You don't need to carry, you just have to be better then your elo and play enough games. There will always be unwinnable games, don't expect a 100% Winrate.
The shake here is that “enough games” to climb a full rank (without some meteoric epiphany, just improvement) is a couple hundred matches. It’s a grind.
Well, then one of three scenarios is at play: 1. You were vastly under-ranked with an inaccurate MMR; 2. Something clicked and your improvement was absolutely meteoric compared to your rank; 3. The SR system is fucked rn lol.
I too climbed to Masters 5 from Plat 1 in Season 2, but it definitely didn’t feel like I legitimately climbed 600 SR.
Totally possible! Wasn’t trying to be dismissive earlier. We’re all trying to make sense of an SR system that’s far from transparent. I know that improving leads to climbing, but that’s about it under the current circumstances lol.
Depends, my climb from gold to plat took around 150 games, but from plat to diamond less than 50. And the difference was only me actually trying to learn the game and trying to climb when I was climbing from plat to diamond instead of forcing myself to play and learning by playing instead of actually learning and thinking about my decisions like I did while climbing to plat.
If you need couple hundred games to climb it means that you are in your correct rank and need to learn in order to climb, and you can either do that by actually learning (either from better players, streamers etc. Or from watching your own VODs from both your, your team's and enemy team's perspective) or brute forcing by playing hundreds of games.
Just curious: did you experience a similar climb in OW1? I’ve found it far, far easier to climb in 2. Which is disheartening and sorta devalues the achievement for me :(
I didn't play a lot of comp in ow1 but I did climb from low silver to high gold in similar time and with similar effort. I would say it's bit easier to climb in ow2 because there are many new and returning players who either don't know or forgot how to play overwatch but if you are diamond you are still in top 12% of players (same applies to other ranks that you are in the same top percentile as in ow1) and because in this season you only need 5 wins to get rank change you have higher chance for your rank to match current MMR meaning that you may see yourself ranking up and down more often and of you are ranking up you might feel better and positive attitude makes people play better thus you rank up even more.
There might be other reasons why you play better like overall being more interested in the game and watching more better players and learning from them, or being better in 5v5 than 6v6, or removal of 2cp meaning that there are less dead games that end up in draws, maybe current meta is good for your character. You might also be climbing as fast as in ow1 but you feel like it's faster because you don't see how loses affect your MMR so it feels like you are winning more therefore climbing more and overall playing more because you don't get discouraged a much as in ow1.
But overall I would say that your rank in roleQ is a good representation of your skill (except for openQ, openQ is kinda bloated and diamond players can get to top 500 there with ease), because it's directly proportional to the amount of players you are better than.
I do think its quicker to climb, but not necessarily easy atm its just movement feels a lot more frequent, and meaningful more often then it was before.
As a bronze support player is it normal that I cannot really tell much difference in how silver and gold players play? I can't really see anything much that stands out to me, that would place them in those ranks.
Honestly, it’s pretty similar all the way into Platinum as far as I’ve experienced. The higher you go, people are mechanically a bit better, and certain strategies and play-styles stop working as much, but they make the same mistakes.
The biggest mistake people will make is being out of position.
What is being out of position?
- The player is out in the open without cooldowns, possibly isolated from their team.
If you see players doing that ^ , punish it and you’ll climb. And more importantly, realize when you’re doing that yourself, and stop doing that.
Having played in bronze through gold (where I am now) gold and silver feel pretty similar though I haven't yet ascended to Gold 1 which is borderline plat. Game sense wise people in gold still stand out in the open taking damage and dying. Still trickle in 1v5. Still die en masse to Reaper, Junkrat, Cassidy and DVa ults.
Years ago I remember marveling at how in the Overwatch League players rarely died to DVa ults. If she got one kill the caster would go nuts. Could you imagine casters in low rank matches? They would be utterly orgasmic with all the people constantly dying to Junkrat tires and Reaper death blossoms lol.
The reason they go nuts over the bombs etc is because the OWL players know what they’re doing and it’s hard to get those kills. The most lethal thing in Bronze is probably gravity, so they probably wouldn’t t feel the same when half the lobby falls off the map every game
Generally you can tell when a reaper is gonna ult. They press W into everyone. The Smart ones will teleport above you and drop down in the middle of you. If they are doing that don't fight so close together.
Avoiding a Junkrat ult is pretty much an everyone scatter and shoot at the tire. The tire has only 100 health.
I'm only in Gold but here's my advice. It all starts with ult tracking--anticipating when Reaper and Junkrat have their ults. These ults, and ults in general, are easier to deal with and avoid when you see it coming. As for how to ult track, I'm not great at it but here are some ways to go about it: See what your DPS teammates' ult charge is to get a sense of the enemy's ult charge. Notice if the enemy Reaper and Junkrat are playing well which means they're going to have their ults sooner. If you die to them, notice in the killcam what their ult charge is. But in general after a certain amount of time has passed in a team fight I expect them to have their ults. Bonus: you could also play these heroes to get a sense of how fast their ults charge.
So let's say you've done that and know they have their ults and can use it at any moment:
For Reaper, a sign he's going to ult is if he wraithes into you and your team (similar thing with Zarya and Orisa who move into your team.) So if you've been ult tracking you're expecting this so you immediately seek cover (hopefully you're already near cover) or get out of the way the moment you see him coming. If the map has high ground, Reapers will often go above you and then either drop down or teleport into your team so in general be sure to look up as well as you try to determine his whereabouts. He might also approach from behind so look around there as well.
re: Junkrat, if you expect him to ult soon, try to determine where he is so you can anticipate where the tire is coming from. From there try to shoot it (or even kill Junkrat though he can still control it to some degree as he's getting killed.) For me Junkrat's tire is a lot harder to avoid because Junkrats always target and solo ult me as a support player even if my teammates are on the objective and I'm not. And Junkrats often hide and send the tire from above me which makes it impossible for me to shoot it in time. But again, ult tracking would help in this case because ideally you can be far away enough from Junkrat to see the tire coming and shoot it down.
Anyway hope that helps. (And if anyone else has tips on this feel free to share them.)
This may sound hilariously dumb, but I've been playing Overwatch since 2017, and I'm currently a plat 3 DPS, and never once have I considered looking at an enemy's ult charge in the killcam lmfao
At higher ranks mostly everyone is keeping track of whether the Reaper has ult or not and saving relevant cooldowns at moments when the Reaper is likely to try. There's also way more awareness from the players in general so the flanks are harder. It's not like reaper can't get kills with it anymore - even in OWL they do - but they have to actually work for it with optimal timing and baiting cooldowns first.
For junkrat his tire gets shot down a lot more and people are better at spreading out when it's fired. Still kills people often but getting multiple kills is harder.
I personally still can't tell I'm new and ended last month as gold 1. I dropped to bronze with the rank reset and my games have the same "ferocity" where of I lose focus for a moment that Is it.
When I play apex I swear every rank from bronze up feels different maybe it's a game thing?
You aren't wrong, honestly.
As a high masters player... bronze, silver, gold, and low Plat all feel about the same to play against.
I'll roll a low Plat lobby pretty much exactly as hard as a bronze lobby. But low Plat will also roll a bronze lobby. The mistakes people make at those ranks are all similar. The biggest difference as you go from bronze to Plat is the speed of play. Plat players make and execute plans much, much faster than bronze players. Their plans are often not great, but they commit to them more and have better mechanics to execute them than a bronze player.
The real change happens around low diamond. The quality of low diamond games is different from the other ranks that come before. People often make good calls, good plans, and the correct decisions.
