why overwatch ranked feels so miserable (hint: its not balance)

[@PositiveRaincloud]

It's still baffling to me that a company who supposedly has made competitive games for the best part of 2 decades still doesn't understand the basics of what does and doesn't feel good when it comes to ranking up and down, and matchmaking in general.

[@HoudiniGameArtist]

I work in game dev. And went to a conference recently and during a big lunch I told them I played OW still. They all laughed at me and a 20 minute discussion started broke out about how blizzard ruined their product. Even people in the industry scratch their heads at the decisions Blizzard makes. Hearthstone, Diablo, starcraft and now Overwatch are amazing examples how not to manage your competitive scene and treat your community post launch.

[@mycelia_ow]

You know it's bad when CoD does this wayyyyy better, not to mention sharing the same publisher ffs.

[@iamaylacat3935]

I could have sworn that with the exception of Hearthstone and HoTS, Overwatch was Blizzard's (note: Blizzard, not Activison Blizzard) first dedicated competetive game. IIRC the others were all primarily PvE story games with optional PvP integration.

[@DaRocketGuy]

That's the thing though, forget the name "Blizzard" and their past works. The blizzard today is almost entirely composed of devs hired in the last 2 years. They do not have 2 decades worth of experience, they have 2, and it shows.

[@StallionTG]

Yeah I was about to respond, any dev worth a damn at blizzard has left by now. Many in the last few years especially.@@DaRocketGuy

[@xxOnyxFuryxx]

Honestly even as a casual player losing in this game just feels so horrible. Every match is either we win by a long shot and have a good team or it's the most crushing defeat ever and makes it feel like we couldn't do anything to change it.

[@6ixR0ll]

Fam the level of bs of how many ppl r bots and crybaby's is wild. Don't even get me started on comp. Cant even tell u how many time mfs quit in comp.

[@Omar_MH]

I also love how the second you lose everyone opens the scoreboard so they can assign all blame on someone. Even if the entire team got completely stomped someone will be blamed for going 2-5 by someone who went 4-7. Sometimes this blame game happens less than 2 minutes into a match and everyone on the team just starts flaming each other for the rest of the game instead of playing.

[@ThreeDayPlanet]

I wish I could pin that on Overwatch’s dogsht systems but that’s a human race problem tbh. Most of the human race are quitters in game and out. Not much Blizzard can do there. Their ranked isn’t as tragic as it was few seasons ago with plats and gms being in the same lobbies.

[@walczak9862]

I just hate the game and wish my friends would wake up and stop playing it. I feel like theyre all wasting their time when they could be playing something else that enjoyable

[@loganmorris2793]

I have felt this way for years. I hate how little I feel like I can impact the game. Many other games like league or valorant make you feel like you can actually carry a game

[@Pogal]

My main issue is the fact it rewards you for reaching a peak then stopping playing. Idk why they thought rewarding stopping playing in a live service game was a good idea.

[@pd_ab7945]

well if u get to a certain point and stop playing and then don’t play the next season, it will strip u of ur rank and make u redo ur placements

[@Pogal]

@@pd_ab7945 True but still silly that it insentivises stopping playing for that season.

[@batatanna]

​@@pd_ab7945but you spent less time on the game, they lose money with this

[@dylan-nv5bd]

i guarantee that they didn't intend for that to be the outcome, they just literally did not sit there and think about it for more than 2 seconds obviously

[@Pogal]

@@dylan-nv5bd True but you think they could have changed it within the past 5 seasons.

[@mochii_wrld]

"you felt nothing when you won, and you felt terrible when you lost" shit hits deep

[@Pattonesque]

I was on the cusp of Masters 5, 95th percentile in Diamond 1 ... and then I went 4-15 and fell all the way to Diamond 5. Would have been much easier to stomach with a rank update after each match, but as it was I was just like "nah I'm good" and uninstalled for a little while

[@unimagin2ble]

this system is dogshit but u should really learn to quit while on a loss streak

[@homierubikscubedude5]

Its ultimately not on him lol its on who you get paired with and who you are facing too unfortunately

[@BagelBoi4000]

Did the same thing, didnt really impact me lots because I knew diamond 1 was not a rank I deserved but going 5-14 and going down to plat 1 was crazy. Then struggled just to get back to dia 4 despite an almost 60% winrate

[@Pattonesque]

@@unimagin2blehaha I didn't lose all 15 in one sitting! This was over the course of a week or so -- a combination of poor play by me, bad luck in the matchups, and general low-level tiltedness carrying forward. The anticipation of the rank drop, like Eskay mentioned, made the whole experience way worse.

[@Noctua8]

I had the EXACT same thing happen, I fell to d4 though, and I was d1 for a pretty long time

[@6Cyx]

all the issues you mentioned are pretty well said. its a shame how ranked just doesn't feel the same anymore. hopefully it does change for the better

[@Bombssivo]

Hello

[@ghxstfire3414]

Oh it won’t lmao. Overwatch 2 is a lazy cash grab update of a “new game” that actually removed more content then they added.

[@Ovadiazigi]

its not the same for years, i swear OW players are masochists

[@Garysworld]

Going 5-1 multiple times last season and getting demoted for it is soul crushing.

[@MyLalala9]

i went 5-0 then 5-2 and didn't move. at all. i stopped playing after that

[@Garysworld]

@@MyLalala9 There's no incentive. I have a dps account in GM 3 rn and its easy to stay there and occasionally move up a tier. My diamond account on the other hand is like the overwatch league. The rank up screen says 100% better than people in this rank yet I don't move up and usually drop. The team balance is awful too. I rarely have close games. Either we steam roll or get steam rolled. No in-between. OW just makes your day worse.

[@aidancocking4014]

I went 2 - 15 and stayed gm4 this season wtf

[@Garysworld]

@@aidancocking4014 shidddd go buy a lottery ticket

[@nathancasey7712]

I went 5-0 and deranked

[@BrotherMynor]

My most heartbreaking moment in 6 years of Overwatch was due to this ranked system. Season 5, I am ranked in Diamond 2 in OCE, and due to a lower player count I had 5 games in a row with nearly everyone being Masters players, with one game having four gm 4's, one of them matching me on tank. I played my hardest in all these games and we won every game decisively. Honestly they were some of the best games I had ever played. I was proud. I was 5-0 and got to the rank screen and i got dropped to Diamond 5 instead of promoted. No way of knowing why, no logical sense, no feedback to learn from. It was devastating. Killed any drive I had for the rest of the season, and I just played QP instead. This system needs serious revision.

