’re bad. YOU are at thos rank because you’re bad too. You’re not better than they are until you climb.
The only thing ever that is keeping you down is yourself.

If you keep telling yourself that most of your losses are because the enemy team is better or your team sucks, then are lying to yourself and you will never improve nor climb.

It’s fine to play only tanks, if you don’t like to play support and don’t know how to, then don’t play healer, But then don’t complain about them, because they;re probably complaining about you too.

That can happen I agree, however, I think in the long game, if the enemy all plays hero they know how to play and are proficient at, and someone on your team switches to something they’re not so good at just to counter the enemy team, your team won;t do so well, unless the hero that was swapped to has a similar playstyle to the ones the player mains

12

I’ll just be the douche because, well, that’s who I am. I can take you more seriously if you do a spell check before you post.

13

Switching is a HUGE part of the game, not switching is a bad idea. The OP is wrong.
People switch if they get countered or to counter, not for glory moments.

14

Dude you are so wrong. I won so many games because i switched to deal with problem we had. Its actualy people who wont switched who will make you lose.

I will give you one example from my games. I was playing second tank and our team just could not deal with pharah. She was decimating us. So i switched to Widow and started to kill her over and over again to the point when enemy team started saying how is that guy throwing by constantly dying to me. I had many game destroying enemy team until they counterpicked to deal with me . I have many examples like this.

15

My point isn’t to never switch. My point is to not switch to heroes you don’t play/ don’t want to improve at.

This isn’t about winning, it’s about improving. If you keep switching , you will be mediocre at everything instead of good at a few things