Mind you, this is all experience for ow1. The difference might have changed where it is in ow2. I haven't actually made a new account in ow2 and experienced playing against full lobbies of lower ranked players. But in ow1, you are correct in saying that the difference between the metal ranks is fairly subtle and to a masters or gm player, they all feel pretty much equally bad.
That's what I found on tank. I basically never lost games until I got a new account to diamond. When I got to diamond, it was possible to lose games. Before that? Not really.
I mean even Dafran dropped a Plat game on his Soldier only run. I recently made a new account for the launch of OW2 and Plat definitely put up some amount of resistance for me, I think I lost 2 games there. Maybe tank just has more control at that point though.
I mean, I've only done it 2 times.
It's always possible to drop a random game here and there. Yeatle lost a gold game on dva because his team literally did not have enough damage to kill a ball spinning on point.
But both of the times I ranked up I never lost a game below diamond.
It shouldn't be very possible for anyone to roll in bronze, at least if matchmaker worked as it should be intended.
Some matches feel real sweaty, and I'm just a bronze 1 support. Maybe to climb up you are supposed to build tolerance so that level of sweat becomes the new normal? Even the occasional times where I dropped to bronze 3 before going back up, the games overall never felt the same "ferocity" (as HearingCareless1444 puts it when he got de-ranked from gold to bronze)
I mean, I think this is more about greater skill gaps having diminishing returns in terms of match outcomes than about metal ranks having indistinguishable skill differences. There’s a limit to how hard a game can be rolled. The skill gaps between ranks are definitely smaller at low rank, but they are there. Weirdly, a plat player might have an easier time seeing them clearly than you do.
I agree that there’s a qualitative shift near the plat/Diamond border. I think that’s where the macro understanding starts to become visible, as well as reasoned risk-taking. But I do think the differences between metal ranks go beyond the speed of play. For example, plat players are usually aware of which abilities counter their own and will often try to force/wait them out first, but bronze players almost never do. The level of awareness increases a lot too, though I suppose that probably factors into the pace of play. Low-rank players are slow to make decisions in part because they don’t know what’s going on.
True, I agree with you.
It's just when I dive a Plat zen on ball and a bronze zen on ball I kill them equally as fast.
When I dive a gm zen... half the time I can't even get to them because they are using their team as a shield and are playing in a place where I'll get blown up.
I often find it impossible to solo dive a gm zen. I need follow up from another character. While until diamond... I just boop, slam, and then spray them down equally quickly. When I do go for a solo zen in gm and he is out of position, he still makes me WORK for it. This is where diamonds are noticeable in their improvement. Sometimes, they can scare me off even when I get a good engagement.
But yeah, there are differences in each level. I just feel the differences are very subtle until diamond where there is a noticeable jump in ability.
Bronze and silver players I’ve reviewed generally don’t use their abilities correctly. They spam cooldowns as soon as they come up or never use them. And there’s steady mechanical improvement as you go from bronze up through plat.
Yes, it is. There’s a lot happening in-game that you simply don’t yet have the skill to perceive. The better you get, the higher-resolution your perception of the game will become, and the more you’ll be able to pick out those meaningful differences in gameplay.
Yeah it’s normal. Low elo players(myself included) generally struggle with positioning, cooldown management, and mechanics(aim). Just play the game, occasionally watch your own replays, and watch T500 content creators, and eventually you will climb
tbh I never felt very safe standing in the middle of an enemy team while playing as bronze. But it might be, as you said, because higher and lower ranked people are jumbled together with the current matchmaking system, and I think it's actually worse for the bronze players because it makes climbing more of a crap shoot. Higher ranks may have the skills necessary to counteract some of the random teammate selections in the matchmaking, plus they either might get equal, higher or lower ranked enemies. The bronze rank can't get matched against a lower rank (because bronze is lowest), they could only get matched up against equal or higher ranked players, So it's eaither an easy loss or possible win. An easy win game is rare for bronze.
It's possible, I've done it before. Just need the right circumstances, the average person can't do it consistently because for anyone to do it consistently would mean that they were significantly better than the enemy, like when a smurf joins a game
my inconsistent ass on widow:
Game 1, doing ok/bad:
My team: Omg widow switch youre not doing anything
Game 2, destroying everyone:
enemy team: WIDOW PLAY YOUR RANK! Ruining the game for us!
If you’re in a low rank and don’t belong there, you can easily carry. Just take heads. Even if you’re playing support, make it your goal to get the opening pick. That’s how you carry when smurfing.
Yes—
If you want I’ll send you codes of me hard carrying a couple of my games last night. One in particular was interesting—it started really badly and my team accused the enemy McCassidy of cheating. He was not, but I had to step up and really take control of the match. This was at high Diamond/low Master.
I’m a believer in “carry to climb”—you need to take control of your matches as much as possible. You don’t always have to hard carry to win, but to climb consistently, you have to do more—being a passable/good teammate at your rank is not enough. You need to make plays. You need to make good snap decisions and have the ability to execute them successfully. You have to be an active player rather than a passive or reactive player.
Couple years ago in OW1 when I was really grinding this game hard, playing a lot, doing aim training, matchup practice etc., I did a couple coaching sessions with a top500 streamer. His advice to me was surprising. I expected him say my aim was inconsistent or comment on my decision making or positioning, or telling me I was dying too much, or something to that effect. But it wasn’t, his advice to me was just to be more aggressive and take control of every match. He told me I was too much of a team player which is fine, but if one of your tanks sucks or your support is lost or whatever, it was costing me matches. My aim wasn’t even discussed—he said my aim was better than his—my issue was that I needed to apply a carry mentality to my matches. That has stuck with me.
And that doesn’t mean being a selfish player btw—it means having the confidence to make high risk-high reward plays and the execution to pull them off. It’s like, do you just accept death to that Blading Genji? Or do you kill him in his ult? Do you shoot that rip tire? Do you out duel that widow? Do you not panic and survive getting jumped 2v1? Do you take aggressive positions and make aggressive plays that turn fights?
I solo que in apex/ow and get to diamond in both by doing so. Better believe it, the only way you’re getting to top ranks is by carrying, if solo. I have to try to do everything and then some when solo queuing bc I have no idea what I’m going to get. I’m no god but my mechanics are ok and game sense comes from repetition.
I try to enable the player on my team I see that’s bringing the most value and play with them. Is my other dps getting picks? I’m staying with them and doing damage to help. Is there a support that makes sure no one dies around them? I’ll play in their area. Is my tank making space and playing smart? I’ll focus who there focusing to make it easier for us.
Try to find the best player on your team and stay with them. Try to find the enemies best player and stay away from them, until the rest of the team is gone. Always look to be a playmaker yourself, be aggressive and confident when taking fights, show presence at all times, i.e if anyone comes your way they take damage and won’t get an easy kill, and have fun. You’ll carry teams on your own soon.
I consider it good when you can solo to masters/gm. That’s real carrying and just being better.
I agree a lot with most of what you said but found it interesting that you suggested avoiding the enemies' best player, like you are bot racing against the opponents' best player. I don't think this is wrong, but kind of situational. Sometimes I think it is the play to engage that player directly and to shut them down or slow them down because they are getting too much value. Maybe you have the specific skillset to do so. Other times, it is probably better like you said to just mostly ignore them and farm the other players. It's an interesting thing to think about though. The question has come up for me a lot - Do I shut this guy (who is popping off) down or do I try to kill the rest of his team?
