I've been throwing/deranking/smurfing in Overwatch 2's Competitive for some time now. I think I mentioned it in another subforum, but people in low ranks are genuinely some of the most depressing people I've ever met.
Elos in games are kind of like an IQ scale. You won't find someone who is mentally retarded in a top 500 lobby of any game, nor would you find a wildly intelligent person in a bottom 500 lobby. There are plenty of ignorant and aggressive people in high elo lobbies that schizo out and scream in voice chat, but they aren't necessarily stupid.
I've met a lot of players in bronze 5 - silver 1. Some of them are just new to the game, and they will eventually rank up into ~Gold if not higher. Some just play with a controller on PC. They have alright game sense, but their mechanics clearly lack. Some of them have a decent amount of hours, but they never have time to consistently play the game and refine their abilities. They can get a game or two in every other day.
Those are some of the more intelligent people in the lower ranks.
Sadly, A lot of the people I meet are kind of evil. They get extremely toxic for no reason; screaming in voice chat because someone made a mistake and we lose the first team fight. Since they are insulting and flaming their own team, everyone is going to be put in a bad mood, which makes everyone perform worse. It's ironic when you think about it: these people want to win, but are throwing the match when they piss everyone on their team off.
It's also just a game, theres no real reason to start screaming at people you don't know because you are losing in a video game, but this is a behavior I see a LOT in lower ranks. You can easily sum it up as tard rage.
These people often believe in 'elo hell', a cognitive bias where you think that you deserve a higher rank than you are actually in. They believe that they always get bad teams, or they are only in their elo because they get throwers and leavers.
However, this isn't the case. Unless you get multiple leavers in a row, after 200 competitive games you've earned your rank. You get throwers, but so does the enemy team. You get leavers, but so does the enemy team. You get bad teammates, but so does the enemy team. After so many games, you are the only common denominator. Any bronze to GM video is proof that elo hell is not real.
They often think this way because they did good in one game. But that's the problem, they did good in one game. The next game they shit the bed. The lack of consistency is what is keeping them from ranking up. It could be they aren't good with a certain comp, for example if they one trick a character one match they could be being countered and the next match they could counter the entire enemy team. Same with their own team, some characters just have no synergy with each other. They see their stats in one good game and genuinely believe they don't deserve their current elo. Then, when they do bad the next game, they blame everyone else on their team.
After over 4000 low elo games, I've never seen a single person who was genuinely in elo hell. Either they naturally rank up, or they only do really good that one game and do bad the next. I've grouped with enough low elo players to see them get 32 kills with only one death one game, and then 0 kills with 14 deaths the next game. The entire idea of 'elo hell' stems from ignorance. The inability to understand one's own shortcomings and focus on self improvement. They don't try to learn how to play better because they think they are better.
But there are also a lot of nice low elo players who deserve to win. They just do their best, they try to have fun, and a lot of them even apologize and try not to argue with people who are screaming at them through their mics. They understand they are bad, they do not blame others or make fun of others, and often praise their team for doing good or compliment the enemy team when they do a good play. I've given vod reviews to a few low bronze players like these in hopes that they will eventually get better and not have to suffer such toxic lobbies, but the only ones that actually benefit from the advice are those who are either new or dont play enough to learn on their own. If you are a bottom 5% player and you've been that low after 300 hours, its more than likely that you will forever be a bottom 5% player. You can't boost them, as they are genuinely bad at the game. They will always eventually fall back down.
Sometimes talking to them is...awkward. It feels like they have a hard time following a conversation, or talk like a 10 year old despite clearly having the voice of a middle aged man. Other times its awkward because I have a 24 year old single mother tell me about how her 2 year old son handed her her "18 inch bong".
When I initially started smurfing in low elo lobbies, I originally wanted to smurf to just play healbot on support and enjoy being able to play mindlessly in a terrible lobby, or do silly stuff like follow enemies around from behind until they finally notice I'm there. I'd originally just spectate the toxic behavior. Eventually I would get to thinking about how these people are just mentally ill and they genuinely cannot help how they behave or their inability to perform. It was very demoralizing to watch someone who tries to do their best get lambasted and screamed at by someone who is equally as bad as them. Ultimately, the aggressor just has a low IQ and they have problems that make them act this way. You can't beat a dog to death when it pees in the house as its just a dumb dog and it really doesn't know any better.
Despite understanding this I got to a point where I could not help but get deeply offended when I see someone say some toxic shit for no reason. As long as the victim doesn't become equally antagonistic, I always try to double up on how toxic the aggressor is acting to really drive the point across that this is how they come off and they are just as much of an asshole as they think I am. I understand that this won't help, but I am not going to sit there and listen to this guy get screamed at over a video game. If I was in the victims shoes, I would greatly appreciate if someone stood up for me. If I was the aggressor, I deserve to be treated the same way I treat others. I often try to send a friend request to the victim afterwards and offer to help them win a game or two to make up for me usually causing our team to lose. A lot of them thank me for standing up for them, even if I go full nuclear.
