Howdy Everyone!
With the latest patch now live for Overwatch and Season 3 just on the horizon, Season 2 will be coming to a close on November 24th. (Just in time for a D.Va Thanksgiving skin… right Blizzard…. :)… PLEASE)
Hopefully your Season 2 went well and your just as excited as I am for Season 3 just a week after Season 2 ends.
Before I start going into how Season 2 has gone for me, I’ll give you all some background info really quick.
(If you don’t play Overwatch this might not make much sense so feel free to go a head.)
We have a really good 7-8 friends that consistently play Overwatch on PS4. It makes it nice because usually you’ll get two or three people online at the same time. We sometimes get a full team of 6, but the norm is usually 3-4 in our group. We’ve all played together since Overwatch’s public beta and have grown into our own roles. My role is to mainly play D.VA but have recently picked up Mercy since our usual Mercy player has become a good Reinhardt. I’ll describe everyone else’s role very quickly. Mind you these are our roles currently, not when the season started.
- One of my friends is a very good Zenyatta.
- Another a very good Tracer/McCree on Control maps/ Usually Ana/Lucio on Payload
- A Genji main that can also play a good McCree/Reaper. Can also play a good Zarya. (usually our main DPS)
- A very good Mercy that has grown into a very good Reinhardt/Winston (The two of us usually switch between tank and healer)
- A “Jack-of-all-trades” I’ll give credit where credit is due, he pretty much plays any position very well, however I do think he is lethal when he is playing Mei. (Our highest ranked player)
- Friend of mine that recently started playing again due to studying abroad in Australia. Has picked up Zarya quite nicely and can also play a very good Reaper.
I know it’s not a lot of info but just wanted to give you a general overview of what our team usually looks like.
Anyway, back to the main story.
Season 2 started off on a relatively decent note. We had 3-Platniums, 2-Diamonds, and 1-Gold (That honestly should of been placed a Platinum but). I was 6-4 in placements ranking me 2598 in Platinum.
Like I said, we had decent start to Season 2. However, I’m not sure what Overwatch god we pissed off, but Season 2 spiraled soon after placements.
We probably went something like 5-20-10 (Win-Lose-Draw) in about a 2-3 week span. Yea… it got ugly. Which lead to what I wouldn’t call fighting but a lot of bickering that turned into subtle calling out. One of my friends put it really well, we were playing like 6 individuals not 6 teammates. I really do believe that’s exactly how we were playing. Although very little was really directed at me. (And I’ll be 100% honest things weren’t directed not because I was playing good, but rather I try to keep a very cool head. I mean in the grand scheme of things, its a video game.) However, I did notice I started to pick up some of the bickering. It got to a point, I dropped all the way into the 2100s from 2500s. A friend of mine had made a joke saying #Roadto2100, it was funny till it was actually true.
Now look, I know my friends an I are a galaxy far far away from becoming pro Overwatch players and in the end it really is just a game. But I really did hate just all the toxic negativity EVERYTIME we were all playing together. So things needed to change, but I wasn’t going to change how my friends played or acted. I was focused on how I play and act. A little self-assessment.
During the Halloween event, I really wanted the Mercy witch skin (even though I hadn’t touched Mercy in competitive play). I was mainly playing D.VA, Junkrat, and the occasional rare Lucio. Well turns out the free loot-box Overwatch gives you at the beginning of the event, I pulled the Mercy skin. That’s how I began really playing Mercy. It was funny how one skin had a bit of a ripple effect.
For the most part the friends of mine that were playing healers were usually stuck in the healer role. However, I started to hold my own as Mercy and actually really enjoyed the challenge of playing her. It loosen the tension a bit because now rather then just picking my usual role I was going into matches saying “Hey If you want tank and I’ll play support.”
In no way am I saying my Mercy pickup saved our group. But it freed up a spot for my friends to play other roles. That’s how we became pretty diverse in that we could pick up different roles. Which actually resulted in a nice little win streak.
We were finally starting to do the small team things we were missing on. Small obvious things like when I’m playing D.VA and have my ULT waiting for Zarya to get the 10% left on her ULT to combo them. We started to win a little more, but were also still losing a fair share of games. However we weren’t bickering because we were finally playing good games. Sometimes you just get outplayed, but we weren’t losing games as a dysfunctional group.
So yes, Overwatch is just a video game. However, it taught me a little. Sometimes defeat can be healthy. Sometimes a little self-assessment can go a long way. Heck, even the calling out was a little healthy. I feel although Season 2 didn’t go as plan, it was a much needed season we needed to go through together. Yes we may now be a better team, but ultimately (and what really matters at the end of the day) we’re closer friends. That was the best part of this, we’re closer group of friends. Not afraid to make recommendations, and cheering on team play not individual play. Overall yes, I could sit here and say Season 2 has been the worse sporting my lovely 2360 rank. Or the way I like to look at it is, “wow I learned a lot, we’re going to be a lot stronger for Season 3 because of this season.” Attitude goes a long way.
Anyway, I know this is one of my longer posts, but I mean hey when you’ve been out of it for 4-months you have a lot to say. XD
That’s all for this sketch! Till the next one! 😉
animated 
Wow, you are so lucky. I earned a ton of lootboxes during the Halloween event, but in the end had to spend cash to get the Mercy skin.
Sounds like you guys are way better than me, because I am stuck in Silver. To be honest playing in a big group can sometimes make things harder because you’ll be matched against pre-made teams, which are normally made up of strong players.
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Mercy’s skin was super hard to get apparently. I was the only one in our group that ended up not having to pay for it. In my opinion, Silver to Platinum is not a huge skill gap. I’ve had a couple games with Silver players partnered with a Platinum and they held their own. One of my friends who I dual queue with sometimes is silver and the only difference I’ve noticed is I have alittle bit better aim at times. You can definitely make the jump to platinum! Yes, we sometimes get full teams that are in perfect sync with each other! Although we sometimes lose to these teams, it’s good learning to see how cohesive some teams can be!
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