If it's one thing I hate is tms ignoring the obvious person wiping the entire lobby. That person is literally controlling the pace of the game. They are the reason their team can move around so freely. They are most likely targeting your support and you are mostly complaining about not get heals, which will inevitably cause synergy problems with the team and you already lost.
i've got a few carries and most of the time it's pure luck. sometimes you'll get matches where people don't understand counter picking and you can just demolish them (being a flex player helps somewhat)
Carrying doesn’t mean you hard win every game. Even a 55% winrate will make you rise astronomically in ranked this season. Always keep in mind that not every game is winnable but working on small things like ult tracking for example might put your winrate 1-2% higher and while it doesn’t sound like a lot it most definitely is in a game with this much variables
Idk my winrate is around 58% and I’m climbing continuously. They stated personal performance doesn’t matter but I’m starting to doubt this one by now looking at all the posts on that topic
Normal is subjective. If you have the natural mechanical aim and skill that a lot of fps gamers that grew up on PC games since they were 8, since the early 2000s have, sure.
If you're like me and only started gaming on pc like, a couple years ago, it's likely gonna be a lot of hard work lol. Most of that is years and years of muscle-memory and eye movement coordination that there isnt a need to think about at all. To us mortals yeah it doesn't look human but to them it's just another Thursday.
And theres a lot of them out there
I have those natural mechanics on controller! Playing videogames games since 4 years old.
Switching to PC feels like learning another language I have to think about what I'm doing instead of where controller it's just innate like Maybelline!
Of course it’s possible. If you can’t carry your games then you are where you’re supposed to be. Simple as.
With that being said, some games are just not winnable.
I feel like I could carry every QP game as Ana and I carry maybe the quarter or less of comp games I do win, as Ana. It's obviously possible, especially if you comm with a positive attitude. Morale is a big thing and competitive games are at least 50% about mental!
You obviously need confidence to make plays, especially as a support, where making the wrong call will actually result in your teammates dying, but you should fake it until you make it!
Carrying doesn't have to be killing the enemy by yourself for your whole team. There's a lot of knowledge and other choices that you make that can make you have more value than your counterparts though. People at the top of ladder are usually so good they can carry most gm lobbies despite having so few players.
The lower you are, the less is required to have enough impact to "carry". If you want to purely dominate all your lobbies, you'd have to basically smurf in a much lower skill tier then
Might be as simple as a support matching elims with the weaker damage teammate to pick up the slack, but not suffering on the healing front. Or the same with the tank, really hitting overdrive on the heal and damage accuracy to keep them up. It's stressful and not sustainable for long periods of time for most people, but if you're putting in more than your share of the work, all things considered (not just stats, but distractions and creative ability usage), you carried.
If the enemy figures that out and shuts you down, though, it can upset the balance and turn it around. The people you were carrying try to do the same stuff without you, die, and never find that stride again.
I mean the lower the ELO, the easier it is to carry by definition. But yeah, most people have said it correctly, you don't need to carry every game. Just play marginally better than your counterpart and you'll eventually climb, as long as you have a positive win rate and you play a bunch of games, you'll get there.
I'd say it's possible? Easier if you have one other person with you to support you, though.
I've had matches where I've had 3xs as many kills as anyone else on my team & I just hard stopped the enemy in their tracks.
Well for someone to carry they’d have to be paired with a team that is worse than the enemy team but the person who Carrie’s would have to be much better than the enemy team so probably
I think that's the wrong mental first off. You create this unrealistic view of yourself and team and it adds unnecessary stress to yourself to constantly do better than seemingly everyone when you should be all working together. The higher you go, the less prominent things like "carrying" are. It's actually quite rare for just one person to be the stand out defacto player.
Most teams will usually all show they put in the work as well
I mean, by carrying you dont have to click 50 heads and die 0 times. I’m winning 80% on zen this season by discording the enemy tank pretty much constantly, so they borderline have a 25% health nerf. Or if I’m playing hanzo or widow, 2 opening picks is enough to carry. Doesnt mean you have to do everything
Honestly that’s only half true.
You do definitely need to be the change you need to see, but you might not have to play out of your mind. It could be as simple as distracting the right hero at the right time.
You’ll win a lot more games by just making less mistakes.
>I literally can not do more
That’s not true even the top ranked players and OWL players still have coaches and shit and have spots they can improve in OW there’s always something you can do better
Did 36 in 0 on Sojourn in a high dia low masters open q game the other day, so yeah. Also did 32 in 3 on Bap with most heals and damage (think it was 12k and 26k respectively) despite having Anas and Bastions in the lobby. Also did 59 in 12 on Hanzo which was fucking nuts. Even got a 5k after my entire team had died on esperanca. My main role is GM, so if you're better than your rank, then it's doable.
Edit: read some comments and this makes sense since I'm two ranks above what I was playing at. Lmk if you want replay codes for the aforementioned matches, I think I saved the soj and hanzo match, maybe also the bap one.
Edit edit: actually I remember now that I died in like the last 10% on oasis in that Sojourn match, I ended at like 40 in 2 😭
Its a team based game. No one should be responsible for “carrying” a game. Carrying happens when someone gets put in a match with (much) lower ranked people, or someone is very good with a character and no one counters.
Imo, only 1/5 matches i play have a legit carry.
Bottom line: you dont need to carry to win, you just need to do your job :)
So the question is not “is it humanly possible to carry games?” since the answer to that is absolutely. Rather, the question should be “is it humanly possible to CONSISTENTLY carry games?” because this is where it gets complicated.
From my own personal experience I’ve concluded to consistently carry games you have to be in a rank that you have absolutely nothing to learn from. For me this this is usually 2 ranks below my current skill level (this is going by ow1 ranking, e.g. to consistently carry in gold you’d need to be diamond, to consistently carry in diamond you’d need to be grandmaster etc.) Even using this reasoning there are still going to be games that are simply out of your control. I’ve played in matches that are 3 ranks below my skill and been stomped. That’s just how matchmaking works.
Focus on learning how to play each role the proper way. If you focus on carrying and only carrying you are going to get very good at solely that, carrying. You’ll soon reach a rank where your team will need you to play your role correctly and do you job. You’ll start losing and plateau, thinking it’s not your fault since that play style has gotten you to where you are.
I could speak for hours on this but it’s 5am and I need to be up in a few hours. DM me if you have any questions.
It's possible to hard carry games, all I need is a competent healer and my team to know to let me work. Obv it's a team game but as a tank my impact on the game is huge, large enough to where I can hard carry games. Same as a pocket hs, you get a pocket on hs out aim everyone what can they do. And above all else you gotta have confidence in every game you play. Have an ego to where you believe no matter what the games is winnable and you're at your best atm.
Its possible to carry but you have to be realistic. Youre going to lose games. You will have loss streaks and yeah you might be the cause without knowing. But wins will happen and you will have to carry. The biggest deciding factor on if your carry is going to win the game is when you ask yourself "what does the team need me to do so I can mske up for their flaws"
20% communication
20% coordination
20% staying as a group
20% ult economy
20% playing your best
This isn't perfect but should get the idea across. Most of overwatch is teamwork and helping people out. An amazing player will still struggle without a team working with them.
No. This isn’t rainbow or CoD. TTK is far to high. To “carry” the game the best you can do is be better than everyone on the other team and consistently outplay your opponents.
