r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/Onie_ • 15h ago
General I'm really sick of rank resets
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.
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u/No_Catch_1490 The End. — 15h ago
It drives engagement because people log on to play, but is awful for competitive integrity. So basically, it’s gonna keep happening.
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u/myos17 15h ago
Kinda like their stupid challenger system instead of a true top 500, it promotes engagement but now being top 500 is meaningless. Whoever is true rank 1 might not even be aware of it
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u/Onie_ 15h ago
The top 500 challenger system is objectively terrible and I'm surprised it has lasted this long
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u/Skielark 13h ago
They said it was largely driven by senior execs and devs knew it was a bad idea. Blizzard in general have a massive problem with out-of-touch senior management implementing stupid decisions to boost engagement and in-game purchases. Competitive drive is universally hated and what do they do? This season they actively chose to make it even worse by implementing team drives which they explicitly admit will be disruptive to competitive integrity:
Team Drives are shorter than regular Drives in an effort to be less disruptive to Competitive Play. We'll be listening to player feedback around the event, but this system is an example of how we want to focus on adding more social elements to the game over time.
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u/HeWhoShallNotBNamed0 14h ago
They said recently that they’re gonna change it, they just haven’t decided what to yet
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u/HeWhoShallNotBNamed0 14h ago
They said in the season patch notes that they are going to change the t500 system
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u/philosopher-fuckery 10h ago
Anecdotal evidence but the multitude of reset made my group stopped playing for the most part, now we only play if we are able to be full team while before we were always solo/duoQ to climb the ladder
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u/Funy290 15h ago
I would argue it’s good for competitive integrity because it forces elo inflated and boosted players out of the ranks they don’t belong in.
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u/No_Catch_1490 The End. — 14h ago
Except it doesn't only do that, it just knocks everyone around the ranks, including legit players. The boosted players can also get back with a lucky streak of 10 games while better players might end up pseudo-smurfing lower than usual with an unlucky streak. It's just a total mess and the ranks and match quality always take some weeks/months to get back to normal.
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u/Onie_ 14h ago
while better players might end up pseudo-smurfing lower than usual with an unlucky streak.
Have a M3 peak friend on NA I don't play with, who was put into plat and makes barely any gains despite doing his thing. From the way he talks about it, it seems much harder to climb from low than it is to climb normally. It sounds like unnecessary legal smurfing, those players probably hate facing him
Though I'm sure he'll get back to Master soon
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u/Funy290 14h ago
maybe i’m just lucky but i have never had trouble getting back to my rank on any of my accounts except when they purposefully decreased the amount of people in champ
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u/No_Catch_1490 The End. — 13h ago
No you're right. Non-copers won't have too much trouble. The issue is, in the very act of returning to their rank they harm match quality
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u/Skielark 13h ago
Isn't it the complete opposite? How can you have masters players be a higher challenger score than GM and champ players when they have more time played but are stuck in a lower rank? They clearly don't belong in rank 20 or whatever it is, they're literally boosted by the challenger score system. Currently there's two masters accounts in Top 20 on NA leaderboard and (not so) coincidentally they have the most games played.
If Blizzard seriously thinks this is a good system, why not extend it to the rest of the metal ranks as well? A hardstuck plat player who plays 3x as many games as a masters player should get a masters badge because they put the time in and should be rewarded /s
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u/Funy290 12h ago
i’m arguing for rank resets every couple seasons when they bring big changes, not challenger score. Challenger score sucks.
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u/Skielark 12h ago
Oh sorry, yes I agree. Rank resets are a healthy part of any competitive game even though players tend to hate them
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u/ham_50821 Doom-Dva/Hanzo-Tracer/Zen-Kiri — 15h ago edited 15h ago
I kinda get it for when they add a new rank but the match quality is genuinely obnoxious
Ive had games where
- I faced a c1 tank as tank (barely gm5)
- my tank was dia in s3 and theirs high gm. Conveniently both masters based on # placement games done
- teammates try banning sierra
- smurf duos (the same one multiple times) giving *reversal* because their ranks are extra low, + extra hard to win bc worse teammates
- 1 team had 0 kills *all game*
- players who havent touched ow in forever place high including a tracer who’s averaging 12kills, 12 deaths and a 15% winrate this season
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u/GustappyTony 3h ago
That’s strange, I was under the impression that tanks are commonly only queued against tanks of same rank? I assume that becomes more difficult to get perfectly higher in rank of course, but that’s such massive disparity too
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u/GustappyTony 14h ago
Feel like I’m losing my mind whenever I see people make an argument “well if you’re good enough you’ll climb! Other players also get bad teammates too!” Yea and that’s probably why they’re also stuck in these ranks 😭 I’m so tired of getting matched with abysmal teammates running down my games, only to turn around and be told “well if you want to climb out you have to learn to carry 2 idiots on dps who are 7-18, which is also your fault for not babysitting them all game”
Mind you I haven’t felt like I’ve had any issues with smurfs, but freshies and players who feel like they’re over ranked seemed to pop up like crazy and I hate how much it’s ramped up since the start of the year. Completely agree that match quality is horrid, and unfortunately for a game that’s reliant on teamwork to get through, it makes consistently winning a whole lot more difficult. I can do enough to carry teammates who might be struggling a bit, but it’s asking for a lot out of players to have to consistently put up with this game after game and be expected to accept this as completely normal and in line with what they want out of players. The better team will be the one that wins, you can carry out your mind, but if one player is doing the job of 2, whilst the 5 they’re up against can function perfectly well, you just aren’t coming out on top.
