Current Events > I don't know why I keep playing competitive shooters...

(+) Yeah! (+)

I played 4 games of competitive Marvel Rivals on Saturday night for the first time since (painfully) grinding to Grandmaster late February just to be met with antisocial group of griefers in each game. I tried again tonight, and lost 3 games in a row due to the same type of stuff where it was completely winnable but it turns into a bunch of idiots standing in spawn and blaming one another.

I decide that going a grand total of 0-7 since my return to MR was beyond depressing, I go to Overwatch since it's apparently the best it's ever been. I lose my first game in a close fight on Colosseo. Okay, not bad at all, I don't mind losing when it's an actual competitive game. Next game, I get Ilios and we win first round, but for some fucking reason, in the next round, our Mercy swaps to Lifeweaver, and starts repeatedly trolling by refusing to heal and pulling people back until we eventually lose.

Now, I know what you're thinking, surely there's some context right? Why would the Lifeweaver start throwing if my team was winning? Why is my record in competitive a grand total of 0-9 across 2 different games in my last gaming sessions? Am I the problem in these games? I can't say for sure on the latter but I do go positive every game despite the losses, so other people can tell me i'm trash all they want. What I do know, is that there was nothing going on in chat, and to my knowledge there was nothing happening in game to warrant that Lifeweaver deciding to absolutely fuck us. If I was a streamer, I would link a video but I do not record my gameplay.

Either way, I just wanted to rant somewhere, please roast me and tell me that I deserve to lose in video games for the rest of my life.

That's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. You either try again the next night or don't.

I don't stop until I win once at least

Aztex posted...

I don't stop until I win once at least

That's a bad mindset, because it just leads to spiraling

not really a piece of advice or anything since, well, you can't just choose which games vibe with you or not, more of an anecdote: I used to play a lot of league of legends. When I eventually stopped playing it, I'd kinda decided to not go back to those sorts of team-based competitive games for a while, partially because you're right it's very annoying when you get a team with a handful of trolls (or even just one!)

somewhat recently, I got into apex legends a little bit and... my team annoyance thing just sort of doesn't exist there? If you get a good team, you just have a normal good game and it's fun. if you have a bad team or a team of people who would rather insult each other instead of playing, you're done in like 2-3 minutes and then just go next

That's usually the time I switch to some single player game instead. Take your frustration out on npc bots cause everyone else is too mean.

In CoD MWIII, I have a positive KD but my winning % is like 0.39. It is what it is

Unknown5uspect posted...

That's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. You either try again the next night or don't.

I hear that. Despite my story, I did not actually rage at any point, and i'm kinda glad to say that to be honest considering I was a heavy nerd rager "back in the day".

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I stopped playing Rivals at the end of February because I knew I was just grinding to get the rank I wanted, not because I was having fun anymore. I suppose it was wishful thinking that I would either be willing to deal with immature players again, or that the community has improved (it never will, it is absolutely a false hope)

Aztex posted...

I don't stop until I win once at least

UnholyMudcrab is absolutely right, it's a bad mindset that leads to spiraling, but I am clearly guilty here since I went 0-4 in one night, and 0-5 another lol

kirbymuncher posted...

not really a piece of advice or anything since, well, you can't just choose which games vibe with you or not, more of an anecdote: I used to play a lot of league of legends. When I eventually stopped playing it, I'd kinda decided to not go back to those sorts of team-based competitive games for a while, partially because you're right it's very annoying when you get a team with a handful of trolls (or even just one!)

somewhat recently, I got into apex legends a little bit and... my team annoyance thing just sort of doesn't exist there? If you get a good team, you just have a normal good game and it's fun. if you have a bad team or a team of people who would rather insult each other instead of playing, you're done in like 2-3 minutes and then just go next

I understand and have even said very similar things to people I know at many different times in my life, but I am a total hypocrite because I keep coming back.

A_Good_Boy posted...

That's usually the time I switch to some single player game instead. Take your frustration out on npc bots cause everyone else is too mean.

Yep! I am finishing up a work thing then I am going to play some Triangle Strategy.

Time to play a co-op shooter instead. Deep Rock Galactic is really good.

Play other shooters instead?

Man I used to be obsessed with competitive Overwatch

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It's a problem far older than videogames, since any game of skill has this issue. Chess is one of many examples where the players need to be rather closely matched in skill for the game to have any chance of being interesting.

So it would be interesting to see if the game companies can actually solve this problem.

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Aren't ranked lobbies the place where you go for that? Of course those do nothing to prevent smurfs but then again nothing can ever be perfect for every situation.

Play video games for fun instead of trying to be an e-sports pro Gamer. I have been playing hero shooters non-stop since Overwatch came out in 2016 and still have a blast playing them.

I just want casual deathmatch shooters back, only problem is in those games the big babies play them for a little while and then start quitting a lot when they aren't winning and then they depopulate and leave only the sweats left.

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It probably shouldn't come as a surprise to you but basically every competitive multiplayer game that anyone takes remotely seriously already does this

I prefer playing fighting games so I don't have to rely on bad teammates

The-19th-Sparta posted...

Now, I know what you're thinking, surely there's some context right? Why would the Lifeweaver start throwing if my team was winning?

I'd assume it was something stupid like, even though your team was winning, that player was mostly getting wrecked. So they decided to ruin it for the whole team. I've seen that a lot in MOBAs. Our team is winning overall, but 1 person has been feeding hard and gets tilted.

But it doesn't sound like you let the losing streak ruin your enjoyment. Sometimes it's out of your hands and you just have to put it down and come back another day.

NoxObscuras posted...

I'd assume it was something stupid like, even though your team was winning, that player was mostly getting wrecked. So they decided to ruin it for the whole team. I've seen that a lot in MOBAs. Our team is winning overall, but 1 person has been feeding hard and gets tilted.

But it doesn't sound like you let the losing streak ruin your enjoyment. Sometimes it's out of your hands and you just have to put it down and come back another day.

Oh yeah, it's not a big deal after the initial down feeling of a losing streak. I played OW again tonight, had some wins and losses and most importantly, had a good time.

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tbh I sort of find the opposite? sure they're not going to find people with exactly the same skill as you, that's near-impossible. but anything with a ranked system tends to do a pretty good job of matching you against people with the same sort of rank +- a position or two. I do think matchmaking in larger team games is not done super well yet since there are lots of factors to balance but even then it's far above nothing at all

probably the biggest outlier/problem to matchmaking are people making new accounts (and thus appearing far below their actual skill level for a while) or friend groups with massive differences in skill level playing together as a single unit