[@Steve_The_Weave]

makes ZERO sense it’s broken AF i feel for you

[@ghoulbuster1]

In OW 1 winning 5 games against GMs would give you over 250 SR

[@niggachu420]

It still has a lot of players 💀 don't blame it on that

[@ETHowie1]

It’s so stupid. How tf are you losing elo when you don’t lose any games. I understand the system if your team is better then the opponent and you win you will win less, but you won every game and somewhere you lost elo for it. Crazy

[@benwithers2266]

I peaked diamond one it was my first time about to be in masters we won 5-0 games and I got put down to diamond 3. I then didn't have it in me to keep going and just stopped playing.

[@snnowmann]

I was a huge fan of the new ranking system because it felt like you could just vibe and as long as you went positive, you would rank up. Only to find out the system artificially assumed everyone's rank would be higher and kept trying to push you up, so of course it felt good. Now this system feels completely broken, too many players feel like they aren't in the rank they should be and ranking up seems completely random. Last season I went through 5 re-evals all going 5-2 or 5-3 and stayed the same rank the entire time, how on earth will anyone feel motivated to keep playing after that?

[@thicccorgi6187]

They expect you win 5 games in a row just to rank up. Problem with that is you can win 4 in a row. Then have someone on your team throw in the 5th game all while calling the team trash and youre capped for that card! Its the kind of thing that makes people uninstall!

[@aspen_like_the_tree4706]

@@thicccorgi6187 honestly the biggest issue are the people throwing or saying gg go next and just quitting after one 'team' fight lost ( they all played egoistically because the game started " 3 secs ago and nobodies positioning was good )

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

I was not a huge fan of it because the game assumed I should be bronze based on 3 years of SR decay, and since I had played a lot of comp games and left on a long losing streak, the game had a high confidence in my MMR and changed it very slowly even when I had a sustained positive winrate. My rank changed more in 2 weeks of S3 than it did in the entirety of S1. The Bronze 5 bug made the system super scuffed at the start and honestly I don't know whether it's better or worse since then.

[@astupidlylongnamethatstoolong]

​@@user-et3xn2jm1uHonestly the system here isn't quite completely at fault. You're an outlier of the system, you practically match most bronze casuals who play for a while, leave and come back at some point. I'm not blaming you for whatever you've done. But the system genuinely cannot account for people like you.

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

​@@astupidlylongnamethatstoolong new players had an easier time climbing than I did because the game wasn't certain of their MMR. If I had made a new account I probably would have placed gold. The game thought I was not only bronze 5 but HARDSTUCK bronze 5, that's the difference, but as soon as they loosened up the MMR algorithm I was plat the next season.. I wasn't the only returning player, so I don't think I was an outlier.

[@Poke1236ok]

I think the worst part of all of this is no matter how much we complain it feels like it will never change

[@ProdLucio]

yep we should already know this since its blizzard

[@ghoulbuster1]

Blizzard changed a lot of things, just for the worse.

[@lindenbasket]

Eskay released a follow-up video on this because the devs responded to this positively.

[@KeziaTv]

Welcome to Blizzard. This game died years ago.

[@pizzario4986]

About that…

[@frog2444]

The thing about different servers was so real, even in high gm lobbies it’s quite often you get no one willing to communicate and half the time when there are people speaking it’s a stack of French guys screaming in my ear

[@gjcb8248]

I disagree. The whole communication in videogames is cancer, specially when minors could be playing. Emotes, sprays and comm wheel can stay.

[@Tacomaguy458]

I was kinda shocked after placing a new account in high diamond/ low masters and in the first 25 games or so, I heard 1 person in vc in 1 game... its actually kinda crazy.

[@sol9059]

@@gjcb8248 to be honest, minors shouldn't talk to people on the internet at all.

[@e.d.5766]

​@@gjcb8248You're not forced to speak or even join voice chat, and you can selectively mute players who are being toxic, but voice chat gives a huge advantage, especially in Overwatch. There's no hotkey for my character to say something like "Ana, don't use nano on me, I don't want it, give it to someone else", and, even if there was that level of detail, it's much harder to focus on character voice lines in a game with so many character voice lines than it is to hear a distinct voice. Like it or not, voice chat is important in high elo lobbies, so it's especially tough in European servers where you just have to hope that everyone on your team speaks the same language.

[@JohnSmith-zk3kd]

@@gjcb8248 minors are rarely in high ranks and the only ones that are will be 14+ and there usually the most toxic ones

[@EJW2003]

Every streamer needs to talk about this, this what everyone should be spending their energy on

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

There's a lot that people should be spending their energy on tbh

[@gandalfdengra5580]

Is this posted on reddit yet? Get this going, tired of Llizzard's shit.

[@KyotoL0ve]

Streamers bitch about this constantly

[@RedRag684]

People are afraid of that “ WELL WHY DO YOU CARE SO MUCH”

[@bubbleshoot]

Why every streamer? Everyone is already talking about it.

[@kichwa_tembo4314]

THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS VID. I thought I was going crazy playing ranked. I go 5-1, 5-2, 5-3. Usually multiple times in a row and I don’t rank up. But I go 5-9 and I don’t rank down. I’ve been very frustrated with this game lately.

[@Tacomaguy458]

lucky you, I went on a like 15-5 run with 1 rank up then went like 5-7 and dropped 2 ranks... flawed system

[@braxbro6674]

Some of that is because you might be losing in high ranks and winning in lower ranks/same ranks... but yeah, it's so opaque...

[@itstaco761]

you realise it shows your % of player ranks below the cards? just look at that to get a rough idea of where you are

[@braxbro6674]

@@itstaco761 Yeah, but it's still really opaque, especially because you can't check those numbers between refreshes.

[@QueenDianaWifeOfLlry]

I like your idea of turning off showing the SR after each game. That was what I hated most about each system, tbh. If they brought back numbered SR with the turn off feature I'd be more than happy

[@Neceroe]

watching your sr tick down was terrible I agree it would be better to just show have your sr and also still keep these divisions and shit

[@iNSANELYSMART409]

@@Neceroe how is it any worse than division? Autistic much?

[@pumpkinematics]

Completely agree with everything you said. Top 500 is such a meaningless mess right now, and it's super discouraging. Surprised you didn't mention the glitch where some players are literally duplicated many times on the top 500 leader boards (443-461 Support Season 3 are all Eskay)

[@charlesentertainmentcheese9715]

this is eskay, i’m sure they know 😭

[@jeffsDad]

I feel like the new ranked system is one of those things where if anyone had spent more than a half hour thinking about it, they would've realized how unfathomably bad the idea actually was.

