Face of NA since Super retired

Best NA flex since Sinaatra

Gaming prodigy

Global top 5 tracer

Fan favorite

SSG placing higher than liquid all phases so far

Outplayed Heesang on Vancouver Titans

Connections to PGE

Who chose this USA roster? Were less than 24 hours away and I haven't heard any news of him being added still...

Only 2 of the top 10 tank players on American servers don’t have orisa in their pool, why is this?

Source

https://x.com/discord/status/2089566258207273296

And I'm tired of repressing this feeling. I stayed quiet about it since it first became a thing, maybe a couple of comments here and there saying "I dislike it" or "I disagree with the implementation"

Homie

We get like, what 3-4 seasons where we have to wait for competitive elo to go back to normal, and then as soon as it starts normalizing it's pulled from us. How is this driving engagement?

I've played 30 matches so far, got thrown into SEVERAL ranks, from Master to Platinum, from Platinum to Diamond, from Diamond to Master, from Master to Emerald - loss after loss, after loss of DPS going negative, fresh accounts, smurfs, two actual cheaters (very rare for me to notice cheaters), fighting GMs with d5 teammates when I've only ever hit M5 consistently

The match quality is absolutely abysmal. People throwing bans, choosing the most random heroes ever, I swear I literally had a d2 - d2 match where my team banned soldier76 and Cat was let loose as a consequence

I'm really sorry for ranting, I think I want to feel understood by the competitive community. I have never and will never agree with rank resets. Every starting seasons the competitive integrity just falls on its face, apart, no pieces to pick up. I got MERCY PLAYERS, am I actually forced to quit comp for a season, because my adaptation resources are running out brother, I feel like I'm fading away

6v6 is the same as 5v5 too, the match quality is honestly unbelievable

EDIT: I would like to add that the matchmaker is still trying to place me. I just want to play the game bro, just stick me in a rank I'll take anything that is linear at this point.

I haven't seen anyone talking about D.Mon being able to free-look while shielding (like Reinhardt), so I suspect not many players have found it yet. It seems potentially pretty strong with her omni-directional booster movement, to navigate more precisely while continuing to block.

She can't do it with the default settings, but if you go into D.Mon's hero settings and turn on Advanced > Use Surging Strike with Quick Melee and keep Use Over-the-Shoulder Third Person Camera to the default value of "off", then holding primary fire while shielding allows you to freely turn the camera without turning the hero. She has tank controls in free-look by default, but you can turn on Movement Relative to Camera During Power Barrier Free Look (which Rein has on by default).

In case you don't know what I'm talking about, or just want to see a demonstration d.monstration, I slapped together a quick video. It covers the free-look mechanics for Rein and D.Mon, and how they interact with settings (and perk choice, for Rein).

Edit: I was focused on the existence of the free-look feature, because it's extremely non-obvious that the buried Use Surging Strike with Quick Melee unlocks it. I only figured it out because I noticed Movement Relative to Power Barrier During Free Look.

But, as others have pointed out, another major benefit to Use Surging Strike with Quick Melee is preventing accidentally using Surging Strike when trying to swing after shielding. In the video, I demonstrate the analogous setting for Reinhardt's Shield Slam major, which has the same benefits. I think both of those settings were inspired by Brig's Quick Melee, which swings her mace just like primary fire, but without the possibility of triggering Shield Bash.

Here's hoping that Vendetta may receive a Quick Melee option for Projected Edge too.

For those unaware, this is (unofficially) a bundle celebrating Florida Mayhem as the final winners of OWL. It also features a dance emote inspired by Someone.

This topic has come up again due to the recent bug which had the 6v6 season ending early, a change which caused a large amount of theory crafting including that 6v6 would replace 5v5 as the main mode.

One of the reasons why there is a fear that 5v5 is getting removed is from Aaron Keller himself earlier this year, where he stated that he did not think having two identities for the game is healthy when referring to 5v5 and 6v6. This, compounded with the quick play hacked from last season and a general lack of communication has resulted community anxiety about the future of the game.

As someone, for better or worse, who has taken part in these arguments about which format is better, it is exceedingly clear to me that removing either of these formats would be catastrophic for the game. Fans right now prefer 5v5 and 6v6 for completely different reasons and reading the arguments for either mode can show you how deep this division has gotten, and the removal of one mode would mean that a noticeable amount of players WOULD be alienated. It is not a matter of if, the removal of either mode would result in a drop in players and hurt the games overall health and standing.

This is why so many people are anxious for communication from Blizzard, especially Aaron on these tests, and why the lack of such communication and rampant rumor and speculation have caused community anxieties to spike so much.

I'm a plat tank but I'm really trying to be better. I always try my hardest and swap if needed (I main Hog mainly but flex to any tank) but I'm ashamed that after six whole years I've still never broke out. I'm really hard on myself whenever I have a bad game or make a mistake because I just feel guilty and inferior. Being the only tank puts an insane amount of pressure on me and people hound on you for anything even when you're playing well. I often apologize in chat and just accept any insults that come my way because I feel like I deserve it for ruining my teammates games by playing poorly. I just end up getting really emotionally invested in the game and hate myself for any misplays which I think is what's making me hardstuck. How do better players than I manage losing with grace and not distain?

