Disclaimer: this article represents the opinion of the writer and not necessarily that of Team Dignitas.

Getting good at Overwatch - or any competitive game in particular - is hard work. It's a long way to the top and you're going to find a lot of players who have a spot on the top in mind for themselves. They will fight you tooth and nail to get that shiny badge you've set your sails for.

There's a common theme in most competitive online games nowadays: blame shifting. Be it on the teammates, the lag, or the system on its own. This is usually done by players who can't take responsibility for their own mistakes and bad plays. In this article, I will present a few of these claims against the system to inform you why they're incorrect and lead you towards a mindset where you won't blame the system.

ELO HELL

What players like to do is to call whichever rank they dislike "elo hell". It might be because it's lower on the ladder, and thus the bad players equate to an "elo hell". It may be the one rank they're stuck in and since they can't move out of it, it's now known as "elo hell". In most of these cases, it's an invalid term. The system works the same way all across the ladder. Why it might seem to be more of a "hell" towards the mid to lower brackets is because of the ranks not being fully sorted out yet. There are players who deserve to be in the lower ranks who got lucky either through placements or due to good teammates, and there are players who are too good for their rank and deserve to be high but get weighed down by their teammates or are on their merry way out of the rank.

Another reason why people call the lower ranks "elo hell" would be because of leavers, trolls and afkers. This is reasonable and gets more common the lower you get on the ranked ladder. By improving and climbing higher up, you will significantly decrease the number of toxic players in your games.

A way I like to put it for players who currently are better than their teammates but are "stuck in elo hell". Imagine this: You're playing a ranked game and you're better than everyone in your rank. Since it's a 6 versus 6 game that means their team will have 6 players who are belong at their rank but your team will only have 5 since you're better than your rank. Thus, consistently you will win your way out of "elo hell" if you keep your head cool and perform well enough. If you find that you're actually in the rank you belong, the best way to get out of this "elo hell" is simply by getting better at the game.

Picking a "Main"

Something that's more common in MOBAs with many heroes like Dota 2 or League of Legends is making the decision of just mastering one hero to learn the game and ultimately climb the ladder. The idea of this method is to master the hero's specific mechanics and when you've got that under control you can focus on the rest of the game. This makes a lot of sense in complex MOBAs since there's a ton of depth to them, but like with those MOBAs only picking one hero and focusing on it only works in the beginning. When you bring ranked play into the equation, there are times when your hero gets banned, you're counter picked and should play something else, somebody else wants to play the hero, etc.

This rings true for Overwatch as well. Not to mention the fact Overwatch only has 21 heroes compared to other MOBA's 100+ heroes, you can actively change your heroes to counter any problem in the enemy team and of course, there is more than just one map. For example, League of Legends only has the Summoner's Rift and Twisted Treeline. As such, the line-ups only change with changes to the meta and characters. In Overwatch, where there are 13 different maps and 3 different game modes, this isn't as possible. Trying to bring a Bastion or Junkrat to a KotH game will usually not end in your favour.

Another problem with picking a main and rarely if ever switching off it is that you don't really understand the other heroes. If you can't play a hero, it's harder to understand how they will think when you're dueling. Only playing one hero will result in a shallower understanding of the game, matchups, and teamfights. At the very least, consider playing unfamiliar heroes in Quick Play to get a better grasp of them.

Carry Roles

I see this all the time. "Oh I'm stuck in my rank and can't get out, what do I do?" "Oh just play Genji/Zarya/whatever carry'". This may actually work around the 3000 and lower mark, assuming you know how to play one of these 'carry' heroes. The reason this works is due to the chaotic nature of the games at this level. It's easier to capitalize on your enemy team's mistakes as a burst DPS hero like Genji, Tracer, McCree, Roadhog. You can shield overextending teammates as a Zarya as well as dealing tons of damage. Supports and some tanks have it tougher, as they plateau based on their team. A Reinhardt is useless if his team doesn't stand behind the shield. A Mercy can't heal or Resurrect if she gets picked off all the time. However, take this with a grain of salt. A Reinhardt and Mercy can definitely carry, just not as easily at the lower ranks and definitely not as easy as the aforementioned heroes.