There was this one tank I added I'll never forget. She is a bronze 3 D.va one trick that IMO was on her way to bronze 5. It was one of the rare games where I wanted to play moira and use my mic to give callouts/coms/advice. I usually don't do this because to these people have a hard time differentiating non toxic advice from bitching and crying, even when I explicitly state that I am a thrower and I don't get upset if my team does bad because I genuinely do not care how the match turns out. They also don't like being told what to do but you know thats kind of reasonable.
This D.va was playing at mid-long range. D.va's weapons are shotguns. I watched her shoot at a widow from across the map, dealing 60 damage while taking over 1000. I decided that after the match I was going to add them and point out how fucked this is because its a massive problem, but while we were in the match I told her that she should play hard cover more and just shoot at people that are close to her. She immediately apologized. Like, apologized over and over. She sounded like Mikan from Danganronpa. She was very very polite, kind hearted, and was trying to do her best and work with my advice.
There was one specific moment in the match where she ulted and killed nobody. She immediately started apologizing in the voice chat about how she wasted her ult, but I pointed out how it wasnt a waste at all. She dropped her bomb in the middle of the enemy team. This made the enemy DPS take cover at the sides, the supports to back up, and the enemy tank to dive forward to avoid the bomb. The enemy tank was 100% alone and we instantly killed them, easily cleaned up the dps and by then the supports were running back to their spawn to regroup. Their ult, though it killed nobody, essentially carried the team fight and shes sitting here about to cry apologizing about what she thought was a wasted ult.
After the match I sent her a friend request and we talked about it. I showed her in the replay how her bomb affected the enemy team's positioning. I pointed out a few things in her play style that was really bad, taught her about the ult charge economy (How if you deal 60 damage to widow but widow does 1000 to you, you basically gave widow her ult while you get nothing out of it), among some other things.
She actually started crying. She talked about how people are always super rude to her when she plays because she isn't very good at the game, and how I was the first person she met on the game who was being nice to her and trying to help her improve. I directed her to a couple smurfs I knew who play D.va and could give her better advice on how to play the character/play games with her and help her as they play, as well as linked a couple videos from Spilo Coaching about D.va that she could watch and maybe learn something from.
It really highlighted to me how some of these people in these lower ranks are really fucking stupid and shit at the game, but they just want to have fun. They don't want to make anyone upset, they don't want to get yelled at, they just want to play the game and have fun. They have this fun ruined by other people who essentially boot up the game just to scream at other people. This entire environment makes me upset, and this is why I find it so depressing to think about low elo players in games.
A few of the derankers I group with enjoy watching me schizo out and put people in their place, and have asked if I could record these instances and post them on youtube so they can watch and show their friends. A couple of the videos got caught by the algorithm and not everyone appreciated how I conduct myself.
A conversation I had about this on YouTube:
QUOTE
[A commenter]• 2 weeks ago
I'm not an over watch expert (I haven't played the game) but if you're smurfing in competitive mode and not playing competitively then surely you're more toxic than the guy who just wants to win. Is there no casual mode for you to play for fun in? And why can't you play for fun on your main account? It's pretty hypocritical to throw games and ruin other players' experiences when you're unwilling to lose "ranks" on your main account and throw games for fun there. Overall you seem like a pretty nasty, self-righteous person judging by the way you escalate the conversation and made a youtube video about it and it's frustrating to see how little self-awareness you display.
Also, how do you type so fast (do you have a special keyboard or something)?
[Me]
• 2 weeks ago
"I'm not an over watch expert (I haven't played the game) but if you're smurfing in competitive mode and not playing competitively then surely you're more toxic than the guy who just wants to win. Is there no casual mode for you to play for fun in?"
Well, yes. There is a 'quickplay' mode, there is arcade, there are tons and tons of custom games where you can basically do whatever you want from mercy parkour to cod zombie ripoffs. However, from my experience a lot of people who play quickplay treat it as seriously as people treat comp. A lot of them are, IMO, a lot more aggressive when it comes to people not playing seriously because they see it much more often. A friend of mine who took QP seriously and had to stop inviting me said that it "Hurted their winrate".
I take quickplay as the blue version of comp. Quickplay has elos as well, and there are plenty of people who try hard on it. Comp has elos and there are plenty of people who try hard on it. Both people play casually, and really I find it much more respectable to play red mode for fun than to literally allow yourself to go on a 30 minute bitch fest over 1 game that you won because someone wasn't taking it as seriously as you were.
I think I said this in another comment, but Overwatch is a game. Comp is a mode in a game. It's a game. I can't imagine anyone's thought process is "I am going to boot up this game to get very very mad at strangers online". I think it's more "I am going to play this game and have fun." I am having fun. It is just a game. I don't hold it against people who want to take comp very seriously, but I find it wildly irrational to treat comp THIS seriously, where you are willing to insult people for simply playing bad. This isn't a reference to the rein in this video, but I am referring to people who say "Tank diff" or actively talk shit to their own teammates when they are playing bad. If you are 18 kills to 1 death, and your other dps is 2 kills and 8 deaths, and the guy is genuinely trying, you are a massive piece of shit if you are going to actively flame him for his poor performance. I don't care if its comp or quickplay.