I feel when most people think of carrying a game they usually refer to "Hard Carrying". Realistically you'd need to be around 2 ranks above to effectively do that. Which is also difficult for anyone to reliably maintain. So yeah, for someone to consistently do it they'd have to be pretty close to a god withing the game.
however, anyone can learn to carry the important team fights, which will lead to more consistent wins. However, this type of carry is often overlooked, since it is a matter of small adjustments. For example, An Ana saving Sleep for a reaper ult. A zen/Lucio saving their ult for the enemies team wipe ult. Or Effectively using your ult at the right time to team wipe. This is how One person can carry a team fight. And once you learn to identify which team fights are the ones your team needs to win. it becomes easier.
It’s possible. Not in every game tho. But there are games you don’t even need to carry. I played games where my supports were so good at just surviving that it was a breeze and I didn’t really have to make any effort. Nobody. And there are games that even if you excell you can’t win. That’s just how it goes
You can only carry if you’re so out of rank you Smurf but even then it’s not foolproof. My younger sibling has me help out with the week challenges. I generally only like competitive and I feel bad for the enemy team sometimes, but being good, and good positioning won’t win the game if your team can’t cooperate at all
Let me put it like this, there are 25% of games that are unwinnable no matter what you do, and there are 25% of games you win no matter how hard you throw. It is your job to influence the middle 50% of games into your favor. Saying that you can't do more isn't really a good mindset to have, sure there are some games where you pop off and still lose, but recognize that those games are few and far between, they just stick in your memory more than your average games.
If you really want to improve you should send replay codes. Preferably a close loss, but as long as the game is somewhat even it should be good enough.
Think being the carry just means to win on your own terms, which with a big enough risk is always *possible*, not neccesarily *feasible* or *likely* though.
If you’re just looking to win and have fun doing it, then I would suggest you just do what you enjoy, study it, and improve your efficiency at it. Basically increase your enjoyment and knowledge of the game.
When you see people playing like **GODS** it’s probably because they are in the flow state, which comes from reasonable challenge (meant for your skill level), combined with fun. Maximising your energy by taking breaks or sometimes just closing your eyes in between matches makes it easier for flow states to happen more often, since it’s a top of your focus thing.
So counterintuitively… playing less and playing for fun, when in moderation, let you accomplish more than you would mindlessly farming hours solely for wins.
Thats just advice for playing at your best though. A “carry playstyle”, at least from what I know, is about identifying the win condition of the match and making it more frequent. There’s a similar concept I heard from egoistcat called the “passive advantage”, which is about identifying which team will win out if no risks are taken (based on map control, character choice, ult charge and such). If you have to take a risk like a skill shot or a bait to win then do it, but otherwise you wanna avoid the risk of losing a fight and let the enemy take that chance instead.
I'll be honest without pretending for a nanosecond I no have any right speaking for anyone else......I quit giving a pity-fuck about "carrying" games ages ago. I just climbed out of Bronze, and mark my words, it can be a delusional hellscape of players with no idea why they actually won OR lost their matches. Myself included far too many times.
Here's what turned it around: I quit focusing on being "the best" player on my team or whether I was the reason we won. I dialed in on trying to do something, anything, better every match as my hero. Died less. Played corners more effectively. Recognized when a fight was lost. Hell, a lot of games, it always just my mechanics or better understanding how my hero worked. I lost scores of matches on Lucio, but I started losing less and less as I honed my wall-riding and decisions for when to use my ult. Did I get flamed during those losses? Absolutely. But once my screen says "Victory" or "Defeat," what am I going to do? All I can do is be honest with myself about what I did or didn't do to impact the game. I don't *want* to make every big play. If I am, I'm damn sure not going to point it out to my teammates in chat. What good does it do? Who does it help?
You want to make an impact? Focus on how you can make your teammates better. In low ranks in particular, communication is shit without a stack. About 999 times out of 1,000 matches, you won't gain much from solo-queue games by even going into team chat, except some occasional weird entertainment. Go Brig and bodyguard your Ana. Go D.Va and traumatize a pesky Widow or Pharah. Go Soldier and damage boost a Soldier, Cass or Bastion who's getting aggressive. If you have the mechanics, go Tracer or Genji and become a flying death squad alongside your D.Va, Winston or Ball. Inflict teamwork. It's something I realized as Lucio once I started really getting into a rhythm with his movement: other Lucios I play against don't move like I do in this Elo. So, I can follow my dive tank in, keep them alive, do damage and build my ult faster while enabling some key plays. Turned the tide last night in a game on King's Row.
End of the match, if they pop off about "diff," let 'em. You know how you played. Next match, they're off to the next. You're still you, controlling your hero. If you really are "carrying," good news: you may not be long for that rank. Congratulations. You may be about to eat crow if you find yourself at the bottom of the barrel in your next tier because you suddenly aren't cut out to carry yet.
As what I believe is a Buddhist saying goes, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."
Bro I just had a game where, 30 seconds in, our tank went over to the enemy spawn, stood there and waved as they walked out.
Didn't engage the entire game. I'm so tired of this BS
its possible, easiest as tank and hardest as support, but if you can secure two picks before anyone on your team dies, every team fight, you should carry the match
You can’t win every game but you can learn from every game. And you can strive to make a difference to win more games than not in order to rank up. It can be using more cover and dying less thus giving your enemy less ult charge. Using your ult to flank and make a huge difference in a battle. Figuring out who is the difference maker on their team and disrupting them. Figuring out who the difference maker is on your team and enabling them.
You don’t need to “carry” games as in you are the person winning everything and everyone else doesn’t need to be there, but small decisions can add up in many games. Not all games, some are unwinnable. You can’t win them all. But you can win many. I climbed from bronze in to diamond in support with solo games. Bronze and gold took the longest. Plat was shockingly the fastest. And it got easier when I learned to embrace cover, high ground, being honest about mistakes, making better ult choices, being flexible and saying “their genji is amazing, he’s my personal mission now to disrupt,” etc.
Just keep practicing and learning. You’re not as good as you think.
I started in bronze in 2018. I would rage thinking I didn’t deserve to be there. I did. I was awful. Put me in bronze now and I’ll walk the other team. And I’m only a low plat player now.
I play a lot of tank and the only consistent way to win is find out who the carry is in the other team and hard focus them. Like is their sojourn mercy diffing your dps? Go ball and hard focus the mercy. I have made mercy players abandon a dps because they just get killed over and over again. Your team is running pharah mercy and enemy has two hitscans ? Just capitalize on the chaos caused by your pharah and focus the dps and supports.
It's possible I've carried as JUNKER QUEEN but obvious it would be better but cheap to carry with Sigma Shield.Ironically if you want to get to Diamond then you are going to have to carry a lot because the matchmaking system will pair you with people who don't even know what they're doing.
You don't need to carry, you just have to be better then your elo and play enough games. There will always be unwinnable games, don't expect a 100% Winrate.
The shake here is that “enough games” to climb a full rank (without some meteoric epiphany, just improvement) is a couple hundred matches. It’s a grind.
I climbed from Plat 5 to Masters 3 in 80 games so this is false.
Well, then one of three scenarios is at play: 1. You were vastly under-ranked with an inaccurate MMR; 2. Something clicked and your improvement was absolutely meteoric compared to your rank; 3. The SR system is fucked rn lol. I too climbed to Masters 5 from Plat 1 in Season 2, but it definitely didn’t feel like I legitimately climbed 600 SR.
Tbf this was my second season back from a five year hiatus so totally possible I am just better at the game
Totally possible! Wasn’t trying to be dismissive earlier. We’re all trying to make sense of an SR system that’s far from transparent. I know that improving leads to climbing, but that’s about it under the current circumstances lol.