As soon as you feel you can trust your teammates with the position and game awareness to protect and play by their tanks and supports, you don't have to try playing a "carry role" anymore. At higher SRs anyone has an equal chance of impact on the game as Overwatch is a team game. Carrying changes from just dealing damage and punishing to playing your role more optimally than the other team's. With two equal teams in high SR games, having a better healer or tank than the other team definitely turns the outcome to your favor.

Supports Can't Carry

In most MMO games there is a sad myth: Supports can't solo carry and they don't really do anything special. It's all up to the DPS or tank to carry those pesky healers who can't really play the game, who pick support because they want to get carried. Playing a support hero at higher levels doesn't only limit you to playing optimally. Just like with all heroes, supports have their ways of solo carrying the game.

It's worth noting that as a support you have a perfect line of vision over the entire battlefield. You see everything going on which means that you're the most fitting as a shotcaller out of all 6 teammates. Making decisions, calling out positions and enemies makes a huge difference compared to someone who's just quiet and healing his mates. Here are some possible ways to carry as every specific support hero.

Ana: Ana has an incredibly high skill ceiling and is one of the most impactful supports in the game. Since she requires aim in order to heal, she has a very high rate of healing per second assuming she hits all of her shots. Her ultimate is one of the strongest in the game and by coordinating with her team they can get an early steamroll going with the Nano Boost alone. Her sleep dart is also a great way to shut down flankers and ongoing ultimate abilities.

Lúcio: Lúcio might seem like an "easy" support to the untrained eye but he requires good game awareness in order to be played optimally. Knowing when to spare your Amp It Up, when to switch between your Speed Boost and Healing can completely change the outcome of a fight. Hitting great boops or clutch ultimates makes a huge difference as well. Lúcio is also the best support for a shotcaller, since he controls the Speed Boosts as well as Sound Barriers and can give himself the best position possible for calling.

Mercy: Carrying as a Mercy comes down to one thing. Not dying and getting good Resurrections off. It requires high game awareness and good positioning, not to mention teammates who can peel you. It's possible to do well as a Mercy without peel but is incredibly difficult. Getting good Resurrections is an art of its own, and the best way to summarize it is to make sure your team dies in one spot and at the same, hide until that happens and then Ressurect. Healing or damage boosting is optional but not recommended, as the enemies will see your beam and will know where you're coming from when you will attempt to Resurrect.

Symmetra: This isn't a hero I'd include in the list but she does have her moments. The infamous car wash seems to be a decent way to get some value out of your Symmetra, as well as spamming high charged orbs into choke points. Her Teleporter is the main reason a Symmetra is worth having and by either placing your Teleporter somewhere well-hidden if your team is bound to get picked and trickle or by being the last one alive in a team fight and placing the Teleporter as a makeshift Resurrect you can have an impact on the game.

Zenyatta: My personal favorite support. Zenyatta does not have difficulty dealing with most Flankers save Tracer. He can heal very well and wants to place his orbs not only at his injured teammates, but also at the ones about to take damage to negate incoming bursts and poke. Well placed Discord orbs are highly impactful and will definitely change a fight. Having a Discord on the hero everyone shoots at is the best way to do it. Even if discording and focusing a flanker may be a wiser choice, your team might not react if you don't call it out. His ult Transcendence is a good way to save your team in a pickle. It's a great counter against most Area of Effect ultimates, but when you have two supports it's usually used for saving your team when they're stuck in Zarya's Graviton Surge.

Leaving a Premade Group Affects SR

There have been rumors running rampant about leaving your premade group to positively affect your SR gains or losses. Since you can leave your groups in the middle of a game without disconnecting some players are speculating that this somehow positively changes how much SR you lose/gain per game. I had a hard time finding any actual proof of this idea, and thus deem it a myth. Queuing up with a player with a higher rank than you changes the opponents you face to ones in higher SR, and will result in a higher rank gain. Just like queuing up with a lower player will result in a lower rank loss. The SR outcome depending on loss or win seems set when you're matched with the other players, and leaving your group doesn't make any difference to it.

Reddit user TheGreatWalk was kind enough to lend us their spreadsheet showing wins and losses, and there doesn't seem to be a consistent change in rank gains or losses when grouped. This alone should be sufficient evidence to disprove the theory.

"Grinding the Ladder"

I've seen a lot of questions around different communities where the players refer playing the game as "grinding the ladder", which most of the time is a completely backwards way to see it. Unless you're obviously at a higher level than your teammates to the point where you're on a winstreak and you're carrying your teams without too much effort, you're not grinding the ladder. You're playing ranked.

