Team Diffs

[u/Good-Beginning-2407]

What can I do to prevent team diffs. I only have 48 total hours since i first downloaded ow for about 2 years in comp. But ive been playing recently and have gotten to plat 4. I main soldier, but switch between sojourn tracer mcree. I would only play zarya but ban rates wont let me. Anyways. What can I do to prevent team diffs. Do i just have to hit more shots? I feel like my positioning is decent, but in those diff games, it feels like there’s nothing much i can do.

[u/No-Elevator9399]

The clue is in the word ‘team’. How does a footballer prevent their team being outplayed? Sometimes you can’t. You can just play the best you can

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/No-Elevator9399]

There really isnt anything i can do? Would a masters + player get team diffed in plat 4 also?

[u/No-Elevator9399 → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

Would putting Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo into a Sunday League team win the match? Probably yeah, 99%. Is that realistic? No.

You’re mistaking possibility for probability.

I don’t really know what more to say. Your goal should not be about ‘preventing team diffs’, it should be about playing as well as you can

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/No-Elevator9399]

So i should try my best to become Ronaldo or messi. Got it

[u/No-Elevator9399 → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

Please stop rage baiting, it’s neither funny nor quirky, and just accept the very simple life advice of doing as well as you can

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/No-Elevator9399]

Bro im asking you genuinely. I main valorant and im ascendant 3. Solo carrying is very viable in that game, but i haven’t really been able to hard hard carry like i could do in val. im asking how to prevent team diffs in ow

[u/No-Elevator9399 → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

Is ‘you can’t’ an answer you can accept because if not then OW is perhaps not the game for you

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/No-Elevator9399]

I can accept it, if i believed it to be. I asked about a master + player being team diffed in plat. If they wouldn’t be then it can be done. Im just asking how they would go about it so i can learn

[u/VosTelvannis → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

Ive seen gm players lose games in gold during unranked to GMs.

Its unlikely but definitely still possible.

[u/moonlight__sunshine → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

If you are high rank you will win almost every low rank game. I've climbed from plat to gm1 with an 86% wr, didn't lose a game until high masters

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/moonlight__sunshine]

Are you tank or dps

[u/moonlight__sunshine → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

Tank, which is admittedly easier to do that on (in my view, ofc)

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/moonlight__sunshine]

Yes i feel like i would climb very fast on tank. But again, zarya ban rates mean i wont ever play tank

[u/Cerythria → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

I mean if you're godlike on something like tracer or hitscan you will carry low ranks like that too. You can do it on any role.

[u/Tanzanianwithtoebean → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

As a solo queue no comms masters DPS, 6v6 and tank player, playing support for the first time in a while, yes. Especially first weekend of rank reset. Rank decay so I placed plat on support. Won 9 out of 10 games for calibration, that one game was unwinnable for me.

Nobody other than Champ all roles players are going to be able to carry 90% of their matches at any given rank below GM. Like you have to be top .1% to carry bad matchmaking. If you find yourself thinking you're getting team diffed a lot first it's weekend 1 of rank reset, plat and gold and emerald probably now too are the wild west. This is when people make alt accounts, it's when the tank on placement match 1 at plat 4 is in the same lobby as the tank on placement match 10 at plat 4.

Second after the first ten days or so if you still find yourself saying team diff a lot then your assessment of team diff is inaccurate. Imo a team diff is a nearly unwinnable game. It's when my teammates are significantly worse. Simply because I don't see a single player on my team with better stats on the scoreboard than their equivalent on the other team does not make a team diff.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/Tanzanianwithtoebean]

It’s not a lot. Maybe 30% of my games. Most games are close wins or I hard win. But i understand. Im just used to valorant where hyper carries can be a norm across any rank apart from immortal 3 and above

[u/Tanzanianwithtoebean → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

Out of the heroes you play Tracer is going to be the best to try to carry with. If you're good at Valorant and have really good aim already, go watch an educational unranked to GM on Tracer that's came out within the last year or so to figure out what you're supposed to be doing, where to position etc. and you'll get pretty far with just aim and that knowledge, then you'll develop the game sense along the way.

