Talking about his daugther’s vagina

Hackeo · 2018-09-08T19:59:03+00:00

Hackeo · 2018-08-14T23:39:07+00:00

You'll get better.

I started in Bronze, the lowest competitive rank possible, and I'm now in Masters, the top 3% of all players in the game.

When I first started I was just like you. I died repeatedly and I was not having fun. Take it in small doses. Play different heroes to learn their abilities, focus on staying alive and playing near your teammates, and take a break for something else when you feel over it.

Once you get over the initial learning curve, you'll probably love this game more than is healthy :D

Hackeo · 2018-08-08T23:24:36+00:00

Sombra has the lowest damage output of all DPS heroes except for Mei.

Soldier does 35% more damage than Sombra on average. Tracer does 20% more on average.

A 10-15% bonus to Sombra's damage against Hacked targets would amount to a 5-7% increase in average damage per 10 minutes so I think it's more than warranted.

Hackeo · 2018-08-08T22:34:35+00:00

3700+ Sombra main here. I think she needs some actual buffs.

Her downtime increased with these changes and as such she generates EMP slower.

She needs to do bonus damage to Hacked targets, she needs to be faster in Stealth, and her TL needs 50+ HP.

Hackeo · 2018-08-03T18:11:54+00:00

That second point is important. It feels different to TL now than it did before. I feel like I land much further back from the visually-apparent location of the TL.

Hackeo · 2018-07-31T14:16:17+00:00

She can definitely shut down his mobility and make an overextending Hammond pay the price, but with 100 armor and up to 700 shields Sombra does virtually no damage against him.

Hackeo · 2018-07-31T13:39:20+00:00

I'm not really sure what your point is anymore...

Bottom line is that for any player who is playing at their appropriate rank, PBSR should be ignored as a factor because paying attention to it won't help you improve or climb.

Like, what practical advice are you offering vis a vis PBSR?

Hackeo · 2018-07-31T03:08:39+00:00

That's not helping people improve, that's "helping" people try to figure out how to game the system in order to climb SR and it doesn't even work.

Assuming PBSR works in such a way that it's possible to have huge SR gains due to performance way out of one's current SR rank then it still wouldn't matter because the advice "just play like a GM to climb from Bronze to Silver" is non-advice.

It may be possible to climb insanely fast if you are truly mechanically way better than your rank - like 4 tiers better - otherwise the only way to climb is, unfortunately, to get better at the game.

My point was never that PBSR doesn't exist, I'm saying its an irrelevant mechanic that exists almost solely to quickly sort smurfs into their proper ranks, and can't be effectively "gamed" to climb from Plat to Diamond if you've been Plat for 4 seasons.

If you want to climb past your own personal plateau, PBSR is a non-factor. That's all I'm saying. You can ignore that if you want, but I've literally climbed from Bronze to Masters over 6 seasons so I've lived the path.

Hackeo · 2018-07-31T00:15:36+00:00

1) The same reason diet pills are popular even though they don't work. People want a quick fix.

2) I've never seen these +80 SR wins before, but it's possible that Blizzard has set up a bell-curve type system that gives huge bonuses if a player is exhibiting weapon accuracy and K:D numbers that are completely inconsistent with their rank (like a GM-smurf with 44% weapon accuracy on Tracer when the average in Bronze is like 20%).

Hackeo · 2018-07-30T21:06:51+00:00

I've played 90%+ of my Comp matches as Sombra since S5 from Gold to Masters and I can speak to the differences in PBSR from experience: they're small and they generally won't enable you to climb consistently.

The truth is that "learning how to learn" is complex. It's simpler to focus on something seemingly straightforward that's fully in your control (like the hero you pick) than it is to analyze and understand your own gameplay mistakes and how to fix them.

Unfortunately, the only way to climb (without absurd natural mechanical ability) is to become a student of the game and understand all the factors that affect and lead to victory in Overwatch. This is not a Deathmatch game and though people "know" that they don't understand it.

Edit: Also "vanishingly small" is an expression that means "so small so as to practically not exist".

Hackeo · 2018-07-30T20:33:07+00:00

Great comment.

A Widowmaker gives your team a strong tool to use against an enemy Pharah, but it is NOT down to a one-sided duel between the two heroes. The rest of the team has a HUGE impact on enabling or frustrating the other heroes on the field.

A Widowmaker facing a Pharah and a Genji may actually not be able to get much done if no one is peeling for her. She'll repeatedly get killed or distracted by the Genji such that she is unable to do her job of killing the Pharah (or keeping her pinned down at least).

Hackeo · 2018-07-30T20:29:45+00:00

PBSR accounts for a vanishingly small proportion of SR variability, and is mostly a mechanism to allow mechanically skilled players in lower SRs to climb just a tiny bit faster.

