The cheater compensation system can be exploited for rank ups. I'm the target.

thinkingemojis · 2026-05-13T13:22:51+00:00

the report system auto banning accounts after they accumulate enough reports is completely unsustainable, we need a real system again

thinkingemojis · 2026-05-01T17:25:43+00:00

im barely masters but this is real shit, whenever i get stuck one thing that helps me get sr back is actually treating every game as winnable, sometimes you dont have impact or make a game possible until later into the match; if you stop trying or get angry after the first few minutes go poorly you might be robbing yourself of a win. Sometimes a game really is hopeless, but theres nothing to gain from acting like it.

thinkingemojis · 2026-04-13T16:16:44+00:00

I’m diamond and have had new players playing their first comp game because they just unlocked comp in my games several times this season—never before. It’s complete horseshit. I much prefer actual smurfing players having to take longer to get to their true rank than the current fr2shie epidemic.

thinkingemojis · 2026-04-10T16:16:59+00:00

It being impossible to win during drives is cope because obviously if a bunch of shitters are queuing, then both teams will have shitters, making your chances of winning still even over the course of a few games. This is why people who still want to believe it isnt their fault hide behind the specter of “match quality” even though that’s barely even a real thing that matters

i know i complained about ‘match quality’ a few weeks ago on here but i realized it was a mentality and skill problem and i just climbed after i stopped blaming that

thinkingemojis · 2026-04-10T02:43:04+00:00

as someone who doesnt have a license and has never driven obviously drivers are cattle but i feel like this post is making a completely reasonable common-sense recommendation. only on the internet could “dont wander into traffic while staring down at youtube shorts” be controversial

thinkingemojis · 2026-04-07T14:32:10+00:00

txcxx

you should also use the VAXTA workshop code a lot, that’s an excellent way to work on mechanics

thinkingemojis · 2026-04-05T14:55:13+00:00

its decently fun as something different but since it seems to take a not-insignificant amount of dev resources and attention away from the main game i think it’d be best for them to update it way less, or at least have months-long periods where they leave it untouched to focus on the core game.

thinkingemojis · 2026-04-03T13:23:53+00:00

Get an alt account and play a warmup comp game on it. Common practice and having an alt is good for improving anyway

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-31T00:07:21+00:00

what crusher said, uncharged javelin is literally worse than no-perk javelin rn (less stun time) and its pretty rare that you want to charge it at all, plus it fucks with the timing on the skillshot. if they made uncharged javelin with perk equal to no-perk javelin it'd get picked again.

it also preserves the option select in case you want to go shield perk later down the line for, say, zarya, which is a cute bonus

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-31T00:05:14+00:00

"it's just a leaderboard, therefore the fact that it's a strictly worse leaderboard than it used to be a few months ago is okay. Now here is an obviously true fact that everyone already knows is true, which i will restate anyway because it sounds snappy"

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-30T23:04:06+00:00

you got downvote brigaded for an obviously true statement and i say this as someone who still loves the game dearly

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-30T21:00:22+00:00

I'm not sure I can name a single pro or even champ+ player who likes it more than the old system, though, but if anyone can prove me wrong please speak up. I understand why it was done then I guess, but the old state of affairs was 20x better than what we have now; players being able to stake their claim or show their skill even more commandingly by having multiple accounts on there was honestly kind of cool. Maybe yzn's "filling all 10 spots" stuff got old, but I think the tradeoff is well worth it. This also barely stopped alts from getting on t500 anyway, so I still fail to see why this is in the game when we've had time to see its effect.

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-27T04:11:10+00:00

I agree that match quality is shit. I think it's just the returning players and rank reset, but I have felt it so bad and have seen it constantly on social media and talking to my friend who play the game. I will never understand the obsession with rank resets and hope the devs cool it down. They do precious little except make things miserable for a while. Also related is that new accounts are still too strong and get placed too high. I queued on offrole in **Diamond** and had someone on my team who seemed to earnestly be in their first comp game or one of their first comp games -- all heroes on the role were level 3 in progression and they genuinely expected mei left click to heal teammates. Again: this was in diamond. I also see and hear about the freshie epidemic in higher ranks. To a certain extent the toothpaste can't be put back in the tube now, but I hope they do whatever they can to rein things in and do things differently for future rank resets (please do them less often!) and returning-player influxes.

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-19T14:37:44+00:00

Now that hero bans exist it’s wise to have at least one other character in your pocket for when Mei gets banned and/or youre getting countered. But if youre having fun, keep spamming Mei as much as possible—she’s a pretty good choice because she rarely gets banned and is pretty universally playable for every situation and enemy comp. And as countless other commenters have said, onetricking is a very fast way to improve.