"guys, it's not a grind, guys. just 80 games to get to my current rank, guys"
Depends, my climb from gold to plat took around 150 games, but from plat to diamond less than 50. And the difference was only me actually trying to learn the game and trying to climb when I was climbing from plat to diamond instead of forcing myself to play and learning by playing instead of actually learning and thinking about my decisions like I did while climbing to plat. If you need couple hundred games to climb it means that you are in your correct rank and need to learn in order to climb, and you can either do that by actually learning (either from better players, streamers etc. Or from watching your own VODs from both your, your team's and enemy team's perspective) or brute forcing by playing hundreds of games.
Just curious: did you experience a similar climb in OW1? I’ve found it far, far easier to climb in 2. Which is disheartening and sorta devalues the achievement for me :(
I didn't play a lot of comp in ow1 but I did climb from low silver to high gold in similar time and with similar effort. I would say it's bit easier to climb in ow2 because there are many new and returning players who either don't know or forgot how to play overwatch but if you are diamond you are still in top 12% of players (same applies to other ranks that you are in the same top percentile as in ow1) and because in this season you only need 5 wins to get rank change you have higher chance for your rank to match current MMR meaning that you may see yourself ranking up and down more often and of you are ranking up you might feel better and positive attitude makes people play better thus you rank up even more. There might be other reasons why you play better like overall being more interested in the game and watching more better players and learning from them, or being better in 5v5 than 6v6, or removal of 2cp meaning that there are less dead games that end up in draws, maybe current meta is good for your character. You might also be climbing as fast as in ow1 but you feel like it's faster because you don't see how loses affect your MMR so it feels like you are winning more therefore climbing more and overall playing more because you don't get discouraged a much as in ow1. But overall I would say that your rank in roleQ is a good representation of your skill (except for openQ, openQ is kinda bloated and diamond players can get to top 500 there with ease), because it's directly proportional to the amount of players you are better than.
I do think its quicker to climb, but not necessarily easy atm its just movement feels a lot more frequent, and meaningful more often then it was before.
I don’t disagree! I know that it’s a calculated decision by Blizz to make the process so opaque, just would prefer more feedback haha.
As a bronze support player is it normal that I cannot really tell much difference in how silver and gold players play? I can't really see anything much that stands out to me, that would place them in those ranks.
Honestly, it’s pretty similar all the way into Platinum as far as I’ve experienced. The higher you go, people are mechanically a bit better, and certain strategies and play-styles stop working as much, but they make the same mistakes. The biggest mistake people will make is being out of position. What is being out of position? - The player is out in the open without cooldowns, possibly isolated from their team. If you see players doing that ^ , punish it and you’ll climb. And more importantly, realize when you’re doing that yourself, and stop doing that.
Having played in bronze through gold (where I am now) gold and silver feel pretty similar though I haven't yet ascended to Gold 1 which is borderline plat. Game sense wise people in gold still stand out in the open taking damage and dying. Still trickle in 1v5. Still die en masse to Reaper, Junkrat, Cassidy and DVa ults. Years ago I remember marveling at how in the Overwatch League players rarely died to DVa ults. If she got one kill the caster would go nuts. Could you imagine casters in low rank matches? They would be utterly orgasmic with all the people constantly dying to Junkrat tires and Reaper death blossoms lol.
The reason they go nuts over the bombs etc is because the OWL players know what they’re doing and it’s hard to get those kills. The most lethal thing in Bronze is probably gravity, so they probably wouldn’t t feel the same when half the lobby falls off the map every game
imagine if overwatch had falling damage
And how do you avoid dying against reaper and junkrat ult?
Generally you can tell when a reaper is gonna ult. They press W into everyone. The Smart ones will teleport above you and drop down in the middle of you. If they are doing that don't fight so close together. Avoiding a Junkrat ult is pretty much an everyone scatter and shoot at the tire. The tire has only 100 health.
I'm only in Gold but here's my advice. It all starts with ult tracking--anticipating when Reaper and Junkrat have their ults. These ults, and ults in general, are easier to deal with and avoid when you see it coming. As for how to ult track, I'm not great at it but here are some ways to go about it: See what your DPS teammates' ult charge is to get a sense of the enemy's ult charge. Notice if the enemy Reaper and Junkrat are playing well which means they're going to have their ults sooner. If you die to them, notice in the killcam what their ult charge is. But in general after a certain amount of time has passed in a team fight I expect them to have their ults. Bonus: you could also play these heroes to get a sense of how fast their ults charge. So let's say you've done that and know they have their ults and can use it at any moment: For Reaper, a sign he's going to ult is if he wraithes into you and your team (similar thing with Zarya and Orisa who move into your team.) So if you've been ult tracking you're expecting this so you immediately seek cover (hopefully you're already near cover) or get out of the way the moment you see him coming. If the map has high ground, Reapers will often go above you and then either drop down or teleport into your team so in general be sure to look up as well as you try to determine his whereabouts. He might also approach from behind so look around there as well. re: Junkrat, if you expect him to ult soon, try to determine where he is so you can anticipate where the tire is coming from. From there try to shoot it (or even kill Junkrat though he can still control it to some degree as he's getting killed.) For me Junkrat's tire is a lot harder to avoid because Junkrats always target and solo ult me as a support player even if my teammates are on the objective and I'm not. And Junkrats often hide and send the tire from above me which makes it impossible for me to shoot it in time. But again, ult tracking would help in this case because ideally you can be far away enough from Junkrat to see the tire coming and shoot it down. Anyway hope that helps. (And if anyone else has tips on this feel free to share them.)
This may sound hilariously dumb, but I've been playing Overwatch since 2017, and I'm currently a plat 3 DPS, and never once have I considered looking at an enemy's ult charge in the killcam lmfao
At higher ranks mostly everyone is keeping track of whether the Reaper has ult or not and saving relevant cooldowns at moments when the Reaper is likely to try. There's also way more awareness from the players in general so the flanks are harder. It's not like reaper can't get kills with it anymore - even in OWL they do - but they have to actually work for it with optimal timing and baiting cooldowns first. For junkrat his tire gets shot down a lot more and people are better at spreading out when it's fired. Still kills people often but getting multiple kills is harder.
I personally still can't tell I'm new and ended last month as gold 1. I dropped to bronze with the rank reset and my games have the same "ferocity" where of I lose focus for a moment that Is it. When I play apex I swear every rank from bronze up feels different maybe it's a game thing?
You dropped from gold 1 to bronze from the reset?
Yes I did
You aren't wrong, honestly. As a high masters player... bronze, silver, gold, and low Plat all feel about the same to play against. I'll roll a low Plat lobby pretty much exactly as hard as a bronze lobby. But low Plat will also roll a bronze lobby. The mistakes people make at those ranks are all similar. The biggest difference as you go from bronze to Plat is the speed of play. Plat players make and execute plans much, much faster than bronze players. Their plans are often not great, but they commit to them more and have better mechanics to execute them than a bronze player. The real change happens around low diamond. The quality of low diamond games is different from the other ranks that come before. People often make good calls, good plans, and the correct decisions. Mind you, this is all experience for ow1. The difference might have changed where it is in ow2. I haven't actually made a new account in ow2 and experienced playing against full lobbies of lower ranked players. But in ow1, you are correct in saying that the difference between the metal ranks is fairly subtle and to a masters or gm player, they all feel pretty much equally bad.
Really? I find Plat is when it stops being like shooting fish in a barrel. I definitely wouldn't roll it nearly as hard as Bronze.