[@MISPLACED96]

I found that the more I win in a row, the more I start getting placed with throwers, terrible one tricks, and leavers. This has to be a part of the queue algorithm I literally can’t be this unlucky at this point.

[@jerekamarainen3604]

Same!

[@Tacomaguy458]

Losers queue is also real. Rarely do I go back and forth on wins and losses with a mixed bag on my history screen. Its usually 3-4 wins in a row, then you either have a bad game, leavers or just really unlucky and it puts you into a different pool of teammates where its impossible to carry hard enough to win a game resulting in like 5-6 losses before you can scrape up another win to put you back on the other side of the fence.

[@paxe856]

Generally when you win four in a row the lobbies get much harder because the algorithm literally doesn’t want you to go 5-0. It wants it to be as hard as possible

[@Tacomaguy458]

@@paxe856 I think the problem is that the lobbies are not higher level per say but just matches you up with people who are on the way down in sr or do not perform as well. I dont 100% know exactly how the algorithm works but its like the more games you win, you have to basically play a 4v5 game to get another win and until you have lost x amount of games, it will then turn the faucet back on with half decent teammates for a few games...

[@MISPLACED96]

@@Tacomaguy458 this exactly‼️

[@Taexer]

Imagine hitting Masters 1 and 97% above other players and then immediately winning 4 games in a row then that 5th game you lose a 5v4 because one of your teammates to throw because you're not playing mercy for them. Then losing 6 games in a row after that and ending 5-7 and never hitting GM now. That happened to me. I've been broken ever since

[@RacingSnails64]

I'm sad I only started taking comp super seriously in OW2. The 5 wins systems is interesting but also KILLS my drive to play the game. So much time only to rank down, or worse, same rank. I wonder if there's a way to incorporate both the old SR system and new card system? Like, reward you for individual wins AND win streaks :)

[@MoistYoghurt]

I gained sr by losing like, huh?

[@daanbrand9241]

But the new system doesn't actually reward win streaks, They have said that your SR is just not visible anymore but still gets updated after every match like the old system.

[@gamist8166]

I feel like they don't rankup for streaks up just streaks down ranking down lol

[@boredtolife7879]

How is remaining the same rank worse than ranking down?

[@aeloh6921]

The anxiety caused by the card system is making it hard for me to play comp on my main account at this point :( Every time I win a few games I get super anxious and worried that I'll "ruin" it before the card is over. Every time I start a new card with some losses I feel so nervous to play more games because I'm always wondering "how deep will this losing streak be?". I didn't play Overwatch 1 but I really like the sound of a number changing after each game. It would make each game feel self contained, allowing you to simply enjoy each victory and feel closure after each loss. The anticipatory anxiety caused by the card system actually makes me play terribly. It stops you from treating each game as a fresh opportunity. I lost the first three games of this season and I don't even want to play anymore because if I keep losing, every loss will only add to the anxiety, wondering "how bad will it be?" "How far will I drop?". I just can't deal with this system anymore and have just been playing on alt accounts all season :( I don't get as much anxiety on alt accounts which is something I'm trying to understand psychologically because theoretically there's no reason to feel different on my main... But it does feel different nonetheless.

[@vape42069]

old system was wayyyy better. you could hit a new peak, log off and marinate for awhile instead of having to finish the card. also, nothing is worse than going 4-0 followed by a loss streak that goes above 4 losses... at least in ow1 if you went on a tilt q spree and lost 10+, you learned your lesson to not tilt q lol the 5 wins is annoying, just make it 4 at least....

[@deathofaclown]

I can compare both experiences. it was super depressing to have a loss streak and watch your number go -400. it was about 25 points per game. but the game would give more or less depending on if the algorithm "liked" you or not. it was mysterious. there were times where i maintained a 60 percent winrate and would receive 10-15 per win and flat 25 for losses. so going 6 wins ten losses in a session really hurt.

[@bohdanpyzh2712]

at this point I just wish there was an option to auto-skip the card. I don't want to see my rank until I feel confident enough to

[@lightskitty]

​@@vape42069 when ow2 came out i went to get my first time rank as dps, lost 20 times in a row, got bronze 5, never played comp dps again lmao. leavers, unbalanced matches, ragers, and very poor team cohesion all round.

[@michals1108]

Yes I have exactly same thoughts. I usually win 2-3 games at the beginning of new card and then loosing 5 when system placing me with so bad team mates it’s almost impossible to win. For system it means nothing if did good or bad the only thing that matters is winning or losing.

[@Thehatter106]

Overall, Im pretty happy and optimistic about the state and direction of the game. But holy shit, I hate the new ranked system. Easily the biggest thing I've soured on with ow2. Potentially playing for hours and seeing no change whatsoever because of a loss streak or because I'm flex queuing is so boring. The only reason to pick comp is because it let's you play both sides of a map

[@chrislikescornflakes]

yup and for ranked coins for the gold gun other then that it’s extremely unmotivating

[@bugdomrulez]

​@@chrislikescornflakesliterally the only thing left to work towards in the game since there's no more lvl up + lootbox

[@Jamie_241]

⁠@@bugdomrulezcharacter level up kinda is like normal level up, and honestly it feels a bit better to say that you’re good at what character you play. matches should give credits tho, imo 30; this would be a huge incentive to grind more comp for skins or just buying shop skins without using coins

[@Defone42]

how are you optimistic about the game that had a second version of it for one for one pve they cancelled and two to get people to play the game again and even more so 5v5 sucks for any tank player not coming from a tank player because they swap characters every team fight you know what would fix tanks getting countered another facking tank not even mentioning the whole random ass coins they give in the battles pass having been a guy who's played this game since ow 1's beta this is legit dog shit and is so unfun to play because even with the sym nerfs when is seeing someone through a wall getting tickled by nerfed turret damage ever gonna bring value like god dang ask anyone who played ow1 they will reassure you this is not a good direction for the game need I say more

[@Thehatter106]

@@Defone42 Cool story buddy. Started playing during OW1 betas too and I'm a tank player. It's super easy to be optimistic about the game when you have an accurate memory of OW1 instead of being blinded by nostalgia. If you don't like the game then just stop playing and move on. I would have quit playing if we didn't get OW2, and I would have done so without feeling the need to obsessively comment on the game. Move on with your life

[@koto2211]

Absolutely on point. Im learning other roles and every time my buddy and i get to plat we start going 5-2 and we dont rank up, but if we go 5-7 its guaranteed that were ranking down to gold or something. Its annoying because the moment we reach plat we get the most awful games ever as if its trying to keep us from getting better. So we just dont want to play ranked anymore. We reach our "peak" and move on. Ranking up is not satisfying but ranking down its devastating to a point where you dont want to play anymore.