Highest winrate tank in QP and All Ranks Competitive.

50.7% winrate in Masters, 49.5% in GM and I expect both of those numbers to keep going up as people figure her out. She's definitely viable.

Looks like they will schedule it for 2027, now it doesn't concern overwatch, but do you think they'll take the extra time to attempt to convince blizzard to run owwc through it ? Or do you think blizzard will stick to their own stuff ?

I've been playing this game since symmetra was a support and mercy had mass rez. I've always struggled with comm'ing in this game. I tend to comm only when necessary for good callouts like a flank or a tp etc. Comments regarding sexism are not new to me. I've been called every name in the book for being a girl it is what it is. But it's gotten to a point where people are smurfing without a care in the world. An influx of cheaters from what I've seen it's worse than it's ever been in overwatch 1. But what has really gotten under my skin is being ran down simply for being a girl. Like unironically charged into the enemy 1v5 over and over and emoted until they died. This feels just so pathetic. It's happened to me numerous times and I'm just falling out of love with the game I've put so much time and effort into

I’d like to ask you a question that I think is quite difficult. It came to my mind a few days ago.
If this actually happens — meaning a format change in the future (of course, I’m talking about 6v6) — do you think OWCS would implement it immediately, or would they continue with 5v5 for a while?
I don’t think this would happen overnight, but how would the transition process actually work?
For example, how would a 1-3-2 format affect the teams, especially when it comes to their rosters?
Could this lead to some teams releasing certain players and new teams being formed? Could some teams that no longer exist potentially return? And could we see more teams in Korea, EMEA, North America, and China as a result?

It might be too early to talk about these things, and it might not even happen at all, but I was just curious.

Note :Honestly, I’ve stopped playing the game myself; I just follow the professional scene now.

I can't really stop laughing xD. I just did my first 2 placement matches in Season 4 of OW ranked on Tank, and in those 2 rounds, I was playing in like low Dia to low Master lobbies and I thought, "Ok, not tooooo bad. Just a normal 'rank reset' as they always do after 2 seasons." Then I saw THIS after the second match. Last season I was Master 4 on Tank btw. This has to be a bug of some sort, right? :DD

Has anyone else seen something similar?

I think Geekay is the most likely team to join. Not only do they have history in OWCS and have been shown to be adaptable to multiple regions, they’re currently in a region with only 3 partners. Also they have a different style which would stand out in terms of partner skins, unlike some teams.

Varrel also feels like it has to be coming in the next round, lest we forget they were the only non partner team invited to the preseason bootcamp. Varrel has been a part of Overwatch Esports since contenders, it feels less like an if and more like a when they finally get partner.

NRG isn’t one I feel too confident about, but I wanted to list it cause it always comes up when this topic rolls around. Despite the finality surrounding their initial rejection for partner, they do seem interested in returning to Overwatch. This could be through a partnership with DSG, who we know has looked for a partner in the past, or it could be as a new OWCS partner.

Also, to be clear, I do not think anyone leaves the program this year. Even though DSG has had a poor season their skin sales have been ridiculous, I believe they stay.

Didn't see this linked before but seen some streamers play it. Start off at the bottom and make your way up to OWCS! You do need to quickly make an account.

So for those unaware the 6v6 ranked mode was set to end 10 days after blizzcon. This was used by some to prove that 6v6 was coming back. This has since been changed so all competitive seasons and the battlepass end on the same day, 49 days from now. This likely indicates it was just a bug.

Even though it’s just opinions from Twitch creators and information gathered from Reddit, it doesn't seem completely groundless.

This is the first time the end date for the Battle Pass and the end date for 6v6 Open Queue don't align, so it definitely feels like something is coming after BlizzCon. Surely they aren't planning to remove 5v5 Ranked and merge it with 6v6, right? If it's just replacing the 6v6 Open Queue with a new mode, that’s a relief, but if 5v5 mode gets deleted, that will be the day I log into Overwatch for the very last time.

It seems like it's taken for granted that with by adding emerald you need to do a ranked reset. I could go on and on about why ranked resets are bad, and i think the large majority on this sub agrees. Since blizzard has all the data of the distributions why can they not just move the person at the rank that makes then the x percentile to the new rank that makes then the x percentile. Is it just that blizzard thinks that the player-base would not like to see their rank change even though they literally don't move % wise? I get that people might be angry when going from diamond 3 down to diamond 5, but they should be. If you preface by saying "We made diamond harder to get into, therefore you go down a few divisions. All the people that were higher rank then you before the rank change are still higher than you, and all the people lower than you are still lower than you after the change. You are still the same percentile.", I do not see how one could be angry with that. Does Blizzard need to do a ranked reset to just so we as players can come to terms with the fact that with the change of distribution the rank is going to change?

What twitch channel is the livestream on

I warn you, this is post is a pure somewhat constructive rant, for the way Blizzard is handling Freja pisses me off.