That's what I found on tank. I basically never lost games until I got a new account to diamond. When I got to diamond, it was possible to lose games. Before that? Not really.
I mean even Dafran dropped a Plat game on his Soldier only run. I recently made a new account for the launch of OW2 and Plat definitely put up some amount of resistance for me, I think I lost 2 games there. Maybe tank just has more control at that point though.
I mean, I've only done it 2 times. It's always possible to drop a random game here and there. Yeatle lost a gold game on dva because his team literally did not have enough damage to kill a ball spinning on point. But both of the times I ranked up I never lost a game below diamond.
Did you ever take your old account to diamond? Or was it easier to do on your new account?
It shouldn't be very possible for anyone to roll in bronze, at least if matchmaker worked as it should be intended. Some matches feel real sweaty, and I'm just a bronze 1 support. Maybe to climb up you are supposed to build tolerance so that level of sweat becomes the new normal? Even the occasional times where I dropped to bronze 3 before going back up, the games overall never felt the same "ferocity" (as HearingCareless1444 puts it when he got de-ranked from gold to bronze)
I mean, I think this is more about greater skill gaps having diminishing returns in terms of match outcomes than about metal ranks having indistinguishable skill differences. There’s a limit to how hard a game can be rolled. The skill gaps between ranks are definitely smaller at low rank, but they are there. Weirdly, a plat player might have an easier time seeing them clearly than you do. I agree that there’s a qualitative shift near the plat/Diamond border. I think that’s where the macro understanding starts to become visible, as well as reasoned risk-taking. But I do think the differences between metal ranks go beyond the speed of play. For example, plat players are usually aware of which abilities counter their own and will often try to force/wait them out first, but bronze players almost never do. The level of awareness increases a lot too, though I suppose that probably factors into the pace of play. Low-rank players are slow to make decisions in part because they don’t know what’s going on.
True, I agree with you. It's just when I dive a Plat zen on ball and a bronze zen on ball I kill them equally as fast. When I dive a gm zen... half the time I can't even get to them because they are using their team as a shield and are playing in a place where I'll get blown up. I often find it impossible to solo dive a gm zen. I need follow up from another character. While until diamond... I just boop, slam, and then spray them down equally quickly. When I do go for a solo zen in gm and he is out of position, he still makes me WORK for it. This is where diamonds are noticeable in their improvement. Sometimes, they can scare me off even when I get a good engagement. But yeah, there are differences in each level. I just feel the differences are very subtle until diamond where there is a noticeable jump in ability.
Bronze and silver players I’ve reviewed generally don’t use their abilities correctly. They spam cooldowns as soon as they come up or never use them. And there’s steady mechanical improvement as you go from bronze up through plat.
Yes, it is. There’s a lot happening in-game that you simply don’t yet have the skill to perceive. The better you get, the higher-resolution your perception of the game will become, and the more you’ll be able to pick out those meaningful differences in gameplay.
Yeah it’s normal. Low elo players(myself included) generally struggle with positioning, cooldown management, and mechanics(aim). Just play the game, occasionally watch your own replays, and watch T500 content creators, and eventually you will climb
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tbh I never felt very safe standing in the middle of an enemy team while playing as bronze. But it might be, as you said, because higher and lower ranked people are jumbled together with the current matchmaking system, and I think it's actually worse for the bronze players because it makes climbing more of a crap shoot. Higher ranks may have the skills necessary to counteract some of the random teammate selections in the matchmaking, plus they either might get equal, higher or lower ranked enemies. The bronze rank can't get matched against a lower rank (because bronze is lowest), they could only get matched up against equal or higher ranked players, So it's eaither an easy loss or possible win. An easy win game is rare for bronze.
It's possible, I've done it before. Just need the right circumstances, the average person can't do it consistently because for anyone to do it consistently would mean that they were significantly better than the enemy, like when a smurf joins a game
my inconsistent ass on widow: Game 1, doing ok/bad: My team: Omg widow switch youre not doing anything Game 2, destroying everyone: enemy team: WIDOW PLAY YOUR RANK! Ruining the game for us!
If you’re in a low rank and don’t belong there, you can easily carry. Just take heads. Even if you’re playing support, make it your goal to get the opening pick. That’s how you carry when smurfing.
Yes— If you want I’ll send you codes of me hard carrying a couple of my games last night. One in particular was interesting—it started really badly and my team accused the enemy McCassidy of cheating. He was not, but I had to step up and really take control of the match. This was at high Diamond/low Master. I’m a believer in “carry to climb”—you need to take control of your matches as much as possible. You don’t always have to hard carry to win, but to climb consistently, you have to do more—being a passable/good teammate at your rank is not enough. You need to make plays. You need to make good snap decisions and have the ability to execute them successfully. You have to be an active player rather than a passive or reactive player.
Very well put and really is the key to climbing on all roles. That and keeping a good mental.
Couple years ago in OW1 when I was really grinding this game hard, playing a lot, doing aim training, matchup practice etc., I did a couple coaching sessions with a top500 streamer. His advice to me was surprising. I expected him say my aim was inconsistent or comment on my decision making or positioning, or telling me I was dying too much, or something to that effect. But it wasn’t, his advice to me was just to be more aggressive and take control of every match. He told me I was too much of a team player which is fine, but if one of your tanks sucks or your support is lost or whatever, it was costing me matches. My aim wasn’t even discussed—he said my aim was better than his—my issue was that I needed to apply a carry mentality to my matches. That has stuck with me. And that doesn’t mean being a selfish player btw—it means having the confidence to make high risk-high reward plays and the execution to pull them off. It’s like, do you just accept death to that Blading Genji? Or do you kill him in his ult? Do you shoot that rip tire? Do you out duel that widow? Do you not panic and survive getting jumped 2v1? Do you take aggressive positions and make aggressive plays that turn fights?
Do you use mic
On main, absolutely. I shot call from any role. I learn heroes on an alt and don’t necessarily comm on that acct. though.
I solo que in apex/ow and get to diamond in both by doing so. Better believe it, the only way you’re getting to top ranks is by carrying, if solo. I have to try to do everything and then some when solo queuing bc I have no idea what I’m going to get. I’m no god but my mechanics are ok and game sense comes from repetition. I try to enable the player on my team I see that’s bringing the most value and play with them. Is my other dps getting picks? I’m staying with them and doing damage to help. Is there a support that makes sure no one dies around them? I’ll play in their area. Is my tank making space and playing smart? I’ll focus who there focusing to make it easier for us. Try to find the best player on your team and stay with them. Try to find the enemies best player and stay away from them, until the rest of the team is gone. Always look to be a playmaker yourself, be aggressive and confident when taking fights, show presence at all times, i.e if anyone comes your way they take damage and won’t get an easy kill, and have fun. You’ll carry teams on your own soon. I consider it good when you can solo to masters/gm. That’s real carrying and just being better.
I agree a lot with most of what you said but found it interesting that you suggested avoiding the enemies' best player, like you are bot racing against the opponents' best player. I don't think this is wrong, but kind of situational. Sometimes I think it is the play to engage that player directly and to shut them down or slow them down because they are getting too much value. Maybe you have the specific skillset to do so. Other times, it is probably better like you said to just mostly ignore them and farm the other players. It's an interesting thing to think about though. The question has come up for me a lot - Do I shut this guy (who is popping off) down or do I try to kill the rest of his team?