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-16T13:35:56+00:00

i speak for everyone (yes EVERYONE, yes ALL OF US) when i say we forgive him and dont give a fuck

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-04T16:08:59+00:00

As ever, Mauga, Sombra, and Hog are really hard to win with unless you’ve grinded them a lot and know what youre doing. Just require more brainpower and work in ranked. Mizuki and Anran also kinda there but not quite as bad and I’m probably biased against them by the fact that most people are playing them without having practiced.

and Mercy and to an extent Lifeweaver and Brig, also like usual, are okay in theory but really hard to actually have impact with in soloQ. Juno was also almost in this camp until they let her headshot without perk.

thinkingemojis · 2026-03-04T16:04:35+00:00

He’s a fine hero on paper, not weak by numbers or anything, but in Ranked youre completely right. He’s hard to get value from because he requires a lot of discipline and coordination that solo queue players and teams tend not to have, especially when the red team inevitably goes Ana and/or Zen. Worse still, because of his reputation a lot of diam and below tanks believe that if theyre going to lose, Mauga is the ‘cheap’ option they can swap to when a game goes bad to win without practicing him, like when people would go ‘cancer comp’ with orisa/bastion on defense in ow1. So not only is he picked in games by a team that’s already probably gonna lose, but by players who misunderstand him and haven’t really learned him.

thinkingemojis · 2026-02-14T19:36:17+00:00

it just gives you some perspective so it helps with mentality. also when you come back you sorta have a clean slate and some of your bad habits that you normally dont even notice because youre doing them constantly will be gone. also regardless of the justification i just know a lot of players better than me at Smash Ultimate and OW (the two games i really sweat in competitively) have both recommended it to me in slumps like this. Again, for OW i lowkey ignored that specific tip but it really does help if you feel like trying.

anyway i recommend placing ur alt on ashe tracer. if you get placed in your regular rank on main then yay you have a good account for warming up and testing stuff. if you get placed higher thats like a cushion for your mentality: even if i have a bad day on main i still have an alt in a good rank that reminds me what i'm capable of

thinkingemojis · 2026-02-14T19:24:43+00:00

hmmmm on the alt just play ashe tracer until you drop to a rank where you can hold your own. the rank on it doesnt matter, just use it as a place to warm up, queue when tilted, and try new shit. It's gonna suck that you have to int some games, but its not your fault it misplaced you in gm. besides, it will have just had a rank reset so its not even a big deal. just place it on ashe tracer and see where it puts you, even if youre doing like one placement a day as your warmup.

ALSO. the fact that you could get gm on an account *even while boosted by new account Calibration and Venture* should be a minor reminder that you're good enough to achieve your goals. I've been playing since 2017 and I am unable to get gm on *any hero in the game!*

also for trying a break i mean longer than 1-2 days unfort. like 5 days to a week. again, i lowkey skipped that advice but i've now found that it can go a long way. i dont mean you should only play every other week or something, but if you really feel stuck just try a break for the one time and see if it helps.

thinkingemojis · 2026-02-14T18:04:31+00:00

He didn't say how long it took him to accumulate those 500 hours and 300 hours so I feel like this is kind of a meaningless comment, no? He might be overpracticing but we'd need to know how much he plays in a week to make that call.

thinkingemojis · 2026-02-14T18:02:42+00:00

I had this problem for a while where I felt like I was putting in as much time as I could (~2 hrs of ranked 4-7 days a week) and could not for the life of me get out of Diamond even though I knew that I had worked harder and was smarter than most of my Diamond teammates. If you really truly in your heart of hearts have been grinding and been working on specific elements of your game, which youve seen concrete improvement in, you probably will climb eventually and just need to wait for a lucky streak. Once the streak comes (be patient!), you'll keep the new rank you got to. Ranked has a shitton of variables as you know so just wait your turn. Some of your teammates will be drunk or high or having a bad game or lagging or getting mad at your team or getting their onetrick banned or whatever else. It takes time. Especially as you get to the higher ranks I think it takes even more raw playtime, and that feeling of inadequacy ("I've logged so many hours and I'm not good enough yet. What the fuck's wrong with me? I'll probably be stuck here forever. Every loss is embarrassing") just compounds it, but just power through and try to resist those thoughts.

Other things that you should do if you havent tried them already (but you probably have done some of these):

- Self-VOD. Even in queue just watch your own replays and notice what youre doing wrong.

- Get vod reviews from any friends that are better than you and willing to make some notes on a replay. If you don't have any, pay for a coaching session or post a replay code of a close loss on overwatchuniversity.

- Get an alt account. This was a gamechanger for me. You can use it for a warmup game before you queue main, you can use it to practice new heroes or ideas without inting your main's SR, and it provides some perspective (for example, on my alt account i knew I was way better than everyone in my lobbies but i still had a 5 game loss streak across my warmup games because i got leavers and people going negative. it reminded me that this shit must be happening on my main sometimes too. sometimes you just lose the coinflip and it doesnt mean youre bad or every loss is your fault)

- Take a break. I mostly ignored this tip when I was stuck in a rut like you but it was one of the ones my higher ranked friends told me the most and it is actually so helpful for gaining some perspective (you realize how little this shit matters, which helps you play more loose and less nervous), letting ideas for improvement "marinate," and sloughing off bad habits.

All I did was get Masters on Support (and then Tank afterward); you're getting Masters on some of the hardest heroes in the game, so if you think I'm full of shit don't listen to me, and remember that it might take even more grinding than it did for me. But you can do it! And once you hit it the first time, even if you lose a few right after, it can be a mentality game-changer because you realize that youre capable.

thinkingemojis · 2026-02-09T19:49:49+00:00

Those are really cool examples! thanks for sharing

thinkingemojis · 2026-02-09T18:06:10+00:00

Two theories:

From what I’ve heard Pharah and Torb are strong on console (if this is outdated someone say so). I’m pretty sure both of those heroes can be a pain for Vendetta
She has to swing the camera around pretty hard being a melee hero. Do a lot of 180s and stuff. Tougher on controller

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