"And why can't you play for fun on your main account? It's pretty hypocritical to throw games and ruin other players' experiences when you're unwilling to lose "ranks" on your main account and throw games for fun there."
Well, this is my main account. I peaked diamond 3 in season 8, and 5 stacked to bronze 5 that same season. Diamond back then was top ~18-4%. It's funny you mention this, because back then when I was trying to actually rank up I never behaved the way these guys did
Lets say I was losing a game. My dps have 7k damage each, my tank 9k damage, I have 5k damage and 23k healing and my other support has 9k healing.
In these situations I never went in match chat and said "FUCK, MY BACK HURTS. I WISH MY TEAM WASN'T ASS. HOLY FUCK", if we were losing the match I said to myself "I wonder what I can do to help my team win. If healbotting isn't doing enough for my team, maybe I should try to do flanks on their backline and try to draw in a 2v1 to help the main team fight favor us."
Basically, no matter the situation I would never blame my team's inability to perform. I always understood that people are inconsistent. My widow may have went 43-2 last game, but is going 4-12 this game. I understand how it is.
Even when I had throwers and leavers, I understood that the enemy team had them too. After so many games, I will earn the rank I rest in. If I play 200 games and I am usually in gold, then I am a gold player. One game where I had a thrower, or even 4 games in a row where I have 4 leavers, does not magically make me a worse player.
My rank reflects my standing in comp compared to other players. My rank does not reflect my current ability to play. If I had 8 leavers in a row and was forced to play 4v5s, this was an opportunity to learn how to play in less favorable matchups/win team fights in much harder situations. Comp was never about getting a higher rank, it was about getting better. It was about learning the game. My win rate had nothing to do with my ability or inability to become a better player. If I was genuinely a better player than the average plat 2, I will usually be in a rank above it. I am not better than the average diamond 3 player, which is why I was only able to peak it. Even if I hit my peak and lost 15 games in a row from, say throwers, if I deserved to be at my peak then I can always win those games back. And I will only deserve to if I have the skill.
This perspective is probably what led me to 'throwing' and deranking in the first place. Eventually, I didn't care about ranking up. I had a lot of fun just enjoying the game. It was hard to claim that I was contributing well if I healbotted in say plat, but healbotting in low silver doesn't bat an eye.
Hey, believe it or not my original reason for deranking was so that I can healbot in relaxing low rank lobbies and even give people some vod reviews to help them rank up. Back in season 9 I added a few bronzies and taught them how to play moira more efficiently. I would give them a couple replay codes, one with me healbotting and one with me mostly dpsing, timestamp certain things I did and why I did them, and a lot of them actually got into low silver if not higher. I maxed out my friends list on battlenet and I really don't vod review that much anymore. It's hard to vod review someone when asking if they would like one is immediately taken as an insult
I guess now these players have made me cynical. I used to just add players who were getting insulted after the match, tell them I'm not upset with them and help them win a couple games and give them advice. Since I don't want to remove people to add new people its much easier for me to just be the bigger asshole.
Though, the other day I did add a really bad tank player the entire lobby was insulting and go smurf mode with them to help them win a few games. Pretty much reported anyone who insulted them for being bad. I haven't edited the footage because I don't really post content like that.
"Overall you seem like a pretty nasty, self-righteous person judging by the way you escalate the conversation and made a youtube video about it and it's frustrating to see how little self-awareness you display."
Yeah. I mean you can't tell me that guy wasn't nasty too. I get 2 wrongs don't make a right, but I want to be king asshole. As for making a youtube video, I only post these videos to show my friends. Its easier to upload them to youtube than to like...dropbox or some stupid shit... I would unlist all of my videos, but its much easier for them to just subscribe and open my channel than for me to have them unlisted and kept in a public playlist. Some of my videos get picked up by other smurfs/derankers as they find this content entertaining, some of them being well known top 500 players even. I have an unlisted video that is much, much worse than this. It was a hostage game where one of my dps died 72 times and the entire hour long match they didn't understand what was going on. It was a bronze 4 lobby too. I have it unlisted because I found the video to be in poor taste but my friends wanted to show their friends and they knew I was recording. However, the video titled "[Name of the video]" is a section of that video that I decided to make it's own standalone video and post it publicly. I think its one of the best videos I've made so far.
I am very self aware...I just dont care...
"Also, how do you type so fast (do you have a special keyboard or something)?"
Well, that text conversation was 30 minutes long. I sped up the footage by 6x. I can only upload 15 minute videos, and I didn't think my friends would appreciate watching 30 minutes of me getting insulted by this rando when they can instead watch a much more digestible 6 minutes of me getting insulted by this rando.
I hope this reply helped. I am a little drunk, so sorry about grammer or talking in circles. Also, youtube shadowbanned this comment. I had to go into the youtube studio feature to find this. I didn't even get a notification.
[Them] • 2 weeks ago
You know that was a pretty nuanced and comprehensive response. And if you're not claiming to be a morally superior paladin that's gonna stop the mean players by being meaner but are in fact aware that you're engaging in the exact same childishness as them then it doesn't matter.
[Me]
• 2 weeks ago
yay
TL;DR: I am half asleep writing this before bed. (it's not worth reading btw, I just want to vent)
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