[@mayuwu4408]

Listening to this as a casual player that doesn't play ranked feels like a window peeking into a different world and learning about it's intricacies and problems, and it's fascinating to hear. I was always sad to see SR go since the only upper limit was how high people could climb, and this new system was very confusing and this video highlights how poor the system is. From my perspective, I'm just curious to see what rank I'd be at my current skill level and to get competitive credits, but this system makes me not very interested in trying to grind to see where I fall in the ranks. Like I could go 4 wins/14 losses and still not know what my rank is which is ridiculous. I think they should change it back to having SR (as a range of SR is much more precise than GM1 GM2 GM3 etc.) and watching it change after every game, and have a setting to let you decide how many games your SR is hidden for in case you don't wanna see an update every game. That would be the best of both worlds; you can opt into seeing your SR less often or just see whatever your rank is whenever you like.

[@DunkinT33]

The problem goes way beyond the cards. For instance: As a support, I almost always have the top stats, a ton of saves, etc... However, I'm constantly saddled with medicore DPS or a bad tank. This sends my rank down the drain. Ranking should also have an individual aspect to it, outside of wins and losses.

[@PapaJohns7374]

As a fellow support main (bap main), I find that I am constantly out damaging and killing my own dps and having a lot of saves. The only thing you can improve is yourself so even if your teammate costs you a match, still think about what can I improve

[@thirdeyyye]

Eskay I love how passionate you are about the game and the way that you respectfully break everything down and offer suggestions. You are a gem ❤

[@sophien3825]

Team queue at set times is genius. Makes it easier to coordinate a squad too

[@kevingriffith6011]

Hell, you could go a step further if you really wanted to and steal one from Starcraft 2: Automated tournaments for various skill levels. Naturally in a free to play game this is pretty vulnerable to smurfing, but I think if you had decent rewards for it you might still be able to make it attractive enough to keep people engaged , and it could be that "Everybody tryhard now" moment that players are looking for, assuming you built your team beforehand.

[@petormaculan5424]

I feel like it would be cool to hold lol clash style online tourneys which old satisfy people who want to queue as 5 competitively

[@VanHilwen]

@@kevingriffith6011is that like the rocket league tournaments they have every night?

[@kevingriffith6011]

@@VanHilwen Kinda, yeah

[@mr_wolverbean5110]

My friend group and i are the perfect example for the scuffed win/loss thing. A friend went 4 - 0/1/2/3 four times in a row and proceeded to loose at least 5 matches, denying every little possibility of a rankup. I personally went 5 - 0 and stayed the same, thn (same role) 5 - 9 and stayed the same. Was kinda happy to not go down, but then i went 5 - 5 and it went down 2

[@Steve_The_Weave]

matchmaking is so messed up now. they just want short queue times to keep the adhd spenders playing. I also recently went 5-5 on comp tank and dropped 2 ranks !??

[@bryanculler4802]

This really eloquently describes feelings that I think are felt by the entire player base. Especially the first portion of the video I think everyone can relate to despite their rank. I'm a masters player and I played during ow1. My boyfriend is silver and started in overwatch 2 and he gets extremely frustrated with the way ranks get updated and is constantly confused about why he is or isn't ranking up. I think one of the truest statements was that the current ranking system only ever feels good if you are consistently winning over and over. Otherwise it's very discouraging and frustrating.

[@skyth_4722]

I got 5 win and 1 loss and the game literaly said : youre better than 94% of people on this division (plat 2) and i got demoted to plat 3 just why ????

[@RewindMods]

"you are higher than zero percent of players in plat 3" 😔

[@8UMadBro8]

I've been slowly climbing in ranked, I've even managed to reach upper GM in a few modes. I really wanted the top500 card for mystery heroes & was grinding for it.... you needed 50 wins to get it, in an off-competitive mode. 50 WINS. I finished GM1 & felt drained playing that mode most of the time. Top500 isn't even the best 500 players; it's 500 good players who can suffer for a lot of games Edit: Titles are broken too and randomly unequip. OW2 is somehow more busted than the first

[@ElmoRitter]

This is wild because I haven't played the game since season 4 but here I am because I love Eskay so much. I always love honesty, well thought out observations, and the way you can be so spicy while still being a patient and caring person in the community. I'm still happy to watch, even if it's a game that I can't justify spending time on atm. So thanks :)

[@ElmoRitter]

@@Yarlanda56 That's the weirdest comment I've ever received on youtube. Who cares and what would a gamers gender have to do with anything? Kind of a sad, small comment tbh.

[@Eskay_OW]

❤️

[@reillyschimmel9323]

another thing that would make competitive more bearable in lower ranks is to straight up remove the leave button and softban players who leave a comp game for 7 days or something

[@SilverCorked]

I think it's interesting that most of your comments were not about the game or the playerbase, which is what I feel I hear most often about, but instead about how the game's UI affects player behavior, motivation, and attitude. Given that hidden player SR and win cards have been going for a while, it'd be interesting to see a reflective look from the devs on that. I liked a lot of your suggestions! I hope Aaron and team recognize and appreciate that they have players as dedicated and communicative as you!

[@ProdLucio]

They do not care😭💀

[@FryEmUp]

You're so good at explaining things in a rational way without coming off as toxic or entitled. Not just an amazing overwatch player, but an amazing person as well. Keep it up, Eskay!

[@Sketchchess07]

Similar to the GM1 problem, I was trying to get one of my friends interested in the game again (after falling to ~700 in OW1) and of course when she started playing again she got placed B5. I kept coaching her and I could see she was getting better, but no matter how many 5-3s or 5-2s she got, she stayed B5 for a while because it just didn’t feel good. Her rank wasn’t improving despite the fact that she was improving as a player, and that really turned her off of the game for a while.

[@Mummifications]

Bronze has the largest SR gap to climb, you have to GRIND wins and follow your percentage closely if you want to climb out.