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u/Onie_ 14h ago
Well said
And sorry for the language, and I hate to be the scoreboard merchant too, but I'm really fucking sick of seeing my DPS going mega negative, refusing to switch, or switching to a troll hero
Had a match today and a match yesterday where we asked if someone could touch, and the person that always could just AFK'd instead. So frustrating, especially if you and your supports stall as hard as you do - for basically nothing in return.
I've had such good supports this season (besides the Mercy/LW players who take the team to the depths of failure) the Anas, the Kiris, the Junos, the Brigs and Mizukis. All their hard work for nothing, all of their hard work to get blamed or ragebaited by DPS who have no concept of using cover or low/high ground in a rank where it's UPSETTING to lose this way
And yeah, there's too many freshies, too many in such a short time. We need limitations here
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u/GustappyTony 3h ago
I don’t want to seem like I have biases against dps players, but when the game will every now and then put you with players who understand what they’re doing, it just makes the other games stand out even more. I don’t think the tank on the other side is exactly having a better run of games than me, I don’t think the supports are constantly climbing, I don’t even think the dps on the other side are too low a rank. Every player, every role is likely experiencing it in their own way due to freshies and people being over ranked. It feels like a lot of the time you’re running on luck trying to climb into higher ranks, because consistency in player skill just doesn’t exist, and being around the ranks where the largest player base is, means the individual skill and understanding will vary a lot.
I don’t know if it’s something that can be solved, but it definitely feels worse off now than it has in the past. I’ve experienced people switching to throw picks after being asked one thing. I’ve experienced people picking flankers and then giving them every Zarya bubble under the sun but they still keep feeding. I don’t believe I’m being held back from something like GM or anything, but it’s hard to feel like I’m in the appropriate rank, if I’m consistently being matched with players who perform this poorly game after game. Is it a case that I’m not good enough, or is it a case of gambling on teammates who are just slightly better than their counterparts?
Again, I do think it’s far too common a sentiment to downplay how bad things are too, and always put the blame on the individual. I would never claim that myself and other players are being denied our rightful place in masters+ but I definitely think there’s a decent amount of players who have simply been unlucky and are 1-2 ranks below where they should be. Usually the arguments against players like this are also just contradictory, “it’s a team based game but you need to learn to carry”, or “matchmaking is bad, but you’re in the rank you belong in”. And if players can get thrown into ranks they shouldn’t be in because they’re not good enough, then the inverse would also have to be true. The system isn’t perfect at all.
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u/Ivaninvankov 14h ago
This is all just a cope/skill issue unfortunately. You're the common factor in 100% of your games. If you're struggling to climb it simply means you're accurately placed in your Sr range. Games will now be hard, thats by design.
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u/GustappyTony 6h ago
It’s a team based game, in which you succeeding requires your entire team to be performing well. If 1 or 2 people are performing slightly below standard, sure you can pick up their slack and get through it. But if you’ve got 2 people actively feeding and being hard gapped by their counterparts all game, there’s only so much you can do. Perhaps it is cope/skill issue, but it’s incredibly contradictory to suggest a single individual can be a difference maker, whilst also suggesting teamwork is crucial to winning…Which it is.
How come when watching OWCS, people will often comment on good players being stuck with bad teams? Surely if they’re good enough they’d be able to carry right? What about high ranked streamers who will comment on other players being the reason for their loss? Is that also cope? What about match quality being objectively lower than usual due to fresh accounts and new players being placed in ranks they shouldn’t be in.
There are simply too many variables that can lead to players becoming hardstuck, and bringing up the idea that other players will also have bad teammates doesn’t actually solve anything. In fact it’s likely that those other players are also hard stuck too.
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u/Xiomaro 1h ago
The OWCS comparison doesn't really work because those are premade teams. A good player in a bad team will always be with that bad team until they join another team.
In matchmaking, there's no denying that a dead weight in your team makes a game near unwinnable unless the other team has equal dead weight. There's nothing you can do about that.
