Overwatch

I've always thought of it this way, but a "bad team" is one you just weren't good enough to carry. If you played better that game then you would've won, despite having a "bad team". Maybe it's why I've always preferred soloq (in League etc as well) because I don't blame my team, so them playing badly doesn't bother me.

I agree with you that blaming your team-mates for everything that goes wrong isn't helpful to improve your own playing ability; you can only examine what you did in the game and how you could do better next time...

But I don't buy the idea that one player can carry any team they come across in the way that you're saying... Here's an example - you've ended up on Hollywood defending sudden death, immediately during setup the other 5 players push through the choke and set up in the front area overlooking the enemy spawn. You try to tell them that it's better to defend at the choke and around the point, but nobody takes any notice. Maybe you move forward with them as a last resort to try and "carry" them better, maybe not... but when the round starts they hold off for a little bit but since they're all over-extended and not working together they all get taken out by the other team. Being a super carrying pro you're stood further back making use of cover and have now retreated to the point, but their entire competent team of 6 (who have their Ults ready to go) are about to push onto the point together... According to what you say, you legitimately think that a skillful enough player would come out of that 6v1 with the win?
 
That's kind of what I was trying to say. You'd have to be soooo far above the level of the 6 your facing, it would be silly that you are ranked where you are at this point.
 
In a way you are able to carry if you're good enough for your rank, so long as you can kill 2 people per assault that leaves it 4v5, which is very advantageous to your own team. Lets say you're in a 2 stack with an equally skilled friend, that means in theory you can take out 4 of them if you're good enough, of course that's if you belong in a higher rank than what you're in, if you can't carry to a degree then you belong in that rank, unfortunately people often think they're better than they are and deserve to be in a higher rank, when in actuality rank 50 is average, and the vast majority of players will fall between 45-55, rank 60+ is the top like 15-20% of people in the world.

Obviously there are times where you cannot for the life of you help your team, but it happens. One thing I'll say about rank 60+ vs rank 50's is you notice in rank 60+ everyone is communicating better, on mic, text, calling out ults etc, so you can pair your ults and go in as a team.

As an example of when I've carried, a game I played as Roadhog on King's row, our team was having problems taking the first point, so I told them I'm going to sneak around the back and kill their healers so to distract them on the point. So they did, they distracted, I went round the back of the first point, hooked both their Zen and Lucio and took them out, they both respawned, hooked and killed them both again while they were running back, our team capped, then pushing the payload was an easy job to the end because I kept shutting them down, ended with Gold damage done, gold eliminations and 80% hook accuracy, was probably one of my best Roadhog games.

Anyway point is, if you're good enough for your rank, you can be the difference between a win and loss.
 
In a way you are able to carry if you're good enough for your rank, so long as you can kill 2 people per assault that leaves it 4v5, which is very advantageous to your own team. Lets say you're in a 2 stack with an equally skilled friend, that means in theory you can take out 4 of them if you're good enough, of course that's if you belong in a higher rank than what you're in, if you can't carry to a degree then you belong in that rank, unfortunately people often think they're better than they are and deserve to be in a higher rank, when in actuality rank 50 is average, and the vast majority of players will fall between 45-55, rank 60+ is the top like 15-20% of people in the world.

Obviously there are times where you cannot for the life of you help your team, but it happens. One thing I'll say about rank 60+ vs rank 50's is you notice in rank 60+ everyone is communicating better, on mic, text, calling out ults etc, so you can pair your ults and go in as a team.

As an example of when I've carried, a game I played as Roadhog on King's row, our team was having problems taking the first point, so I told them I'm going to sneak around the back and kill their healers so to distract them on the point. So they did, they distracted, I went round the back of the first point, hooked both their Zen and Lucio and took them out, they both respawned, hooked and killed them both again while they were running back, our team capped, then pushing the payload was an easy job to the end because I kept shutting them down, ended with Gold damage done, gold eliminations and 80% hook accuracy, was probably one of my best Roadhog games.

Anyway point is, if you're good enough for your rank, you can be the difference between a win and loss.
Totally agree with this.

For example on Pharrah, prior to her being slightly out of favour with the Mccree buff & Ana implementation, I would flank and use my ult to eliminate the two healers. I would nearly always die but trading 1 attacker for two healers can be a critical opportunity.

A clear difference between someone good and average is knowing when to push forward or flank. That it something you can learn over time.
 
I would argue that's just being a good team mate and playing a part, not carrying...
Doing it once or twice sure. Doing it consistently through the match without being shut down (as you should be if the other team aren't silly) to me would indicate you're playing better than your opponents rank level so therefore your own? Unless they're underdogs.

Once you get to the rank you're meant to be at you'll go up and down but be stable between 2-3 ranks. Gotta take account of those terrible streaks I'm sure we all get.
 
