A call to support one tricks from the pros and why it's bullshit
Forewarning, I'm going to get a little bit bitter here. When it comes to one tricks its a personal battle not just for me but for some of my friends as well. We all went through a lot of harassment and other shit on a daily basis so cut me a little slack as I get this out.
So happening right now?
The community is starting a small revolt on the forums and on the ladder to get rid of hero pools. All of a sudden players that have hated one tricks, tried to get us banned with false reports, who have thrown 25% of my games and who constantly griefed us are changing their tune awfully fast because the hero pool system is working as its intended. More to the point, its not working as they want it to. It's starting to ban the over tuned hit-scan heroes and they feel its unfair to ban their way of playing the game.
Throughout Overwatch's history people have hated one tricks, specifically off-meta one tricks. Blizzard has created multiple systems and each time the forums and professional players say the same thing, this is the death of one tricks! First it was with performance based SR but we still sat in the top 100 on the ladder. The player base started using false reports to get one tricks banned, which worked but only for a limit time. Once that stopped working it was with the avoid system that they said would be our end but again nothing changed. After more complaints, role queue was announced and everyone laughed at how one tricks, specifically DPS one tricks wouldn't be able to play the game anymore. We still played and at the end of the day nothing changed. The final nail in the coffin was the creation of hero pools. Of course, if their hero is banned out then they would be forced to stop playing!
But pools didn't come for the off-meta one tricks, its designed for high pick rates, so its going for the meta one tricks. Now all of a sudden the players, most notably Reinforce, have been talking about removing the hero pool because its a failed system.
Why is it a failed system? Believe it or not because its targeting DPS players that like to one trick hit-scans. Now all of a sudden one tricking needs to be preserved because we don't want to lose that player base. We should all come together as a community to talk to Blizzard and get rid of hero pools! What about the past 3 years? When we were constantly harassed it was perfectly fine to not care about us but now that their heroes and the way they play the game is targeted we have to band together as a community? I heavily doubt if the hero pool system constantly banned Symmetra and bastion we wouldn't have heard a word from them.
Now I'm not so bitter that I'd say not to work with them. If you disagree with hero pools then please come together and work this issue out but by no means should we forget that these people are the ones that mass reported one tricks to us kicked out of the game. Players like me, Fuey and Stevo were somewhat immune to this because of how high profile we are as streamers but i know many players in my community and others that have been banned for weeks because of it. We've lost countless members of our community because of this hatred and to be honest, the general community couldn't be happier about it.
Still we have to think about Overwatch and its community in the long run. While there is a vocal part of the community that believes one tricks are the worst thing to happen to the game, we need to stick to reason and work with them IF you believe hero pools need to be removed. Some players like hero pools, even some one tricks do, so don't side with them just because they've ask you to and don't disagree with them just because you're holding onto the past grief.
Personally I like hero pools. They shake up the game and provide data of how the game would look without X hero. I think the most useful part is to publicly see what heroes are played the most, and most likely are the more over tuned heroes in the game. Once we nerf those heroes we can nerf the next set of heroes that are over tuned. Eventually we can get rid of the hero pool system when the game is in a more balanced state. The only reason hero pools don't seem to be working is because Blizzard is missing out on the second part of the system, balancing. For hero pools to work you must aggressively balance the game. Else you're going to be seeing the same heroes getting banned every other week.
Sorry if this sounded bitter, because it was. I want to reiterate that its great that we're all finally on the same page and discussing this vocally. I'd love to have a discussion with anyone that's willing to talk about the system and how to balance Overwatch in the long run. Just hit me up on steam or join my discord. Discussion when you disagree with something is healthy and right now its what the Overwatch community needs.
So happening right now?
Throughout Overwatch's history people have hated one tricks, specifically off-meta one tricks. Blizzard has created multiple systems and each time the forums and professional players say the same thing, this is the death of one tricks! First it was with performance based SR but we still sat in the top 100 on the ladder. The player base started using false reports to get one tricks banned, which worked but only for a limit time. Once that stopped working it was with the avoid system that they said would be our end but again nothing changed. After more complaints, role queue was announced and everyone laughed at how one tricks, specifically DPS one tricks wouldn't be able to play the game anymore. We still played and at the end of the day nothing changed. The final nail in the coffin was the creation of hero pools. Of course, if their hero is banned out then they would be forced to stop playing!
But pools didn't come for the off-meta one tricks, its designed for high pick rates, so its going for the meta one tricks. Now all of a sudden the players, most notably Reinforce, have been talking about removing the hero pool because its a failed system.
Why is it a failed system? Believe it or not because its targeting DPS players that like to one trick hit-scans. Now all of a sudden one tricking needs to be preserved because we don't want to lose that player base. We should all come together as a community to talk to Blizzard and get rid of hero pools! What about the past 3 years? When we were constantly harassed it was perfectly fine to not care about us but now that their heroes and the way they play the game is targeted we have to band together as a community? I heavily doubt if the hero pool system constantly banned Symmetra and bastion we wouldn't have heard a word from them.
Its completely hypocritical and bullshit.
Now I'm not so bitter that I'd say not to work with them. If you disagree with hero pools then please come together and work this issue out but by no means should we forget that these people are the ones that mass reported one tricks to us kicked out of the game. Players like me, Fuey and Stevo were somewhat immune to this because of how high profile we are as streamers but i know many players in my community and others that have been banned for weeks because of it. We've lost countless members of our community because of this hatred and to be honest, the general community couldn't be happier about it.
Still we have to think about Overwatch and its community in the long run. While there is a vocal part of the community that believes one tricks are the worst thing to happen to the game, we need to stick to reason and work with them IF you believe hero pools need to be removed. Some players like hero pools, even some one tricks do, so don't side with them just because they've ask you to and don't disagree with them just because you're holding onto the past grief.
Personally I like hero pools. They shake up the game and provide data of how the game would look without X hero. I think the most useful part is to publicly see what heroes are played the most, and most likely are the more over tuned heroes in the game. Once we nerf those heroes we can nerf the next set of heroes that are over tuned. Eventually we can get rid of the hero pool system when the game is in a more balanced state. The only reason hero pools don't seem to be working is because Blizzard is missing out on the second part of the system, balancing. For hero pools to work you must aggressively balance the game. Else you're going to be seeing the same heroes getting banned every other week.
Sorry if this sounded bitter, because it was. I want to reiterate that its great that we're all finally on the same page and discussing this vocally. I'd love to have a discussion with anyone that's willing to talk about the system and how to balance Overwatch in the long run. Just hit me up on steam or join my discord. Discussion when you disagree with something is healthy and right now its what the Overwatch community needs.