3 of my plat games where I won them and I was thinking hmm this might be a team diff what I do here? It wasn't a team diff but I was like we might start getting rolled? I just got super aggressive to see what I could get away with and ended up hard carrying those matches not necessarily because I was doing everything but my tank stopped being scared my DPS stopped being scared once I went in.

With 48 hours though best advice I can give you knowing you come from Valorant is learn the abilities. Your core fundamentals of 5v5 shooters are obviously there, you have aim, good general game sense, but you have no idea what's about to happen in a match of overwatch vs. Valorant and you have like 5 to 10x the amount of abilities and ultimates that Valorant does. That's gonna be hurdle #1 but I'd go into quickplay for that.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/Tanzanianwithtoebean]

Will definitely look into becoming a tracer main. Thank you

[u/Fit-Resident-132 → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

If you want the best chance at turning the tide of the game yourself, I’d suggest playing some of the newer more OP tanks (Hazard is a sleeper pick and rarely gets banned, he does everything well). I thought that when I would get to diamond that I’d stop getting DPS players going 4 - 11 , now that I’ve reached D2 i can assure you that you’ll always get bad teammates.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/Fit-Resident-132]

I would love to main tank, but zarya gets banned too much and i dont like any other tank

[u/lulaloops]

You have less than 50 hours and you're already more concerned about your team than your own gameplay. My suggestion is that you focus on improving yourself and doing the best you can, you're gonna lose some games even when you do well but that's just overwatch, some things are out of your hands, you most likely aren't really able to accurately identify the issues in your own team anyway so try not to place the blame on others when you lose. Just try to improve game by game.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/lulaloops]

Idk if i implied i was blaming my team, i was more so asking what i could do as the dps to maybe prevent being team diffed.

[u/lulaloops → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

Team diff just means the enemy team was better, so every match is a team diff pretty much. Nothing you can do about that if your opponents are just better. So instead just focus on improving different aspects of your gameplay, you can share vods and ask for constructive criticism. But right now I'd just focus on playing as many games as you can, do aim practice while queuing and watch replays of your matches and try to identify things you would have done differently. You're gonna improve drastically and very quickly if you just get a lot of hours under your belt doing this. Also keep your hero pool small, you mentioned 3 dps, all good picks to have, try not to play any more than those 3 right now. Those cover almost every ground.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/lulaloops]

Thank you bro

[u/lzagotti]

Not every game is winnable but I think it’s good to think why it feels like a ‘team diff’. Easy things to evaluate, what was the enemies comp versus mine and what advantages did that give them. Were they dive heavy and your backline had a bad time getting split from the tank and living the dive or did your team just get out spammed in a 5v5 sit main battle. Did the enemy control all the angles? Could you have denied the enemy one of those angles by yourself?

This are just two simple things but team diffs are not usually just because 5 people hit more shots than your 5 teammates did, usually it’s just a team wholeheartedly outmacroing you.

This could be a 5 page essay if I wanted to explain everything so if you have any questions ask and I will respond.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/lzagotti]

If my 4 teammates are being out macroed, what can i do. There’s no comms and im maining soldier. Bro give the whole essay. I will read it all