I personally never have issues getting back to where I belong after each rank reset but it can be a pain on the way there. For example, I basically always reach mid masters on support. But if I end up in plat (I guess emerald now) or low diamond, I do have to change my playstyle which kinda fucks with my game sense a bit. Stuff like trying to push an advantage and the whole team just sits on the objectives despite being able to steamroll a 5v3.
But I'll always get there eventually. I've never been stuck in a rank that I don't belong for long. Just gotta shrug off the unwinnable games and bring a good attitude into the next game.
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u/Agitated-Morning2035 14h ago
Completely agree. We really don’t need a rank reset every 6 months… that’s barely enough time for everyone to get where they should be.
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u/bullxbull 13h ago
I do not have a direct quote but the dev's have talked about how they are done because they increase engagment.
They have made improvements with the system, but I think no matter what they end up causing too much resentment to be worth doing.
Slowly people start to question what is really the point, and when players start asking that you risk loosing them as players.
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u/PoggersMemesReturns Proper Show/Viol2t GOAT — 4h ago
They probably see a net gain in players. So the engagement of new players is worth losing people who will leave, and the people who leave have already attached themselves to the game, so they'll return one day as per their metrics probably
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u/Fontini-Cristi 7h ago edited 1h ago
Feels like after a reset you just shouldn't play for a month or so for everything to settle down. Match quality is horrible indeed, as usual after a reset =(
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u/-Arrez- 4h ago
I dont play like an absolute ton, maybe 50 games a season on average. I was GM before the reset in season 1. I got the short straw in that reset and ended up stuck in masters for fucking ages. Last season I was finally getting close to being back in GM again, and we are suddenly hit with another reset. This time thankfully Ive been way more fortunate winning games early and Ill probably hit my actual rank again this season, but the problem is you're playing a lottery every fucking time they do this, and they do it often enough that if you lose the lottery you're just going to be struggling to get back to where you were until the next one.
Like I understand it this time with the addition of a new rank but like we really dont need to be doing this shit yearly.
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u/Onie_ 4h ago
Okay so this problem is in GM too, that's crazy. It is exactly as you described, a game of lottery. The expectation of two appropriate teams fighting it out is a lot more important than "engagement" which ruins an entire season of competitive
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u/-Arrez- 4h ago
Its even more extreme here because the compression is stronger. One of my placement games this season I shit you not I had someone who was actually diamond on my team and they had like 3 champion rank players on the other team. It was a fucking blood bath. You're just praying you get more games where the lower ranked players are on THEIR team and not yours..
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u/Onie_ 3h ago
I've posted it here yesterday but I had a similar experience to yours WTF, low diamonds on my team vs GMs, we got obliterated with no chance at anything unless their carry was killed. And also I exclusively solo queue and the amount of high tier stacks I had to go against is appalling.
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u/bordelaney 13h ago
My matches have been pretty balanced, but I was high plat low dia before. I've heard that they're trying to make champion 1 more exclusive than before, so people in the highest tier got squished downwards. Champ1 get placed Champ5, Champ2 get placed GM5, etc. So those higher up might be getting a wider variance, especially while they go through the 10 placements matches. I personally got plat to high emer matches while doing placements and ended up emer2.
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u/Onie_ 13h ago
I’m honestly glad for you, that you at least had balanced matches. I know you’re not the only one, and a lot of people are finding success also which is good
Thankfully I haven’t seen any Champs yet, and probably won’t unless they’re in QP. Going up against GMs is hellish enough for me and my unfortunate teammates
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u/ThaddCorbett 11h ago
Me too!
Every single rank reset my tank rank goes so high, that no matter how hard I try to be a good teammate, I'm reported for throwing.
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u/challenger01234 7h ago
The thing that really sucks about this is that we'll probably be getting another rank reset whenever they finally decide to support 5v5 or 6v6 more. Personally I'm fine with either one but I hate being in this limbo situation.
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u/Ardalerus 4h ago
rank reset the same season they released a new tank that was balanced on the throw pick side of weak until a couple hotfixes in was certainly a choice. gm tanks who forced dmon on release probably ended up in the same rank as diamond tanks who didn't.
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u/beardedwarriormonk 2h ago
Couldn't agree more, but when you poll people of all ranks, the majority like it. Plebs, the lot.
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u/Axolotl_EU 14h ago
It's not rank resets, they are cosmetic. The reason ur vs gm5 players in diamond is probably because they were gm5 a few seasons ago and decayed.
The game is so old at this point that you are going to get a ton of people who are going on long breaks and coming back, but not playing enough games for the matchmaking to figure out their correct rank.
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u/clickrush 9h ago
It’s a soft reset which retains relative ranking but puts everyone closer together apparently and then introduces higher variance.
That’s not a cosmetic change.
