I hear so many people say ‘it’s only quick play’ whenever I talk about my frustrations with the game mode.
A bit of backstory - i’ve watched the game of Overwatch since it came out but only managed to start playing it myself about a year or two ago. When I first started, I noticed nobody played support so I figured i’d fill. People asked for Moira or Mercy so that’s what I played.
Fast forward to now, I have a good knowledge about the game - ult tracking is great, i’m mindful about my ability usage, I know my priorities - and that’s not just for Mercy and Moira. But, when I was climbing out of Gold, that’s all people wanted. And if I said I wanted to play Lucio, Zen or Ana - I was considered throwing and my teammates wouldn’t support me. No peeling back, my other healer wouldn’t heal me and often the team complained about heals. So I went Mercy or Moira to get out of that rank.
Now lately, I REALLY want to play Ana more…but people look at my profile as see I have little time on her so don’t trust me. I love the LFG feature but I get KICKED because I don’t have hours on Ana.
So QP I go because there isn’t another place to really get those hours on Ana and get that practice.
It’s happened a few times but i’ve had…really unfair games. Yes i’m going to die and that’s fine - i’m learning about Ana who has far less mobility that Moira or Mercy…but I’m a Plat player. I had 3 new accounts on my team (can’t say for sure if smurf or not) while the other team have a Masters player, a new account widow that was just clicking heads and two diamonds.
I know ‘it’s only quick play’ but where am I supposed to go to get better practice on characters without risking my SR?
Hopefully, with the inclusion of Workshop, we can get more practice modes for players to learn characters, positioning, aim and such that Blizzard will either include some of the programmes in the training section or just redo the practice range. With objectives for you to complete and time trials, scoreboards so you can keep track of your progress.
That would be nice ._.
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I feel ya. Kind of in the same boat. I’m also an Ana main and I play her a lot in QP. I can’t play that much Competitive because my connection isn’t always stable and I don’t want to risk disconnects (I also can’t use the mic always). I also started out filling in a lot.
I get frustrated with QP because one game is full of silvers in a 5 DPS team, the other is a plat/diamond game, next it’s a gold game with 2-2-2 etc. That kind of variation can happen in competitive as well (the compositional I mean) but when I just want to play normal games to practice and I end up having to fill in all the time, it gets frustrating. And when I occasionally say anything about it, I get responses like “imagine playing what you like…” - well, imagine playing the actual game… it gets really tiring.
On the other hand though, just like QP is our only real opportunity to practice without risking SR, it’s also the only place for people to play the game without having to take it too seriously. Unlike comp where a lot of people will play tank or support, in qp they’ll just dps for fun. I know the feeling, I almost never get to play dps and I’d like to, just for a change, but when you end up with 6dps on a team, it’s just not a fun game. If I want to play deathmatch, there’s the arcade. So I do understand why some people just say “I don’t care, I want to play Hanzo, I always play Mercy”. It’s hard to argue that that’s also a purpose QP serves.
Most of the time, when people say “it’s only QP” it’s because they play a lot of competitive and QP is quite meaningless to them. It’s a bit condescending of them to think everyone’s circumstances or approach is the same but it’s also pretty much what QP is for unfortunately. It’s not meant to be taken seriously, just casually. And in the end, when I get people in QP games who are acting like it’s the end of the world, I’m not particularly keen on it either.
It’s sort of a niche we’re in, where we want to avoid the risk of competitive but also play the game seriously. Usually, this is the reason people make a smurf, so they can play competitive instead of qp and not care. I don’t know if there’s any other way the game could be configured, considering a new “mode” (a competitive QP of sorts) would just increase queue times and the overwatch team wants to avoid that for good reason.
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Thats actually a completely legit complaint. Most people who cry about QP don’t have the balls to play competitive. If you genuinely cant because of reasons outside your control my guess is grouping is your only choice.
It’s not about having the balls.
When you queue up for comp and pick something, everyone expects that that’s the thing you know how to play. If you’re new, they think you’re a smurf, if you’re actually new they curse the matchmaking system and you.
So you have no chance of actually learning any new hero in competitive unless you’re in the mood for some wonderful thrashing left and right from your teammates and feeling embarrassed the whole way because you’re trying to learn something instead of playing what you know best.
This just means that whatever you start playing in the game (a game of 3 roles and 30 heroes btw), you’re married to for the rest of your Overwatch career. That’s ridiculous. So people play QP to practice so they can learn and play the game.
If you think it’s about courage, or “balls”, you have a very narrow view of why people choose not to play competitive, which feels really elitist. “Only the ballsy people play competitive” huh…
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If your experience in competitive is this bad mute your team and the enemy. Others should not impact your fun.
And then be reported for throwing because I’m not on comms or whatever?
A friend of mine tried competitive as soon as he could. He picked Widow, someone else wanted her. Kept spamming for him to give up Widow. He didn’t. After that, he decided competitive just wasn’t worth it. Granted, that can happen in QP as well but in competitive everyone else gets upset too. It’s just not that simple.
When you’re trying to have fun, maybe relax even, maybe you’ve had a tough day and you just want to play the damned game, having to deal with all that and say “no thanks” isn’t because you lack balls or can’t use the mute button.
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The problem with that is that it is very much a team game. Yes you occasionally get that clutch play that wins you the game but it is a very much team based game.
I struggle a lot in competitive in EU servers because of this. On EU servers, there are a lot of different languages so being able to communicate with others is sometimes difficult.
I know that I could just go into comp and play the hero I want to play but I don’t want to ruin other peoples experiences either if I don’t do a good enough job.
Feels less punishing to me as a player to just one trick one hero rather than try a multitude of different heroes so that when I do go in comp and my usual choice isn’t working, I at least have enough experience to be able to swap to that character and do well without it being a ‘throw’.
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So basically
- too sensitive
- too scared
- too pessimistic
Fix all three and you wont have any problems in comp. I am saying this as someone who got banned multiple times but still thinks it is the best mode.
Not at all. But if a Reinhardt Grand Master suddenly decided to start playing McCree, would that not be considered throwing?
To have a mode where I can go to in order to practice without it feeling more like a punishment isn’t a big ask. The whole point of a game is to enjoy yourself - to feel rewarded for playing. Even if they implemented some of the workshop practice ranges other players have made into the practice range they have, it would be a lot better.
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The people you’re calling “too sensitive, scared and pessimistic” are the ones you’re relying on to stay active in a game that’s going bad, to help instead of whine, to not leave the game, to fill in, to play what nobody else wants to play for the sake of the team.
Not surprised you got banned multiple times with this attitude.
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I can only agree with Mechalynx
also, if your tired of people shouting at you, just become a frustratingly stubborn dps instalock like 98% of the gold community. I unfortunately didn’t take this step and people still shout at me to go mercy - well ya know what i just play ana anyway and see how they like it when i give the nano to a baby dva xD
People who say “it’s only quick play” should be reminded that it’s called quick PLAY… you’re actually meant to play properly.
And rank doesn’t really matter. I’ve watched Top 500 pros make Bronze mistakes, at this point SR is about as good a measure of skill as the medal system. Just do your best.
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