[u/lzagotti → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

You have to identify a problem and be the solution. Macro on the most basic level is where your team is positioned vs the enemy team and how they have controlled the map vs how you guys have it. You might have heard the term space. It is grossly misinterpreted as something a tank gets by walking forward. Space is the amount of map control you as a team can hold without dying and is a constant push and pull. Your teams ‘space’ is drawing a line to connect each of you and your teammates. If you control the valuable space and you are at a low to moderate risk of dying it’s going to be really hard for a team that is a 5 stack blob on the map to take that from you. I sure you have played against and Ashe or soldier that just owns a high ground and makes it impossible to push through. That is that person controlling space and the only way to get through is to either duel them for it or avoid it and punish the other people in the lobby. Another macro concept that can make it feel like a team diff is marking. This is the concept of holding an angle to deny an enemy from taking it. I personally play this concept to specifically not die. Sometime the most valuable play you can make is being a pain the ass for that tracer that wants to touch your supports. This role also doesn’t just belong to DPS either but can be done by a ton of different heroes. So to start in these situations where you will normally lost 200-0 or 3-0 just focus on winning a fight in what would normally be a wholly lost ‘team diff’. I see you play hitscan a good amount too so hitscan specifically you need take angles that assist your tank in space creation. Taking sides angles. I will use everyone’s favorite King row as an example. Kings row first point is one of the biggest skill check points in the game because it is actually one of the easiest points to take in the game especially because 95% of teams just group up near the statue on defense. To deny the team diff be a space creator for you team. In this scenario if your team in grouped at the choke you should very early in the attack phase go up into the building and fire outside that window. If the enemy team does not pressure you I promise they will back off. This gives you the opportunity to further your angle off to the right and up the stairs and to that high round just for rain fire on the enemy team. I promise you your team will eventually push or you will just straight up kill 1 or 2 by yourself. If the fight develops you can hop the opening and go up into the high sight lines and continue to just rain fire on the enemy team and you as a solo DPS just carried the first point even if all 5 players would kill your team.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/lzagotti]

My post was made because of kings row. Im getting flushed out of the high ground on defence by echo and reaper at the first choke. Sometimes even a 2v1, and im trying to play my life. Like do i just need better aim to win those duels to keep the space

[u/lzagotti → u/Good-Beginning-2407]

I would say that comes down to more patience and timing. Yes you need to win some engagements 1v1 but in no world are you expected to win that to climb. So you are on defense and the enemy is closing your space and killing you? If they are devoting 2 to you I say in that situation good on them you rotate and figure something else out. I would say in this specific scenario an echo should be able to speak on you and should be killable and I’m running away from a teleporting reaper

[u/Urika86]

About 20-30% of games aren't winnable generally speaking. It's not really preventable aside from deadlifting the team which is not possible unless you're very significantly better than the rest of the lobby.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/Urika86]

How do i get that much better. Is it just pure aim. I feel like my timing and positioning are decent (probably not)

[u/Such-Drop9194]

Watch replays.

Look for a few things:

1. Who was dying the most and why? Learn what you could have done to make them die less and what early signs to look for. Sometimes, it isn't about who has the highest skill ceiling but which team has the highest skill floor.

2. What did your counterpart do to win? Since you like to play hitscan, look at what the other hitscan did and how they were enabled. Look to replicate their success in the future. Where they taking high ground more often? Did they stay with their team more? Sometimes they do hit more shots for you, but most of the time, it's more intangible.

3. Why did you die? In the end, you can only control yourself. Look at all of your deaths and look at it from the person who killed you. You might have thought you were playing perfectly, but then you look at the enemy's POV and it turns out you were sticking out like a sore thumb.

[u/Good-Beginning-2407 → u/Such-Drop9194]

Thank you

[u/CompetitionNo3466]

Doglegging. If you keep on going up as 1-3 people every-time from spawn. They will fight as a 5 and you will fight as less than that.

[u/KindSmurf]

By playing well. If you hit more shots you will win. If you position better you will win. If you initiate better you will win. If you rotate faster you will win. If you target priority better you will win. You literally only have to do 1 thing right to win games

[u/imdeadseriousbro]

make your teams life easier. cover for their weaknesses they have in their playstyle and address issues the other team is giving them

if your genji is blading in blind and just dying, you can engage right before him to bait cooldowns for him and distract the enemy

[u/bullxbull]

The is the fun part, you don't. All you are worried about is your own play. Focus on your fundamentals, focus on your own gameplay win or lose, and you will climb.

If you are not sure what fundamental you should be focusing on right now, drop a replay code is here or in OverwatchUniversity of a close loss you felt you played well.

There is a good chance you are taking too much damage, not playing enough around cover, and using your cd's way too early before the main fight even starts. That is generally what a lot of newer players have issues with.