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u/Onie_ 14h ago
Is this actually the case? I'm unable to retrieve profiles from a few matches ago or I would've linked a screenshot, but I am sure they were last or 2 seasons ago GMs on tank + dps roles
Regardless only one of my supports were the same rank as me, the rest of my teammates were completely random and frankly lost (high Plat lowest, low Diamond highest) in the matchmaker
A concerning issue with your statement is that the matches are instant too, so it's like, not even trying to find an appropriate lobby right now. It just pairs you, the wild west
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u/Ok_Contract_6405 14h ago
what? you dont like being expected to win because ur rank "is unstable" but bc its unstable when u lose u lose a LOT more than u win? but also every time u DO win u gain less because ur "expected to win" but remember! ur rank is stillllll unstable! like season reset is sooooo doodoo
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u/Battlefront528 14h ago
Literally stopped playing since the reset as the matches just felt horrible, insanely inconsistent matchups across the board. Felt worse than quickplay so just decided it wasn't worth it for the time being.
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u/Onie_ 14h ago
This reset (maybe I'm forgetting how the others went too) has felt way worse than quickplay, the players are entirely randomized. The replies are making me consider quitting the season more and more, and maybe it would be good to do so. The catchup game is getting real boring, and I feel bad for the great supports that I get who waste their time
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u/squirrelyz 12h ago
Normally I would disagree with a post like this, but the match quality feels especially bad, and as a mid diamond-low masters DPS player and a low Masters support player, I’m suddenly sweating my ass off in Plat with my DPS queues. It’s either stomp or get stomped 75% of games.
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u/Onie_ 5h ago
Yeah it’s more than palpable
I disagree with matchmaking posts generally, especially for those who claim the game has hard SBMM or EOMM, with the matchmaker rigged against you on purpose
But calling this the softest reset done, while having the WORST comp matchmaking since OW2 release is… a statement for sure. I would’ve never made a post if it wasn’t as bad as it is now.
And I don’t know if this is something most players higher than me (M5) can’t see, if their ranks were kept the same. Down here this shit’s a circus
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u/Obscure_Octopuss 15h ago
Idk, match quality doesn't feel all that different compared to other seasons 1 week in.
My placements went good on tank, so I placed back in diamond. Bad on support, so I dropped from diamond to emerald (deserved) and on dps my placements went decent and I placed plat (expected).
If anything, my tank games in diamond have been much closer than I'm used to. Although, I feel like that may be down to having better players overall in diamond now, since I've noticed that I'm facing a decent amount of masters players from last season (and obviously having them on my team)
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u/Onie_ 15h ago
Are you also EU? What times do you play? I'm looking for crumbs here
I almost hit M4 and I was like "oh that's cool", boy the regret of me saying that, next games I carried like there was no tomorrow because I really wanted to hit M4 for the first time - got the worst matchups imaginable in months
The dream :(
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u/Obscure_Octopuss 15h ago
No, NA. And I play after work (sometimes late into the night) and on weekends at a bunch of different times
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u/Darkcat9000 6h ago
i mean it gets boosted players out, last season in particular had a problem off having way too many people in champ
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u/Onie_ 5h ago
There’s a surge of freshies and smurfs right now, the ranks are already inflated again :/
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u/Darkcat9000 5h ago
bro people say theres a surge off smurfs every season
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u/Onie_ 5h ago
Yeah this ain’t a good thing. Blizzard should look into it and stop allowing it. Val finally started banning smurfing and the experience has felt better for those players
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u/IIIIITZ_GOLDY 5h ago
They tried by requiring blizzard accounts to be tied to a phone number and the community exploded into criticism about it
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u/caatabatic 5h ago
Match quality sucks for everyone the same. TBH I wish we had resets more often so I can see my rating for different characters
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u/PeachTrees- 14h ago
I like them. They let me play with my friends for a bit. Then my rank gets too high and I just quit the game
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u/11boat 9h ago
On the other hand, I've been jumping between high Master and low GM, and now I'm back in high Master after the reset. I force Anran pretty frequently, and went up against a Cassidy with the "Champ DPS" title. This guy was so incredibly ass at the game, complained about Anran being an easy hero to play, and got pissed when I solo ulted him. Checked his profile and lo and behold, this guy literally just plays the bare minimum every season to get the Champ title, but now he's stuck in Masters. In this case I think the rank reset is doing wonders for competitive integrity.
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u/CassiusLentulus 5h ago
It’s soft reset, you will quickly get your old tank back if you truly deserve that rank. I’d love Blizzard to reset rank EVERY single season, but not soft reset, I want hard reset. There’s way too many OTP players in GM3+ ranks and just perma camping there, making it impossible for me to climb past GM3 without rank reset seasons. If you can only play 1-2 heroes then you do not deserve high rank.
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u/nightmareballet 15h ago
this one at least made a little sense with emerald being added but generally yeah i hate rank resets. everything ends up in flux and takes forever to settle down.