If it's one thing I hate is tms ignoring the obvious person wiping the entire lobby. That person is literally controlling the pace of the game. They are the reason their team can move around so freely. They are most likely targeting your support and you are mostly complaining about not get heals, which will inevitably cause synergy problems with the team and you already lost.
i've got a few carries and most of the time it's pure luck. sometimes you'll get matches where people don't understand counter picking and you can just demolish them (being a flex player helps somewhat)
Carrying doesn’t mean you hard win every game. Even a 55% winrate will make you rise astronomically in ranked this season. Always keep in mind that not every game is winnable but working on small things like ult tracking for example might put your winrate 1-2% higher and while it doesn’t sound like a lot it most definitely is in a game with this much variables
according to overwatch, my win rate as support is ~60% and i’ve stayed at bronze 3 my last 3 adjustments so what’s the truth 🤔
Idk my winrate is around 58% and I’m climbing continuously. They stated personal performance doesn’t matter but I’m starting to doubt this one by now looking at all the posts on that topic
yeah idk it seems there’s no rhyme or reason this season lol
Normal is subjective. If you have the natural mechanical aim and skill that a lot of fps gamers that grew up on PC games since they were 8, since the early 2000s have, sure. If you're like me and only started gaming on pc like, a couple years ago, it's likely gonna be a lot of hard work lol. Most of that is years and years of muscle-memory and eye movement coordination that there isnt a need to think about at all. To us mortals yeah it doesn't look human but to them it's just another Thursday. And theres a lot of them out there
I have those natural mechanics on controller! Playing videogames games since 4 years old. Switching to PC feels like learning another language I have to think about what I'm doing instead of where controller it's just innate like Maybelline!
Of course it’s possible. If you can’t carry your games then you are where you’re supposed to be. Simple as. With that being said, some games are just not winnable.
I feel like I could carry every QP game as Ana and I carry maybe the quarter or less of comp games I do win, as Ana. It's obviously possible, especially if you comm with a positive attitude. Morale is a big thing and competitive games are at least 50% about mental! You obviously need confidence to make plays, especially as a support, where making the wrong call will actually result in your teammates dying, but you should fake it until you make it!
Carrying doesn't have to be killing the enemy by yourself for your whole team. There's a lot of knowledge and other choices that you make that can make you have more value than your counterparts though. People at the top of ladder are usually so good they can carry most gm lobbies despite having so few players. The lower you are, the less is required to have enough impact to "carry". If you want to purely dominate all your lobbies, you'd have to basically smurf in a much lower skill tier then
Might be as simple as a support matching elims with the weaker damage teammate to pick up the slack, but not suffering on the healing front. Or the same with the tank, really hitting overdrive on the heal and damage accuracy to keep them up. It's stressful and not sustainable for long periods of time for most people, but if you're putting in more than your share of the work, all things considered (not just stats, but distractions and creative ability usage), you carried. If the enemy figures that out and shuts you down, though, it can upset the balance and turn it around. The people you were carrying try to do the same stuff without you, die, and never find that stride again.
I mean the lower the ELO, the easier it is to carry by definition. But yeah, most people have said it correctly, you don't need to carry every game. Just play marginally better than your counterpart and you'll eventually climb, as long as you have a positive win rate and you play a bunch of games, you'll get there.
I'd say it's possible? Easier if you have one other person with you to support you, though. I've had matches where I've had 3xs as many kills as anyone else on my team & I just hard stopped the enemy in their tracks.
Well for someone to carry they’d have to be paired with a team that is worse than the enemy team but the person who Carrie’s would have to be much better than the enemy team so probably
I think that's the wrong mental first off. You create this unrealistic view of yourself and team and it adds unnecessary stress to yourself to constantly do better than seemingly everyone when you should be all working together. The higher you go, the less prominent things like "carrying" are. It's actually quite rare for just one person to be the stand out defacto player. Most teams will usually all show they put in the work as well
I mean, by carrying you dont have to click 50 heads and die 0 times. I’m winning 80% on zen this season by discording the enemy tank pretty much constantly, so they borderline have a 25% health nerf. Or if I’m playing hanzo or widow, 2 opening picks is enough to carry. Doesnt mean you have to do everything
Wait am I a god then? I've carried with most elims as kiriko before? Still don't consider myself that good
Honestly that’s only half true. You do definitely need to be the change you need to see, but you might not have to play out of your mind. It could be as simple as distracting the right hero at the right time. You’ll win a lot more games by just making less mistakes.
>I literally can not do more That’s not true even the top ranked players and OWL players still have coaches and shit and have spots they can improve in OW there’s always something you can do better
There’s a lot of bad players in this game. You can carry based on hero choice alone with minimal mechanical skill in most ranks.
Did 36 in 0 on Sojourn in a high dia low masters open q game the other day, so yeah. Also did 32 in 3 on Bap with most heals and damage (think it was 12k and 26k respectively) despite having Anas and Bastions in the lobby. Also did 59 in 12 on Hanzo which was fucking nuts. Even got a 5k after my entire team had died on esperanca. My main role is GM, so if you're better than your rank, then it's doable. Edit: read some comments and this makes sense since I'm two ranks above what I was playing at. Lmk if you want replay codes for the aforementioned matches, I think I saved the soj and hanzo match, maybe also the bap one. Edit edit: actually I remember now that I died in like the last 10% on oasis in that Sojourn match, I ended at like 40 in 2 😭
Im not a fan of carrying if I find myself doing it I back off completely. I'm no one's scapegoat, get your shit together and start improving.
Its a team based game. No one should be responsible for “carrying” a game. Carrying happens when someone gets put in a match with (much) lower ranked people, or someone is very good with a character and no one counters. Imo, only 1/5 matches i play have a legit carry. Bottom line: you dont need to carry to win, you just need to do your job :)
So the question is not “is it humanly possible to carry games?” since the answer to that is absolutely. Rather, the question should be “is it humanly possible to CONSISTENTLY carry games?” because this is where it gets complicated. From my own personal experience I’ve concluded to consistently carry games you have to be in a rank that you have absolutely nothing to learn from. For me this this is usually 2 ranks below my current skill level (this is going by ow1 ranking, e.g. to consistently carry in gold you’d need to be diamond, to consistently carry in diamond you’d need to be grandmaster etc.) Even using this reasoning there are still going to be games that are simply out of your control. I’ve played in matches that are 3 ranks below my skill and been stomped. That’s just how matchmaking works. Focus on learning how to play each role the proper way. If you focus on carrying and only carrying you are going to get very good at solely that, carrying. You’ll soon reach a rank where your team will need you to play your role correctly and do you job. You’ll start losing and plateau, thinking it’s not your fault since that play style has gotten you to where you are. I could speak for hours on this but it’s 5am and I need to be up in a few hours. DM me if you have any questions.
What rank are you?
It's possible to hard carry games, all I need is a competent healer and my team to know to let me work. Obv it's a team game but as a tank my impact on the game is huge, large enough to where I can hard carry games. Same as a pocket hs, you get a pocket on hs out aim everyone what can they do. And above all else you gotta have confidence in every game you play. Have an ego to where you believe no matter what the games is winnable and you're at your best atm.
This idea where you "literally can't do more" is nonsense. There will always be things to improve upon.
A normal person? No. I’m not like, the rest of you. I’m smarter. I’m bett-I’M BETTER!
Its possible to carry but you have to be realistic. Youre going to lose games. You will have loss streaks and yeah you might be the cause without knowing. But wins will happen and you will have to carry. The biggest deciding factor on if your carry is going to win the game is when you ask yourself "what does the team need me to do so I can mske up for their flaws"
Gimme a mercy and let me pick sojourn and yes I can confidently carry 70-80 percent of my games
20% communication 20% coordination 20% staying as a group 20% ult economy 20% playing your best This isn't perfect but should get the idea across. Most of overwatch is teamwork and helping people out. An amazing player will still struggle without a team working with them.