I think certain characters played very well can almost carry a team alone, although they will tend to be offensive heroes. The two that spring to mind are tracer and genji. Played well these two can be plain annoying to the enemy.....played very well they can team wipe and allow your team to push/ defend unhindered. This is very much a perfect storm situation and assumes the other team doesn't adapt or of they do they simply aren't very good at it.

Once faced an enemy trCer who got 70% team damage, she was played so well and no one on our team seemed to be good enough with her counters to beat her and even when we did we had been hurt or lost a few players looking at the rest of her team all full health. But this is very much the exception and not the rule.
 
I think certain characters played very well can almost carry a team alone, although they will tend to be offensive heroes. The two that spring to mind are tracer and genji. Played well these two can be plain annoying to the enemy.....played very well they can team wipe and allow your team to push/ defend unhindered. This is very much a perfect storm situation and assumes the other team doesn't adapt or of they do they simply aren't very good at it.

Once faced an enemy trCer who got 70% team damage, she was played so well and no one on our team seemed to be good enough with her counters to beat her and even when we did we had been hurt or lost a few players looking at the rest of her team all full health. But this is very much the exception and not the rule.

I've been told this is different characters at different skill levels. At around the level I play, I'd agree that it's definitely Tracer who shines - I've played a few games where as a support character I attributed our loss 100% to an excellent enemy tracer. Our team coordination/skill was not enough to prevent her just ruining our healers every time. If we'd had a skilled roadhog he could have shut her down, but I'm terrible with him (and nobody else would go healer) so she ran roughshod over us. At a higher rank I expect she would have been shut down fast by generally better aim/coordination, and had to change character.

I feel that when played well, she demands not just the right team composition, but a high level of personal skill to really shut down (more so than other characters).

Genji I have had less issue with - small sample size though, so possibly I've just not encountered the good Genji players.

I had another delightful match the other day, where I was accused of hacking (always a good sign). I hit something like 70% of my shots with Mcree. Just one of those sessions where you feel you can predict where everyone's going, your snap shots are on, your movement works out and the enemy team are always looking the other way :D
Even managed to get a PotG where I took out a Tracer AND a moving Lucio with back-to-back headshots. Unlikely to ever repeat it, but it felt very good at the time.
 
I think Tracer might be one of my favourite characters to play in any game EVER. Her skill ceiling is perfect and she's definitely one of the most well balanced characters in the game. Plus, she's just so much fun! People seem to appreciate a good tracer player too. It's like having a good Mercy or Mcree.

Any character you find yourself sweating buckets to play well with is alright with me, and she's the damn queen of that.
 
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So, I'm one of 25 nominees for the UK to play in the Overwatch World Cup at BlizzCon. If you want to support me, cast your vote here (you must be logged in first, I'm aware that there is some issues with the link for some people) https://playoverwatch.com/worldcup

Would be pretty awesome, and nerve racking to get it!
 
cUipnkw.png


So, I'm one of 25 nominees for the UK to play in the Overwatch World Cup at BlizzCon. If you want to support me, cast your vote here (you must be logged in first, I'm aware that there is some issues with the link for some people) https://playoverwatch.com/worldcup

Would be pretty awesome, and nerve racking to get it!

I'll give your plays a goosey tonight mate. If I deem it good enough, you'll have my vote

;)
 
I think Tracer might be one of my favourite characters to play in any game EVER. Her skill ceiling is perfect and she's definitely one of the most well balanced characters in the game. Plus, she's just so much fun! People seem to appreciate a good tracer player too. It's like having a good Mercy or Mcree.

Any character you find yourself sweating buckets to play well with is alright with me, and she's the damn queen of that.

I love her myself. I do find it a bit annoying playing her against hanzo and junkrat and the completely random one shot kills at point blank range but i suppose in many other ways she is very powerful.

Genji is far harder to master than tracer but if mastered he is easily one of the most powerful characters in the game. You don't encounter skilled Genji players often but when you do you know about it!
 
I love her myself. I do find it a bit annoying playing her against hanzo and junkrat and the completely random one shot kills at point blank range but i suppose in many other ways she is very powerful.

Genji is far harder to master than tracer but if mastered he is easily one of the most powerful characters in the game. You don't encounter skilled Genji players often but when you do you know about it!

Yep Junkrat is definitely one of her hard counters, regardless of skill most of the time but still. So long as you always have a blink on standby your damn near impossible to kill. Though same with a lot of other chars, she's not a viable pick on every map or point.

Cannot agree more. When you play against a good Genji, the rest of the apposing team dissolves and you're just left in a sea of paranoia constantly looking over your shoulder. His ult sound never stops putting the fear of god in me...
 
Feel free ;)


So things I learned from that:
1) Pharah can use her E as a mobility boost, and I need to start doing it
2) The flight time increase from feathering is MASSIVE and I need to get better at it
3) Holy crap I don't want to play against an on-form Valkia.

Edit:
Question: how far above the point can you still cap it? I have always assumed you needed to be in contact with the ground.
 
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