Blizzard's newest video game, Overwatch, has been a hit amongst fans. The diverse hero abilities and strategic map designs have left many enamored with the game. The deep backstory adds to the game's atmosphere if you should choose to learn about it. This made the release of competitive mode highly anticipated, but upon release, some players are expressing disappointment. Is Overwatch's competitive mode "broken" as many say?
One of the largest issues in competitive mode is the penalty for leaving a match early. Should a teammate lose connection, disconnect, and then quickly reconnect, everyone suffers. Competitive mode relies on ranking players. Players gain ranks for winning and lose ranks for losing. And yet, in this circumstance, the rewards are diminished for some reason. The enemy team receives less of a reward for winning. The team that lost a player is practically guaranteed a loss. If they do win, they still receive an incredibly low reward. Why are both teams being heavily punished for one person leaving? Why is it not taken into consideration when a player immediately reconnects after their disconnect?
Overall, the ranking system itself is confusing and possibly broken. Sometimes winning games will net you a high reward, while other times you will barely get anything. When you win, you gain a third of a rank, but when you lose a game, you'll lose an entire rank. Players have also reported that despite having a higher win-to-loss ratio, they are losing ranks. The ranking in competitive is confusing and makes it incredibly difficult to rank up, even if you are a skilled player. At this point, rankings are simply frustrating to deal with.
Support heroes are vital in the game. They can heal their teammates. Yet, if you play as a support in competitive, you receive very little rewards. Why is such an important role being diminished in rankings? Players should be encouraged to full the support position on their team.
Toxicity has also been an issue since competitive was released. It is difficult to get into a game without people becoming angry with one another. Players refuse to play vital roles, like tank or support, so that they can instead make convoluted strategies that hurt their entire team. There is no option for your team to vote to kick players out of a match like there is in CS:GO. You can be stuck with someone who is deliberately trying to lose which affects rankings. There is little punishment for the players that spray vitriol at teammates for critiquing the team.
Hopefully Blizzard will resolve these issues when season 2 of competitive is released. Until then, it might be best to stick to quick play. If you do want to play competitively, consider listening to your teammates, being polite, communicating, and keeping a level head. The only way competitive will become less toxic is if players all attempt to cooperate.