[@deepfriedicecream576]

the main reason i dont play ranked anymore is because theres no sense of progression. i felt like anything below masters is rigged. i usually get a motley crew of teammates who vary in skill, or are super toxic in chat or refuse to play as a team. its disheartening to know the fate of the rest of the game before it even starts. its why i play quickplay and usually just try to max the battlepass. if i lose i still get xp, and if i do really well, i usually get bonus xp, and then of course winning gives you the most xp. and honestly i find my quickplay games are often more exciting than my ranked games, and i usually get a team of people who communicate by actually using the ping system, typing in chat, using voice lines, its a more social experience, and often a friendly one. i just dont have the motivation to climb the ranked ladder when i get punished for things just beyond my control. instead of fighting a group of skilled players to get my rank, im fighting an invisible computer that already decided my fate 3 games ago. also overwatch crashes my computer a lot

[@WyattPoooo]

I think that if a teammate leaves it shouldn’t count as a loss for the people who stay and try to win despite the loss of a teammate, if the team without someone wins it should count as a win. But we shouldn’t be punished for someone else’s bad sportsmanship

[@certifiedclown939]

This. I hear that in higher level lobbies that people usually draw, but in the lower lobbies losing teammates is basically a free win for the other team. Hurts especially if you were already struggling

[@ReallyQueenE]

couldn't agree more with all of this, excellent video Eskay! Also, for lower ranked players the current system feels wonky and 2 things especially stick out a lot to me. 1: You don't get rewarded for your peak, you get rewarded for your end placement, which say if you're a plat, and you just got into diamond as your peak, well you're also de-incentivized to keep playing because if you drop out you will earn less comp points. So for new player where gold guns are still exciting and difficult to get, this completely makes it so it's actually better even in lower ranks to camp out at your peak which is super wonky. 2: In Starcraft 2 every rank, no matter how high or low, had their own leaderboards split into 100 players, and it was FANTASTIC! So even if you didn't rank up to a whole new tier, you could still see if you were overtaking other players in your leaderboard - which was super fun and motivating! I REALLY wish Overwatch would implement a similar system because that would make it feel more competitive and rewarding for lower ranks too.

[@blazedbabe333]

It took me about 100 games to get out of silver into plat… the new ranked system is making people work harder than they need to just to see progress. Not fair at all. Playing 100 games every season is the only way you’ll really see progress, which is hard for someone that just plays casually. Gotta agree that keeping 70% winrate on kiriko helped me rank up the most.

[@marriamjawaid491]

I'm relatively new to Overwatch 2, I just downloaded it this year in March and have been playing frequently so I feel like I can't say much from the first game as I never played it. But even after a few months, I've already dropped competitive. My friends and I were super excited to play comp and when we entered it's been nothing but hardship. If anything I have more fun playing quickplay than I do actual comp. I'm in low elo and of course there's skill issues, but when I got my rank initially I started out as Silver 1, and never went up. No matter how much I played and tried to rank up, I consistently ranked down until I hit Bronze 2 / 3. It doesn't feel rewarding in the slightest when I just drop and drop. And the worst part is I know I've gotten better because I understand the game much more than when I started comp, so to just continuously drop the way I have it feels like there's no hope. I've left comp and I don't think I'll be playing it again until its been changed.

[@Toadiferous]

A slightly related grievance as a tank. I used to love having an open profile to show off my 200+ hours on Winston and Ball. My teammates knew I could play them, I could check out who my teammates preferred to play, and we could build something good. Now, literally everyone has hidden profiles because it's default. So I can't see what my allies actually prefer to play, and they can't just inherently trust me playing a harder hero like Ball. And now if I have a fully open profile, the enemy team can just take one look at it and build a comp that counters my main tank choices since OW2 is basically just "counterpicking tanks: the game" if you're any good at tank. So now I turn it to "only teammates" can see it which is a fine temporary solution. But now they're adding all the hero mastery stuff and I legit don't even want to show off my Ball namecard/pfp/title because it literally just screams on the Comp loading screen to pick the most aids comp for Ball to fight, or at least have a plan for it. Hero-specific rewards and things to show off (like hours) used to be a fun novelty, but now it just feeds what already makes tank miserable to play in OW2. Every match is either start against a hard counter, or play for 5 minutes and suddenly be up against a full on counter comp that my team can't capitalize on. I just played comp again for the first time in a few seasons and every single match was "tank swap?" "get off ball" "____ into ____ really?" and thats WITH playing 3 different tanks in a match. And guess what? I only lost one of those placement matches. One match I started Sigma, went Ball, then went Winston and just said fuck it, I'm adapting and I'm gonna stick with Winston since I can counter most of this comp aside from the Reaper they clearly only picked to counter me (and who I wasn't having any trouble with at all). But every time we lose a fight, "i dont think the winston is working can you swap?" like PLEASE shut up. We ended up winning on OT because I stuck with one hero instead of just going through the roulette. And guess what? The enemy team was constantly swapping trying new things to counter me because even though my team didn't realize it, their team realized the Reaper wasn't working as intended. Life as a tank is just absolute counterpick purgatory right now and I don't feel like touching comp again any time soon. It's not worth it at all.

[@josephlee6283]

Was M2 last season, now D2. Your description of winning four games but losing double that are so real. Couldn't agree more with your assessment!

[@mairafarias]

the thumbnail is so sad 😔

[@Friar_OW]

U were so spot on with this and put everything Ive been feeling about the ranked system in ow2 into words. My peak was 4414 and I used to genuinely want to get better at the game and keep improving. With ow2's new system, there is no point in even attempting to do so. Its sad and demoralizing.

[@joechisman5909]

I just don't play ranked because I just never enjoy it

[@PurpleMoon799]

i play both but qp hasn't been fun either.. it also feels like a stomp or be stomped.

[@chazm_ball]

The problem is if they showed SR it would actually expose how broken their system is. All of the things you said + the fact there was literally an sr cap for 3 seasons that all of the top30 reached would mean they would have to admit fault. The funny thing is when they first tried to fix the sr cap problem they actually just increased the cap from 5k to 6k and people still reached it, just proving how inflated the entire system was.

[@MD.20.20]

What if ranked had a similar hero progression to the one they just added but tied to an expanded version of the gold weapons camos, where each hero could have different material variants /camos but not just for weapons, but also accents on the hero skins as well. Could revamp the weapon charms into this new system and put more thought into the different weapon types instead of stabbing a rod into my boy Sigmas hand.

[@kjak94]

You've hit the nail on the head with a lot of this stuff. Granted I'm not top 500 (more like GM2), but I get so frustrated because I really want to play Support in Comp because I have loved the role for years, but queue times range anywhere from 10-20 min. I don't feel like wasting all that time for like 2 matches an hour, so I've been playing competitive open queue where I can at least choose support and get some sort of competitive fix. Problem is, the Open Queue matchmaking is even more wonky than role queue, so I can carry games easy with GM-level Bap or Ana play. You also make a good point about high rank players getting comfortable with their card/peak and smurfing. These are all problems that if worked on from the top down can have positive impacts across the playerbase.