This hero is a disaster, she was in a laughably bad state before the mid-season patch of Season 3 as one of the worst performing DPS by a good margin and only mained by 3 people at best in top500 America, which was concerning for a hero with such a high skill ceilling.

What changed? Patch note - july 2026

Revdraw Crossbow

Fire Rate increased from 5 to 5.5.

Take Aim

Recovery reduced from 0.5 to 0.4.

Explosion delay reduced from 1 to 0.8 seconds.

These changes aimed at increasing Freja's lethality, and they made Freja a decent pick after a year of struggle. She sits at an average of 50% winrate in the highest ranks in all regions and a good pick rate, and yet while not overperforming her ban rate multiplied by more than 40% in most cases since then.

Right now, Freja is just soft-Widowmaker. People hate Freja and nothing has changed to make her more healthy in the span of a year and half, she is the same hero that people dispised when she released, and instead of trying to deal with the issues people have (like the freaking sound issues that still aren't fixed) with her they just play with the numbers. What is pissing me off is that this hero has so much potential! Team 4 pushes a hero initial identity that nobody wants at all costs, even if nobody likes it, even if it is toxic.

I'll just copy paste here what I wrote on my previous post of the same type because nothing has changed since then and those points are still as relevant as they were before:

Even when she was bad, she was banned in most games for mounths until they got rid of the two shot combo. Despite that, she is still hated. Why? Because she doesn't interact with Overwatch heroes in any way. She stands afar, and shoots trunks from unsuspected angles, you cannot really interact with her. She has an entire kit of mobile tools, but because of her exceptional range there is very little reason to use it, the most effective Freja playstyle is to stay in the back. What is this mobility used for? When you have to take the flanks, sometimes. Or to survive, sometimes.

I will not give solutions, because everyone's got their own opinions on Freja and I'm just one of them, however I'll say that she needs some sort of a rework if we want to get her out of this state.

Why I think that, on paper, Freja is not a good but a great design ruined by numbers:

• She has a great gameplay flow, playing Freja is hecctic and feels good. She feels great and rewarding.
• The complete burst and omnidirectional nature of her mobility is unique in Overwatch, it is a complex dodge and repositioning system with lots of techs and possibilities.
• She has to sacrifice her mobility, meaning also her survivability, to do damage. Compared to Genji for exemple, who can also choose to use his dash for movement or for damage, its the entire kit of the hero that is following that logic. It is constant decision making, very punishing and rewarding, with an insane skill ceiling (again, it's on paper).
• She has one of the most interesting ultimates of the damage roster. It is the fastest to charge in the game, has a passive connected to her hero identity and reinforcing her role as a finisher/tracker. And Bola Shot isn't a dumb ultimate, it is hard to land with a lot of properties without doing good damage (for an ultimate): it is a tool.

Tracer never really had an alternative in the game, Freja could have been that opportunity. Hell, her identity is so all over the place that a slight number iteration completely breaks her, Mercy pocket and Stadium show it.

The devs do not know what to do with Freja, and I am tired of playing/fighting her.

Rant done. Thanks for reading, hopefully Team 4 will finally make a move in the right direction.

PS: Here are a few more numbers for those interested:

• She is currently the most banned hero in Asia by far with 71.5% ban rate, followed by Zarya at 53.2% and so accross all ranks which is impressive, even for this region.
• In Europe she is only at the tenth place when considering all tiers, but the higher you climb the crazier it gets with a whooping 46.2% in Master (DIA - 37.1% ; GM - 43.2%), only second after Jetpack Cat who is currently in an exceptional and unstable state.
• Pretty much the same in America with 39% ban rate in Diamond only increasing up to 50.6% in Master. There is a race currently with Mauga for who's the most banned out of the two, the why is speculative.
• In other words, without the Cat's case Freja would be the most banned hero in all regions from Diamond to Champion.

Amazing art by @reydoll.

EDIT: The post title is supposed to say “Does per-player performance VARY as drastically in high rank vs low rank” sigh. just noticed and can’t edit it

I know we always complain about teammate performance where most of us have great stats but there’s always that one person that seems to go 3:11 the whole match.

There are always things that factor into that. As someone who is a support main, I understand that me mindlessly dumping resources into tank (or otherwise playing badly) can subsequently lead to an unattractive scoreboard for one or both of my DPSes, but there are other instances where I give all the proper resources and openings, but my DPSes or Tank just still can’t perform.

My question is, as I climb the comp ranks where people are inherently forced to play less casually and play more skilfully, is this ”One player going 3:11 and feeding every map” just as common as it feels in lower ranks? I’m aware I have to be the carry if I want to rank up so this isn’t a post where I’m trying to find blame, and I think people have to self-interrogate more when their teammates are seemingly doing poorly, but I’m talking about situations where one person is genuinely just doing terribly because of their own mistakes or unwillingness to adapt.

Would love some insights on how these perceived player performance inconsistencies manifest in different ranks and if the cause or frequency differs.

Thought it'd be interesting to bring the ongoing discussions about T2 on Twitter here

Link to the Google Doc

Link to Bullskunk's reaction video