If you're in a state of mind where all the ranked you're playing is "grinding", you will get into the state of mind a grinder has. That means you'll more easily succumb to auto-pilot, a state where you don't actively think upon your actions and will not perform to your fullest. The worst part about auto-piloting is not improving as fast as you are able to. I've seen a lot of players actually burning out from the game due to focusing on their rank and grinding too much, but not getting anywhere since in the end they were in the rank they belonged but unable to accept it and strive to play better.

Forced 50% Winrate

The idea that there's a forced 50% winrate seems to be fairly common among Overwatch players. It's usual for players who are climbing rapidly through winstreaks to start feeling like the system is turning against them. They start to get teammates that are seemingly worse or at the same rank the streaker started at while their opponents keep getting higher. Eventually the term "forced 50% winrate" was coined and that's the boogeyman of most winstreakers who find themselves at an abrupt end to their fortune.

But why does this happen? If you're improving and climbing the ranks, shouldn't your teammates do that with you? The answer is yes and no. For example, in higher levels of play you rarely see 100% of players in the same skill bracket. It happens that you see games where one team has a rank 3400, 3450, 3200, 3600, 3385 and 3500 (avg 3423) respectively and then the enemy team has a lineup with 3200, 3100, 3300, 3400, 3700 and 3800 (avg 3416). While the average team SRs are equal the rank 3700 and 3800 might feel like they've been dealt a bad hand and might call it "Forced 50%". Now, the system won't put you in games like these unless the queue time is decently long or the number of players is low, like the condensed higher ranks. It will always try to put that 3700 and 3800 with even teammates and opponents.

Since you're on a winstreak and with a higher SR, the system still expects you to win. If you belong in your current rank, statistically you should win that game as well. You'll still get good gains if you do win and everybody is happy. If you do lose these games, the system will end your winstreak and assume you're closer to your true rank.

"Gold Medals, Bro."

This isn't completely in the same theme as the rest of my points, but it's worth bringing up. If an argument blossoms up in a game of Overwatch, usually regarding DPSes and performance, the first point that's brought up is their medals. Sometimes you get a "You aren't doing anything DPS, I'm gold damage as Roadhog", or the more standard, "I'm gold damage, you're wrong." counter-argument. There's also a lot of "I'm gold eliminations my team sucks." However, people seem to forget that anyone can get a good elimination score just by tagging an enemy who dies within 5 seconds of them getting tagged. If somebody calls out how they're amazing due to their elimination score, assume they're not serious.

The arguments about medals has turned into blame shifting onto the DPSes. Everyone wants to play DPS and if people aren't dying, obviously it has to be the DPS players' fault since they're supposed to kill people! Thing is, even though DPSes are supposed to deal a lot of damage and kill the enemy, they still need support whether it comes from their supports or their tanks. A McCree can't kill anyone if he has to stand alone due to a Reinhardt hugging a wall somewhere and a Hanzo can't stick out to hit people if he's constantly at 50 health.

Now even if the DPS players are in the right, there are still several times when DPS players perform terribly but point at their damage to dismiss any claims against them. This is more common with heroes like Hanzo, Soldier 76, Roadhog, Zarya, McCree, Junkrat and Pharah who have naturally high damage even if they don't kill anything. It doesn't really matter much if you shot the most at a shield for the first 4 minutes. You're not free from blame if you didn't perform when it mattered. I hope players that make these claims knows this kind of thing, and are just trying to pass the attention away from themselves. Some people will not admit to their faults in front of others but might still take it to heart.

There are many ways to track your contribution and get medals, even more ways to track your contribution without medals and ultimately tens of hundreds of ways you could've contributed to the game without any other stat than a win. Playing for medals might lose you games, and, in the end, it's not about some virtual medal but a virtual win.

In Conclusion

Using shortcuts isn't the way to become the best. There's tons of work you will have to put in in order to reach the top but in the end it will be worth it. By using shortcuts or blaming others, you're missing out on lessons you need to learn and that lack of experience will haunt you for a long time if you build your game knowledge on those shortcuts. This is going to sound cheesy, but the best and usually fastest way to reach the top is just to roll up your sleeves and get to work. Be self-critical, think rationally and don't give in to that tempting blame shifting - no matter if it's blaming the system or a player. Because there's always something you could've done better.

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