[@commentbot9510]

I think it helps me not obsess over a number so losses don’t feel so bad. Seeing the number go down and having to win x games just to get it back was just as unrewarding imo. Being on the cusp of a rank I just got to was terrible for my anxiety, because I didn’t want to derank even though I know that is normal when you first rank up. But then I go positive two rank ups in a row but stay the same rank, which feels ridiculous. Or I go 5-1 and don’t rank up. It makes you feel stuck. What’s unforgivable though is hiding the ranks of each player. I don’t know if I will ever be able to trust that everyone belongs in the game after so many games with like 4 different ranks in earlier seasons.

[@Tacomaguy458]

well, if you think of each rank the same as the old system, each win/loss is about 25 sr with 100sr being the rank brackets. if you go 5-1 or 5-0 it should be 100% a rank up but the one that blows my mind is having multiple positive reranks in a row to not climb then going 5-6 and dropping 2 ranks. none of it makes any sense...

[@Siks7Ate9]

Yeah I can understand that part. I ain't competitively driven yet do try to improve and get better at the game itself. I find enjoyment in that. I do believe though that there should be a option to turn on a SR system to show your exact rank. Not only for the competitively driven people but also for people who just want to see a number change every single time. Personally I wouldn't care in what rank I played as long as the gameplay is enjoyable. It mostly is, for the most part in diamond /high plat, however the amount of stomped matches you get is still insane.

[@shyrun0101]

I am completly with you at this. My anxiety because of that damn number ... I recently start OW2 comp again, last time was in OW1 with a little Peak in master.. But every battle was fullfilled with anxiety. Now its still kinda feels wrong to..not rank up the 5 time ..even when the programm says i am "80%" "better" then other players in my Devision. But rank dosnt stress me like before.. and thats a big plus..at least for me 😅

[@commentbot9510]

@@shyrun0101 yeah, me too. Even OW2's system doesn't completely remove my anxiety when on the border of a rank though. I was happy in D4 then I had really bad lag out of no where one game, and a tank who was literally playing their first comp game ever, then lost some because my friend wanted to play so I accepted even though I was tired. Ever since I got to D5 ive been anxious and I've gone positive at least 3 times and still haven't ranked up. Help 😭

[@GetQuakedOn]

i miss overwatch 1 rank system. it was amazing

[@aeloh6921]

It's like they decided to hinder the ranked system itself

[@Donler]

Great content Eskay! Also, if you haven't seen there are people posting videos on Reddit showing them going 5-0 and 5-1 and still deranking. I haven't heard many people talk about this. It's my understanding that this literally shouldn't be possible as Blizzard said they are no longer taking stats into account -- just MMR of everyone in the lobby and Win vs Loss. Thoughts?

[@bobothebob4716]

I think there is still some kind of other system in place. I noticed that when I deranked for being idle last season, I went from M2 to gold 5. But I was still playing in Masters games, it would also randomly throw me in low plat games. Honestly at this point I've given up trying to understand what they've done.

[@mrOverYeff]

My first game in ow1 with 5 masters when I was hight diamond was quite beautiful and I will always wish back to that day

[@creatorlul]

it would be nice if they added a leader board for specific heroes etc so you could see how well you are doing on a certain hero over others (this would probably worsen one tricking but it would be nice i think)

[@TanPanda]

I usually don’t have enough time or energy to play ranked a lot so most of the time I only play like 3 ranked games a week. I never actually know my rank for 2-4 weeks into the season.

[@outlawthesecond7597]

IMAGINE if a new rank was introduced alongside the new overwatch esports that was so difficult to obtain that players in this rank have their games reviewed and their gameplay watched to potentially be recruited into an esports team

[@VoltsA]

This might sound like a good idea but no one in their right mind is going to look at ranked gameplay when deciding if someone should get a tryout, they will ask for scrim codes or just try them out based on their peak

[@kiranthomlinson3056]

@@VoltsAthat’s the point though isn’t it, in the new rank it would be so competitive that every game essentially would be scrims

[@VoltsA]

@@kiranthomlinson3056 That is the idea but its just not realistic, maybe if you needed real ID for your account so you could only have 1 in t500 and there were cash prizes for finishing top 10 people would care but the fact is that the built up synergy of teams in scrims as well as always having a 1-1-1-1-1 of a tank HS FDPS MS and FS just means scrims will always be much better unless blizzard changes all of ranked just for 0.1% of the playerbase, which there is no monetary incentive for.

[@gamist8166]

​@@kiranthomlinson3056Scrims don't get super high level cause of everyone being higher rank. An understanding of coordination and or playing for it is a big boost that even pro players just avoid in t500 nowadays. They'd rather just play their own game. Blizzard allowing otp's and private career profiles and ability to leave vc I think created all of these things. Along with everything else to take it less serious

[@outlawthesecond7597]

@@gamist8166 yeah exactly. A new rank like this would cause a change in attitude towards overwatch ranked. it would change top500 into a place where everyone is trying their best because if you are good enough, it could literally change your life. it would have its problems but would be an overall improvement to the entirety of ranked

[@slimemonster0381]

As someone who starting playing on OW2 launch, and someone who tries hard but is relatively low skilled, the first 5 minutes of the video perfectly encompass my frustrations with ranked in a way I have not been able to put into words. Thanks so much. I hope you are able to give this feedback to blizzard. The other con I have of the card system is that as someone who games a fair amount but doesn’t have time to play all day, the card system makes me feel like I have to set aside 2-3 hours of time if I want to get anything out of OW that day. I have to have the time to finish a card in one sitting otherwise I don’t get that conclusion/result that I’m looking for. And if I don’t have the time for that, or maybe I’m a little tired and only want to play 2-3 games that day, I just end up not playing because I know I won’t get that payoff. If I could see my rank change every game, I’d be much more likely to play more often here and there every day.

[@jessicamendes9592]

Very accurate video. The Overwatch team needs to watch this

[@parrot5478]

thank you for addressing and listing very valid solutions to overwatch's t500 and competitive issues! recently i got t500 and i am only in masters 3, though a gm5 peak, but it still feels meaningless knowing that i don't deserve t500. it's just how broken the system is right now that i got there, and it is honestly annoying seeing the meaningless number than my rank.

[@olivia1911]

anyone else here from the director's take on the 8th lol

[@jacobisalemon]

Okay the end of the season thing is actually so good to know. I was trying to camp my first GM season but apparently since i lost 2 games while GM5 that I was now M1 at the end of the season but I literally couldn't see that. I really really do dislike the current system as it is

[@mikadofxx9030]

On my last season that I was playing, I hit Master 1 after doing like 10-2 on Zen, while playing in M1 I was trying my hardest in every match, seriously I considered this my peak performance ever in comp. In the end I managed to go 5-0, so naturally, I thought that I was gonna get at least GM5, but no, I deranked to M3. It was so frustrating and confusing, that I stopped playing Overwatch 2 for a while, then there was PvE scandal and stopped playing altogether after 5 years of continuous play. To this day, I wonder, why I deranked after winning 5 matches in a row with decent stats in every of them.