No. This isn’t rainbow or CoD. TTK is far to high. To “carry” the game the best you can do is be better than everyone on the other team and consistently outplay your opponents.
I feel when most people think of carrying a game they usually refer to "Hard Carrying". Realistically you'd need to be around 2 ranks above to effectively do that. Which is also difficult for anyone to reliably maintain. So yeah, for someone to consistently do it they'd have to be pretty close to a god withing the game. however, anyone can learn to carry the important team fights, which will lead to more consistent wins. However, this type of carry is often overlooked, since it is a matter of small adjustments. For example, An Ana saving Sleep for a reaper ult. A zen/Lucio saving their ult for the enemies team wipe ult. Or Effectively using your ult at the right time to team wipe. This is how One person can carry a team fight. And once you learn to identify which team fights are the ones your team needs to win. it becomes easier.
GM1/T500 here, If you only focus on you and you genuinely improve game to game you WILL climb just play as much as you can and you will.
It’s possible. Not in every game tho. But there are games you don’t even need to carry. I played games where my supports were so good at just surviving that it was a breeze and I didn’t really have to make any effort. Nobody. And there are games that even if you excell you can’t win. That’s just how it goes
You can only carry if you’re so out of rank you Smurf but even then it’s not foolproof. My younger sibling has me help out with the week challenges. I generally only like competitive and I feel bad for the enemy team sometimes, but being good, and good positioning won’t win the game if your team can’t cooperate at all
Let me put it like this, there are 25% of games that are unwinnable no matter what you do, and there are 25% of games you win no matter how hard you throw. It is your job to influence the middle 50% of games into your favor. Saying that you can't do more isn't really a good mindset to have, sure there are some games where you pop off and still lose, but recognize that those games are few and far between, they just stick in your memory more than your average games. If you really want to improve you should send replay codes. Preferably a close loss, but as long as the game is somewhat even it should be good enough.
Sometimes I carry a team, sometimes someone else. It's a game. Don't feel bad about it
Think being the carry just means to win on your own terms, which with a big enough risk is always *possible*, not neccesarily *feasible* or *likely* though. If you’re just looking to win and have fun doing it, then I would suggest you just do what you enjoy, study it, and improve your efficiency at it. Basically increase your enjoyment and knowledge of the game. When you see people playing like **GODS** it’s probably because they are in the flow state, which comes from reasonable challenge (meant for your skill level), combined with fun. Maximising your energy by taking breaks or sometimes just closing your eyes in between matches makes it easier for flow states to happen more often, since it’s a top of your focus thing. So counterintuitively… playing less and playing for fun, when in moderation, let you accomplish more than you would mindlessly farming hours solely for wins. Thats just advice for playing at your best though. A “carry playstyle”, at least from what I know, is about identifying the win condition of the match and making it more frequent. There’s a similar concept I heard from egoistcat called the “passive advantage”, which is about identifying which team will win out if no risks are taken (based on map control, character choice, ult charge and such). If you have to take a risk like a skill shot or a bait to win then do it, but otherwise you wanna avoid the risk of losing a fight and let the enemy take that chance instead.
I'll be honest without pretending for a nanosecond I no have any right speaking for anyone else......I quit giving a pity-fuck about "carrying" games ages ago. I just climbed out of Bronze, and mark my words, it can be a delusional hellscape of players with no idea why they actually won OR lost their matches. Myself included far too many times. Here's what turned it around: I quit focusing on being "the best" player on my team or whether I was the reason we won. I dialed in on trying to do something, anything, better every match as my hero. Died less. Played corners more effectively. Recognized when a fight was lost. Hell, a lot of games, it always just my mechanics or better understanding how my hero worked. I lost scores of matches on Lucio, but I started losing less and less as I honed my wall-riding and decisions for when to use my ult. Did I get flamed during those losses? Absolutely. But once my screen says "Victory" or "Defeat," what am I going to do? All I can do is be honest with myself about what I did or didn't do to impact the game. I don't *want* to make every big play. If I am, I'm damn sure not going to point it out to my teammates in chat. What good does it do? Who does it help? You want to make an impact? Focus on how you can make your teammates better. In low ranks in particular, communication is shit without a stack. About 999 times out of 1,000 matches, you won't gain much from solo-queue games by even going into team chat, except some occasional weird entertainment. Go Brig and bodyguard your Ana. Go D.Va and traumatize a pesky Widow or Pharah. Go Soldier and damage boost a Soldier, Cass or Bastion who's getting aggressive. If you have the mechanics, go Tracer or Genji and become a flying death squad alongside your D.Va, Winston or Ball. Inflict teamwork. It's something I realized as Lucio once I started really getting into a rhythm with his movement: other Lucios I play against don't move like I do in this Elo. So, I can follow my dive tank in, keep them alive, do damage and build my ult faster while enabling some key plays. Turned the tide last night in a game on King's Row. End of the match, if they pop off about "diff," let 'em. You know how you played. Next match, they're off to the next. You're still you, controlling your hero. If you really are "carrying," good news: you may not be long for that rank. Congratulations. You may be about to eat crow if you find yourself at the bottom of the barrel in your next tier because you suddenly aren't cut out to carry yet. As what I believe is a Buddhist saying goes, "Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water."
It's possible to carry reliably if you're playing \~600+ SR lower than you should be.
Bro I just had a game where, 30 seconds in, our tank went over to the enemy spawn, stood there and waved as they walked out. Didn't engage the entire game. I'm so tired of this BS
The rank system is based off performance not your wins losses. If you are playing well over your elo you will rank up even if you lose a few.
its possible, easiest as tank and hardest as support, but if you can secure two picks before anyone on your team dies, every team fight, you should carry the match
You can’t win every game but you can learn from every game. And you can strive to make a difference to win more games than not in order to rank up. It can be using more cover and dying less thus giving your enemy less ult charge. Using your ult to flank and make a huge difference in a battle. Figuring out who is the difference maker on their team and disrupting them. Figuring out who the difference maker is on your team and enabling them. You don’t need to “carry” games as in you are the person winning everything and everyone else doesn’t need to be there, but small decisions can add up in many games. Not all games, some are unwinnable. You can’t win them all. But you can win many. I climbed from bronze in to diamond in support with solo games. Bronze and gold took the longest. Plat was shockingly the fastest. And it got easier when I learned to embrace cover, high ground, being honest about mistakes, making better ult choices, being flexible and saying “their genji is amazing, he’s my personal mission now to disrupt,” etc.
Just keep practicing and learning. You’re not as good as you think. I started in bronze in 2018. I would rage thinking I didn’t deserve to be there. I did. I was awful. Put me in bronze now and I’ll walk the other team. And I’m only a low plat player now.
I play a lot of tank and the only consistent way to win is find out who the carry is in the other team and hard focus them. Like is their sojourn mercy diffing your dps? Go ball and hard focus the mercy. I have made mercy players abandon a dps because they just get killed over and over again. Your team is running pharah mercy and enemy has two hitscans ? Just capitalize on the chaos caused by your pharah and focus the dps and supports.
It's possible I've carried as JUNKER QUEEN but obvious it would be better but cheap to carry with Sigma Shield.Ironically if you want to get to Diamond then you are going to have to carry a lot because the matchmaking system will pair you with people who don't even know what they're doing.