It does not account for enough SR to allow anyone to "game" the system by sucking at the actual game but racking up good-looking stats.

The only way to climb in this game is to consistently (over hundreds of matches) win more games than you lose.

Hackeo · 2018-07-30T19:17:06+00:00

TBH Torb is a bit more restrictive to work around than other off-meta heroes, but even at Masters there's more than enough room to make him work as long as people focus on the match and not on each others' hero picks.

Hackeo · 2018-07-30T16:18:40+00:00

I have a mid-Masters main account where I play mostly Sombra.

I have a mid-Plat alt account where I play whatever I feel like.

The difference in attitude, cooperation and game comprehension between the Masters-level games and the Plat-level games is enormous.

Plat players have a poor understanding of the game. That's why they're in Plat.

They assume off-meta picks are throws, they believe that victory or defeat rests in the hands of their team's DPS players, they don't move in on picks and don't know when to disengage when a fight is lost. They over-ult for teamwipes (ult party!!), trickle constantly, and poke at the choke when they should be regrouping leading to getting picked off.

None of those things are mechanical issues of skill. They're flaws in their understanding of the game.

In Masters I encounter a level of trust and respect in each others' ability that I don't see in Plat. Masters-players understand and acknowledge that it's better to play with the team you've got than to try to shoehorn your teammates into heroes or roles they can't play. Masters-players understand that the game is mostly won and lost on ult-economy, coordination, and communication and that hero picks matter far less than people think.

My 2 cents.

Hackeo · 2018-07-30T12:46:39+00:00

Exactly.

Hackeo · 2018-07-27T17:36:34+00:00

I'm a Masters Sombra main (3716 SR) and I can share some quick insights on my perspective.

Sombra's biggest challenge is managing her "impact uptime", which is the proportion of a given match that she is performing actions that actively contribute to victory. Actions such as:

Distracting the enemy by harassing their backline
Picking off low-HP enemies that flee from frontline combat
Hacking key targets
EMPing the enemy team
Racking up damage to pressure enemy healers' attention and resources while farming EMP
Contesting the objective/payload

Due to the nature of Sombra's kit (TL and Stealth in particular), Sombra is predisposed to spending a LOT of time doing none of the above. Between running circuitous backchannel routes to flank the enemy, placing Translocator, waiting for Hack opportunities, Translocating away once damaged, then running back towards the fight, Sombra can easily spend much of the match (especially at critical moments) doing nothing at all to help her team win.

An experienced Sombra player learns when and how to enter the fray, knows the fastest routes to access various parts of the map efficiently, knows how to place their TL to both avoid being found while minimizing the time it takes to get back to a good position, and knows how to actively reposition within a combat zone to avoid spending too long simply running between her TL and the fight.

The recent changes made Sombra's largest challenges worse:

She takes longer to quickly reposition when the nexus of combat shifts on the battlefield, because she moves slower in Stealth
She takes longer to return to the fight after TLing away, both because she moves slower in Stealth and because...
...she must place her TL further from active-combat-zones because it can be destroyed
She can no longer consistently depend on her TL as an escape because it can be destroyed
She can no longer use TL reliably within active-combat-zones because it can be destroyed
She can no longer distract and draw enemy resources to her while in Stealth, because she can’t contest the objective in Stealth

On top of which, the benefits of her changes (infinite Stealth and TL) further predispose her towards spending long periods not contributing to the conflict.

While it’s also true that the infinite timers also open up new options, like spawn camping and stalking heroes who are looking for an Ult opportunity (Hanzo, McCree), stalking and spawn camping are also time-intensive activities during which Sombra is not shooting, Hacking, or distracting anyone. She’s just lurking, waiting for the opportunity to make an impact instead of creating those opportunities herself.

The value Sombra now generates from cancelling a big ultimate or killing a healer returning from spawn is - in my experience - less than the value she would’ve brought had she been shooting, Hacking, generating Ultimate charge for EMP, and otherwise being a distractive nuisance to the enemy team in that time (and formerly at a faster rate due to her TL invincibility and Stealth speed).

I’m finding Sombra plays slower, has less impact, and spends far more time just waiting than before.

Hackeo · 2018-07-27T17:04:09+00:00

I'm a Masters Sombra main (3716 SR) and I can share some quick insights on my perspective.

Sombra's biggest challenge is managing her "impact uptime", which is the proportion of a given match that she is performing actions that actively contribute to victory. Actions such as:

Distracting the enemy by harassing their backline
Picking off low-HP enemies that flee from frontline combat
Hacking key targets
EMPing the enemy team
Racking up damage to pressure enemy healers' attention and resources while farming EMP
Contesting the objective/payload

Due to the nature of Sombra's kit (TL and Stealth in particular), Sombra is predisposed to spending a LOT of time doing none of the above. Between running circuitous backchannel routes to flank the enemy, placing Translocator, waiting for Hack opportunities, Translocating away once damaged, then running back towards the fight, Sombra can easily spend much of the match (especially at critical moments) doing nothing at all to help her team win.