[@mariettanikolopoulou8082]

I usually disagree with what people have to say about what needs to be changed about comp but I really like the changes that you mentioned

[@pachanas703]

Thanks so much for drawing attention to these issues without sounding like a doomsayer like so many other streamers these days. To share a bit about how the card system affects me (it's an edge case, but I'm sure I'm not the only one), I'm a working dad in my 30s with super limited time to play. My wife and I hang out after we put our daughter down for bed, and if she's going to bed earlier than I am that night or she wants to watch something I don't care about, that's when I play. Usually amounts to a couple of hours tops a few nights a week unless I want to cut into my sleep, which is a dumb thing to do if you parent a toddler. I also occasionally get some time to play during the day if I have a meeting that gets canceled or something. Anyway, I didn't touch comp for probably the last year+ of OW1. I just didn't have the time to stay sharp enough to play at the level I needed to, and as a tank main, the games felt bad more often than not. So I stopped caring and just played QP with friends. When OW2 launched, I got super motivated again. 5v5 felt great and I got the sense that I had way more ability to take over a game when I needed to. But I only got to see my rank in all three roles in one season so far. The system is obviously not designed for players like me, and that's just life, which is fine. But it really sucks that I can't even really grind comp in a way that works for me. And if I do manage to finish my placements and de-rank, then it's exactly like you said. It feels so much worse than feeling each of those wins and losses individually. When I start to lose games now, I start to get so stressed, not because I might lose SR, but because I have to dedicate so much time to even find out what my rank is. So "climbing" is completely out of the question for me. I basically get to place and see my rank once a season, which is once again killing my motivation to play comp.

[@louiepikmin3184]

I used to be mid-high gold but it just stated putting me in low bronze and it's completely destroyed my motivation to keep on playing comp. Especially since I just did placement for mystery heroes and got Gold, so I know it's not my fault. Bronze is so hard to climb out of because your teammates literally don't listen to you and you either destroy the other team or get destroyed because your team keeps going in 1 by 1 and dying and there's almost no in-between.

[@livinglegendlanadelrey]

Mystery herpes💀

[@RandomEevee]

Bro found the new gamemode mystery herpes 💀💀

[@louiepikmin3184]

@@RandomEevee LMAO I DIDNT EVEN NOTICE THAT

[@Phobie_2000]

0:36 ok, but what is this Illari crosshair? 😂

[@RacingSnails64]

Optimal

[@ThaVipaa]

its the healer not a support crosshair 😂

[@ansichart]

Nailed it! Impressively thought out and delivered speech, seriously nice job! 💯

[@spookyow]

I think balance does have a part in the game feeling bad right now. The support/healing power creep calls for more teamwork and coordination in order for people to actually die and to win games. This coupled with mmr inflation makes for not so fun ranked experiences.

[@lucasclark3251]

Thank you so much for this rant it described my feelings of competitive in overwatch 2 so well. I hate going 5 and 1 and either staying in that rank or only being able to go up 1. Me and my duo went 10-2 (5-1 back to back) and I only go up 1 rank it's so irritating, i lose so much passion for the game. I want SR rating back! 😭

[@realfishscience7842]

Eskay I love your videos and you made me realize “OH SHIT LUCIO IS VIABLE?! I SHOULD HAVE NEVER LISTENED TO THE HATERS” and I have a 60% Lucio win rate in gold 1 I’m pretty happy with myself. Everything you said in this video was a rant I tried to say to my ow1 buddy but didn’t know the words thank you for making the process of our conversation going much more efficiently

[@brekenwallar8144]

“Your happiness and achievement are held just out of arms reach” whenever losing 5 games after winning 4 in a row is entirely up to the individuals mindset. You *could* reframe the situation and bask in the satisfaction of doing good for 4 games. Prioritizing a number instead of fun while playing ranked is always going to make the game feel less fun.

[@biotopic1123]

i agree with this. i used to make my comps a numbers game. when i let that go this year and just focused on improving and having fun it felt a lot better.

[@Rays91546]

I've quit overwatch 2 many many months ago, but I never even realized how bad the card system truly is. I was frustrated with it, however you perfectly described with your words what I was feeling the entire time. Overall, amazing video Eskay lots of great criticism!

[@Woishy]

The fact that diamond players will have t500 peak now is just scuffed

[@ArchyAJLS]

I always thought the ranked system felt terrible, but I couldn't really put into words why. You perfectly verbalized everything that's been making the experience feel bad for me. I really really hope the devs see this and aren't too proud to learn from it, because this is some golden feedback every company WISHES they would get from their customers. And they get it for free too, jesus. You're amazing, keep it up.

[@jakeman1251]

Thank you so much for making this. Hopefully someone in charge is listening

[@vibeslime7818]

This video slowly went from what’s wrong with overwatch to all us top 500 are bored which shouldn’t be the case cause we’re better than everyone else (which is true for the most part).

[@Oguh608]

After the dev update recently where they mentioned Eskay it's crazy to think they didn't even understand their own system and needed a youtuber to explain how it's not a good system to finally take some action...

[@lumikumo]

So happy to see someone really talking about this!! I miss the old ranked system so much!! The new system makes it so much harder to feel motivated to play. I dropped so far this season because of how I left last season and it feels so wrong. Left last season in diamond support with 4 - 10, this season I was slapped into plat 4 lobbies and even going 5 - 2, I still placed plat 4. I don't understand how I didn't at least get a higher plat rank.. Even with that, if I was getting updates every game, I wouldn't feel as bad. I wish we could revert to the old system ;-;

[@coastfan24]

This video nearly perfectly articulated what I’ve been feeling about ranked for awhile. I had no idea this was why I was hating ranked but it makes perfect sense. The system is super busted. I started my support card on 0-3 yesterday and have literally 0 motivation to continue knowing that unless I now go 5-0 a deranking is very likely coming

[@Synisterjames]

There's also few things more frustrating than finishing your card and staying the same rank. It genuinely feels like all of the apparent progress I felt like I was making taken from me.

[@AlyxTremblay]

I'm a platinum player and I play super casually so I haven't been effected by much of the stuff you spoke about. But after hearing the more high elo issues explained and feeling your passion for it I really understood. I hope eventually Blizzard does to and takes at least *some* of this advice.

