We have all had that moment where someone on our team picks Hanzo on attack and we think right away that they are trolling. While sometimes this may be the case, a lot of the time it is a sincere pick that your teammate feels they will do well on. Just because someone picks an off-meta hero does not mean that they will do bad or throw the game on purpose. Sometimes you get the exact opposite, where the off-meta pick does really well and carries the team. With that being said, do not be afraid to pick a hero that is off-meta just because you are scared of what your team will say about it.

If you feel that you will do well on that hero, then go for it! You do not have to worry if your team says they will report you for playing an off-meta hero, under the new report system no one is getting banned for picking a certain hero unless they are throwing intentionally. Having a low win rate does not exactly mean that the hero is a bad pick. Some players make it sound like off-meta picks have extremely low win rates, but that is not true. They may not have the best win rates but they are all above 50% (see pictures). As you can see some heroes like Symmetra and Bastion have low pick rates but they also have win rates of above 60%. Below are a couple of reasons why off-meta picks do not matter as much as you think they do.

We are not pros

The majority of us are not pros whether we like it or not. Excluding Master and Grandmaster players, the pros play on a whole different level compared to us, so just because a pro will not play Pharah that does not mean that you are not allowed to play her. Hitscans in the pro scene have really good aim so that is why they often do not play Pharah, because they will be countered and shot down quickly if they do. Many people on the Top 500 list in North America have most of their time spent on Genji and/or Tracer. These two heroes have very high skill ceilings but if you are able to play them well it can change the course of the game. Once again, just because these players play these type of heroes does not mean that you have to play them as well. You can play the easier heroes like Winston or Reaper if you want. The lower in SR you go, the more unpredictable the picks get. You could be playing a certain hero and the enemy team could have the off-meta pick that happens to be your counter, but once again since we are not pros. That counter of yours may not do anything to stop you and you are free to wreak havoc on the enemy team.

Give it a chance

Automatically thinking that someone is throwing based off their pick is something that we should all try to stop doing. Having that mindset from the beginning of the game can cause you to get tilted and frustrated very quickly. Being tilted can impact your game a lot by stopping you from concentrating on the game and you may not even realize it until after the match. You cannot let yourself worry too much on how well your teammates perform. Not everyone starts off the match amazing. It may just take some time to get things rolling. As I said in the intro, sometimes the off-meta pick will do really well and then you just had yourself go through all that mental grief for no reason. Worst thing that can happen is the off-meta pick does not do too well and you lose the match. You can just bounce back and do even better the next match. It is just a game after all.

You cannot do anything about it

Let's face it, you really cannot do anything if someone on your team picks an off-meta hero. You can tell them to switch all you want but ultimately it is up to them if they want to switch or not. Sometimes if you say please and/or give a good reason why they should switch, it may make the difference instead of yelling at them and telling them they are bad. He/she could just be having a bad game, it also helps if you could try and put yourself in their shoes and see how you would react if you were just having a bad game and being yelled at. You can report them after the game if you want, but you are not going to get any action taken against this player. Like I said earlier, they will not get banned if they are not throwing. Just keep this in mind when playing, and again do not put so much stress on this one match. Just focus on yourself and try to improve.

Sometimes it can help to have an off-meta hero

Believe it or not, sometimes it may help sometimes to just have an off-meta hero on your team. The enemy could build a comp expecting to see a Genji for example, but if you were to have a Pharah on your team instead, that could be an unexpected hero and they would not be prepared to counter it for your first push. And winning that first fight could turn into an unstoppable snowball that can win you the game. Not only that, but the off-meta pick that you have on your team may counter someone on the other team which could also help you by forcing someone on the other team to switch to different hero and your team can then take advantage of that also. Who knows, the enemy team may also see this off-meta pick and assume they are trolling so they let their guard down.

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