Overwatch is one of the greatest multiplayer shooters I’ve ever played. The character designs are unique,each one lending themselves to unique gameplay experiences. Want to be fast and heavy-hitting? Play as the plucky and cheerful Tracer. Do you like Pudge, Scorpion, using a Flak Cannon (Unreal Tournament), and having lots of health? Play as the beefy (quite literally) Roadhog. No matter your playstyle, there’s a character for you. The gameplay can be seen as a sort of Team Fortress-like, with capture the point and payload modes available, with MOBA-like abilites, cooldowns, and ultimates, This style lends itself to becoming very competitive, and there are already competitive Overwatch teams out there. The funny thing is, competitive mode for the average player wasn’t introduced until recently. This is because, during the beta, competitive had many, many issues, which the team over at Blizzard planned to resolve. It took them a full month after launch, however, which is kind of perplexing. However, that’s not the point. The point is, while competitive has fixed its old problems, it brings all-new ones to the table. I’ll need segments for this, since there are a lot of issues. With that said, let’s begin.
Keep in mind: This is JUST MY OPINION.
1. The ranking system
The ranking system is the first issue I have. Instead of leagues, which other competitive games tend to do, you get a score. This score can range from 1 to 100, with initial placement determined by playing 10 placement games. After these games, you are given a number that (supposedly) corresponds with your skill, and you will be matched with people of similar skill levels from there on out.. Here’s the thing, though: from what I can tell, the ranking system really only cares about how many games you win. It doesn’t seem to care about many kills you have, how few deaths you have, how much you’ve healed, or even how many medals you’ve earned. So you could be the worst Zenyatta player, or the most annoyingly good Mei player, and that wouldn’t even affect your placement you won both times. Another problem with the ranking system: the points you get for winning. You get an extra point added on to your score if you win the match, no matter how well or badly you did. What they should have done was looked at your in-match stats, and added points accordingly. That way, the better players (not me) could be more easily matched up with other better players.
TL;DR: Let our skills affect our ranking, instead of our victories.
2. The map selection
Another issue I have is the fact that maps are randomly chosen. Unlike, say, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, you cannot choose which maps you want to play on, even in Quick Play mode. This makes it very annoying when you want to play on a map such as Ilios, and instead are forced into Dorado. If you don’t let us choose maps, at least let us choose which modes we want to play. Blizzard, sometime we don’t want to play a long match of control, and maybe we want to play escort instead. Speaking of control..
TL;DR: Choosing maps should be allowed.
3. The time disparity in game modes
The length times of the modes in competitive are completely uneven. Let’s compare escort, the fastest mode, to control, by far the slowest mode. In escort, you either have to transport the payload all the way to the end, or at least as far as you can before time runs out, or stop the other team from transporting the payload. Once the round ends, teams switch sides, and the attacking team will be defending and vice-versa. The formerly defending team will then have to move the payload either past the point where the payload was when the previous match ended, or make it all the way to the end if the formerly attacking team succeeded, resulting in a sudden death round. It’s quick and simple, and matches are a reasonable amount of time. Control, on the other hand, has two teams, both attacking, attempting to capture a single point and maintain control of it in order to raise their control percentage from 0 to 100. However, since the point is constantly being fought over, control over the point switches from time to time, extending the round for quite some time, longer than escort. If that’s not enough, instead of winning two rounds in order to win, like in escort, you have to win by securing the point 3 out of 5 rounds, and since these rounds are longer, it means that you have to spend more time than a person on escort in order to gain (or lose) the exact same amount of points. To solve this, I suggest giving more points to those who win in control, in addition to the extra points determined by stats. Not that much, mind you, just 1 or 2 extra points. However, this would make a huge difference, allowing those who are forced into control and those who are forced into escort to earn the same amount of points, since you could play 2 payload games within 1 control game. Of course, you’d also have to give the players more competitive points, allowing them to earn rewards more quickly. Of course, rewards are another issue entirely.
TL;DR There’s a huge disparity in time between certain modes, yet they dole out the same amount of points. This can be fixed by making it so that modes with longer times give out more points.
4. The reward system
Competitive points are earned by winning matches, in the same way that points are earned for you ranking score. They’re used as currency, similar to credits. Here’s the problem, however: you can only get 1 competitive point per victory (correct me if I’m wrong), and you can get very, very little with these points. In addition, these few rewards cost 300 points, meaning you’d have to win 300 matches in order to get one of these things. So, what can you get with these points, you Mei (badum-tish) be asking? Well, they aren’t loot boxes, they aren’t unique skins, they aren’t voice lines, emotes, victory poses-hell, they aren’t even player icons or sprays. Instead, for 300 hard-earned points, you can possess the gaudiest item in Overwatch: a golden weapon. 
Look at it! Isn’t it hideous beautiful? Jokes aside, this is a waste of reward. I thought it was lazy in Team Fortress 2, and I think it’s lazy here. Blizzard is known for their creativity. From revolutionizing RTS’s with Starcraft, to popularizing MMO’s with World of Warcraft, Blizzard have always had a knack for creation. They were almost never lazy in terms of design. I mean, just look at the cartoony land of Azeroth in the Warcraft universe! While falling into the pitfalls of taking from Tolkien (but who doesn’t?), they were able to create their own races, lands, and atmosphere. THAT is the revered company known as Blizzard Entertainment. So what happened? Why did they cheap out? That’s extremely un-Blizzardlike, you guys! I suggest this be fixed by adding other rewards, some cheaper (such as the ugly golden weapons), some more expensive. Add items such as exclusive skins, emotes, poses, or even player icons. Such items would definitely provide more incentive to earn these competitive points. Oh, and while you’re at it, make competitive points more plentiful, please, perhaps by earning them based on player skill.
TL;DR: Competitive points are hard to earn, and the rewards just aren’t worth it. Fix this by adding more rewards, and allowing competitive points to be obtained in larger quantities if one is good at the game.
5. Conclusion
I’d like to repeat: I love Overwatch. However, loving something means you have to acknowledge when it fucks up, and call it out on that. I think the game is amazing, but it could be even better. So don’t be a fanboy and comment that”Blizzard can do no wrong!” That kind of attitude allows companies and people to take advantage of you. Take off your rose-colored glasses, and realize that everything you love could be better-even yourself. I know I could be a whole lot better.
Written by Theunknowngamer
theunknowngamerblog 