[@Nxccraft]

Speaking of what you said beginning in 4:52: In the Middle Eastern PC server a lot of people (including me) use firewall and apps to block the ME servers due to high queue times outside of comp and qp and also the super miserable match quality in general. I really do wish region/server select is added so I can actually play the game.

[@itsmax9535]

its like a lottery but winning doesnt feel good

[@RiderZer0]

I had an 87% winrate the beginning of the season. Went days winning the vast majority of games. Now I have not won a single game in 2 days. Have terrible teammates that are impossible to carry. It just feels bad and makes me not want to play anymore.

[@maxvader1000]

Yeah the card thing you nailed, even when going 5-0 or 5-1 I'm more often than not dissapointed with how much i rank up, and after a rankup it feels demotivating starting the card cycle all again, I miss Sr.

[@LionAD]

the point about starting a new set of 5 games on a loss was too true, even if I lose one or two at the start it already feels like im on the backfoot

[@coldshock5181]

5-2 and ranked from M5 to D1, how did they manage to make the worst ranked system possible

[@freezedriedzombi8242]

Thank you for making this video. I don’t want overwatch to die but there’s just little things theyve been doing thats just slowly killing it more and more. Yes..I miss the sr numbers. And I hate that our ranks don’t get reset at the end of the season atm. I thought I was the only one who would just rank high as I could then just stop playing to keep the rank that season.

[@TheRusty]

Back in OW1. Season 5. I busted my hump climbing from the floor of Bronze (playing comp with friends as a party game for the first 4 seasons had some negative effects on ranking!) to mid-plat. I grinded, I learned, I slid and scooted but I did absolutely climb. And then season 6, I run my placements (4w/1L) and... back in bronze baby! Climbed to high gold before the season ended. Season seven BACK IN BRONZE. As far as I could tell I was hard locked to my season 2 placements and gosh golly, spending my free time being Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day" sure sounded like fun!

[@kkona3868]

Every single point was valid. Great video:)

[@kami4658]

Last season after I got my rank and the cards reset, I was ready to grind a little bit, but it ended up as one of the most frustrating things ever... I was literally 4 wins and 14 losses so I'd get an update on my rank regardless if I lost or won. I ended up winning, but got deranked bc of all the losses, basically played 19 games, lost a thousand braincells, only to get an obvious update on my rank. Ofc, I didn't play comp anymore for that season. It just goes to show that they really don't give a rat's ass about actually making the game enjoyable, they just became even greedier than they were, because most of the changes revolve around skins and bp and all this bs that can bring them money, and not around a good matchmaking system or balancing certain characters, which is very sad.

[@i_Croc]

In no game there should A practically game approved subdivision in a subdivision in a subdivision of a ranked system.

[@ryanqian2001]

I went 5-0 on support and didn't rank up at all. Now I'm 1-9 and I don't even play ranked anymore because it is so miserable with a big fat de-rank up my ass.

[@Hutch13]

I don’t play anymore, just came to like and comment to hope something gets changed for those who still play.

[@Handles_AreStupid]

The shortest answer is that placements are the least fun part of competitive and always has been. They took this feedback, and made comp a placements only mode... If I can only see my rank change every 90-120 minutes of play time, I am going to lose interest. If it is possible for me to win 5 games in a row and still de-rank, I am going to lose interest. They simplified the SR system and then hid the new system behind repeated placements. To fix comp, just take all the placement style matches away and let me see my rank update live with each game. I always hated when a season ended because I knew that meant I had to do 25 more placements to get to see my rank again (not that it ever changed, because placements just use your last known rank and will only actually act as expected if you have a 4 or more seasons gap in your profile since last time). I wouldn't mind if they locked you out from competing in a season until you played 3 games with a little padlock symbol until you did this (whilst showing you your MMR rank), but when they pull the "I wonder what your rank will be. Play these placements to find out" BS, it just completely de-motivates me. The fact that they now have it so you need to get 5 WINS instead of just playing 5 games is a kick in the teeth. If you are ranked appropriately, you should have a 50% winrate, that means you need 10 placements for EVERY role... I swear they are trying to push people away from competitive. These "everyone is a winner, losing isn't that important" changes make the game less tense and more like a waste of time. If it's called "competitive", make sure it has an atmosphere to match.

[@rionnachelliot8951]

Not Eskay predicting Champion rank 6 monsk ago.

[@Iv3y_Lamar]

What’s crazy is how many games where the dps and/or tank just don’t match up. Always getting diffed or countered and I’m just on a consistent losing streak(outside of the 5 wins) ever since the start of season 6

[@an0bserver2000]

0:12 splatoon 3 actually uses a very similar system to this (but with 5 wins and 3 losses instead), but with a few key differences that make it actually work in that game. for one, it's much more transparent, at the end of a set of games, you see exactly how many points each game contributes to your score. it's also a completely optional system. you can just queue into the version that directly updates your rank at the end of each match, if that's what youd prefer. there's also way less of them, and splatoon matches are much shorter than overwatch matches, so it's easier to finish a set of them after you've started it. and if you end up losing 3 matches, it doesnt feel that bad cause you immediately get to start again with a fresh set, instead of having to watch them stack all the way up to 15. it just feels so much better in that game, and I don't think I've ever really seen people critisize it, so presumably most of the splatoon community agrees.

[@iamaylacat3935]

Implementing the match average ranks was AMAZING for keeping track of specifically where wins and losses occured. Except, it doesn't always show them. Also, a halfway measure for the system would either be for players to opt into the cards (as some players have said that they find it better) and have instant adjustments displayed for players that want them. The other option would be to have the card display as currently, but have the career profile update every match. The system does hidden calculations PER MATCH, so giving players some sort of indication of this visually, is crucial, especially for players who may feel lost with all the hidden changes.

[@justalex9101]

A system I thought would alleviate the feelings of losing a little bit is actually a system from splatoon 3 In that game you basically pay a certain amount of sr to start a card and if you manage to get a certain number of wins, then you gain a bunch of points that is likely more than the amount you paid. If you get a certain amount of losses, then you simply don’t earn anything and are stuck at the amount you were at after you paid your sr. I think this would fix a lot of frustration with losing games as technically you don’t lose points you just don’t gain any but you also have at least a tangible number of how much sr you have I think it’s a cool system that with some tinkering could fit into ow ranked that will at least make the act of winning or losing a game a lot less frustrating and make people want to play more.

[@IPlayYouWatchYT]

I have like 2000 hours into overwatch comp. Since the new 5/15 system I have maybe 10 hours.... I don't have any incentives to rank up.