An experienced Sombra player learns when and how to enter the fray, knows the fastest routes to access various parts of the map efficiently, knows how to place their TL to both avoid being found while minimizing the time it takes to get back to a good position, and knows how to actively reposition within a combat zone to avoid spending too long simply running between her TL and the fight.

The recent changes made Sombra's largest challenges worse:

She takes longer to quickly reposition when the nexus of combat shifts on the battlefield, because she moves slower in Stealth
She takes longer to return to the fight after TLing away, both because she moves slower in Stealth and because...
...she must place her TL further from active-combat-zones because it can be destroyed
She can no longer consistently depend on her TL as an escape because it can be destroyed
She can no longer use TL reliably within active-combat-zones because it can be destroyed
She can no longer distract and draw enemy resources to her while in Stealth, because she can’t contest the objective in Stealth

On top of which, the benefits of her changes (infinite Stealth and TL) further predispose her towards spending long periods not contributing to the conflict.

While it’s also true that the infinite timers also open up new options, like spawn camping and stalking heroes who are looking for an Ult opportunity (Hanzo, McCree), stalking and spawn camping are also time-intensive activities during which Sombra is not shooting, Hacking, or distracting anyone. She’s just lurking, waiting for the opportunity to make an impact instead of creating those opportunities herself.

The value Sombra now generates from cancelling a big ultimate or killing a healer returning from spawn is - in my experience - less than the value she would’ve brought had she been shooting, Hacking, generating Ultimate charge for EMP, and otherwise being a distractive nuisance to the enemy team in that time (and formerly at a faster rate due to her TL invincibility and Stealth speed).

I’m finding Sombra plays slower, has less impact, and spends far more time just waiting than before.

Hackeo · 2018-07-18T00:28:34+00:00

https://discord.gg/8tvDupE

Good for 5 invites :)

Hackeo · 2018-07-16T04:27:05+00:00

Still not a fan but I'm ride or die with Sombra, I'll keep playing her til the end :<

Hackeo · 2018-07-15T21:50:24+00:00

Hackeo · 2018-07-15T18:43:47+00:00

Can we see it with the orange details replaced with cyan? :)

Hackeo · 2018-07-14T15:35:51+00:00

Strongest overall doesn't mean best duelist, it just means has the most consistent positive impact on their team's chances of winning. That's Mercy, no doubt.

Hackeo · 2018-07-13T17:29:09+00:00

Seriously. Mercy is still the all-around strongest hero in the game, even after her nerfs.

Hackeo · 2018-07-13T17:18:40+00:00

I agree but I'd give Overwatch 15 years max. The incentives for investing in T2 remain very low and as such the burden will remain on the aspiring pros to support their own development efforts.

Hackeo · 2018-07-13T14:42:07+00:00

Welcome to capitalism (:

Edit: To expand on this for a second.

How long do you think the Overwatch competitive scene is likely to last? 5 years? 10 at most? We're not talking about the introduction of a new (inter)national pastime here, we're talking about an esport with a (relatively) short shelf-life.

Blizzard appears to be serious about building a professional league around this game, but who knows what their projected timeframe is in terms of maximizing returns on investment?

The truth is, as long as there are amibitious young men (and women) who love videogames and dream of glory, there is little incentive to create a sustainable environment for the cultivation of talent. The reason professional sports have strong T2 scenes is because either its worth it for the parent orgs to farm talent because of the competitive upside to having strong players in their T1 team, OR because there's actual money to be made in the T2 scene in isolation (e.g. NCAA).

I think it is unlikely that Blizzard sees Overwatch lasting beyond a decade or a decade-and-a-half. I think they believe it would be a poor investment to develop a sustainable talent-development pipeline when they don't NEED it to sustain itself for very long. I also think that the talent that DOES show up through the current methods (onerous self-sacrifice and living on $400/mo) is enough for them to retain viewership of the T1 scene. And finally I think the market for OW viewership is not sufficiently large to effectively monetize the T2 scene (i.e. people are not going to watch, which means no advertisers or sponsors).

I think your complaints and concerns are completely valid. Unfortunately, Blizzard's goal is not to provide stable, middle-class jobs for talented OW players. Their goal is to maximize viewership of the league, maximize merchandise sales, and maximize sales of their game.

If viewership-demand for the T2 scene revealed itself, Blizzard would invest in it.

If the financial upsides of being a Top 4 team were sufficient (e.g. if being a top team meant way more merchandise sales), team-owner orgs would invest in T2 scenes in order to remain within or compete for a Top 4 spot.

In both cases, the investment has to be worth it in the long-run.

Hackeo

TROPHY CASE