I'm not saying winrates being available is a bad thing, but holy shit it is so obvious that this is the first time most of this community has interacted with nuanced statistics.

Everytime winrate comes up its always the same 2 things:

I don't have enough of an understanding of the game to contribute to the discussion in a meaningful way so im going to just copy and paste the number from the website and call it a day.

I have too much pride to put aside my personal biases so I will ignore winrate completely and call it a day.

It's always just used to ego people in an argument.

The stats should be the START of balance discussion, not the end of it.

It's been a while since the last unpopular opinions thread, and a lot has changed over the past four months. So, as always, make sure to sort by controversial for the actual unpopular opinions.

My take: Most of the newer heroes are significantly healthier for the game than the majority of heroes released throughout OW1.

Even the more problematic ones like Cat, Mauga, and D.Mon don't come close to the impact some OW1 releases had on the game. And I'm not even talking about Brigitte here. Heroes like Sigma, Baptiste, and Doomfist introduced mechanics that either reinforced entire oppressive metas or made the game fundamentally more frustrating to play.

There's a pretty big difference between a hero being annoying or overtuned and a hero actively shaping the game around their existence. OW1 had far more of the latter, and I think people tend to forget just how unhealthy some of those releases actually were.

I also think the newer hero designs are generally better, both visually and in terms of gameplay. They feel more creative and distinct without relying as heavily on frustrating mechanics.

https://x.com/crazyraccoon406/status/2110641855075667979?s=20

Looks like ANS after leaving Varrel joins CR as content creator. (ANS IS JOIN, that's when you know it's a JP company lol)

Might sound bitchy, but I hope it goes better than his time as a streamer for varrel.

He mentions our subreddit 🥹

OWCS Korea had their players vote on 3 categories and the winning players will be on the tickets for the games in the last week of group stage.

9 teams with 6 teams of 7 and 3 teams of 6 = 60 players

But based on the percentages given, seems like not everyone voted for each category.

OWCS Korea Teams

• CHEESEBURGER (CB)
• Crazy Raccoon (CR)
• O2 Blast (OB)
• Poker Face (PF)
• RØDE ZANSIDE GAMING (RZ)
• SEIJI Esports (Former RTplz) (SE)
• T1
• Team Falcons (TF)
• ZETA DIVISION (ZD)

Note: Links lead to videos which have not been translated to English.

Rising Star (Total 58 votes?)

The rookie who is turning heads this season

K4NE (CB) - 44.8% (26)

• Proper (ZD): KNIFE's (ZD) rival
• SENTIER (SE): Because he keeps appearing in the kill feed
• TaeJong (RZ): Cos even though he's a rookie, he shoots well without getting nervous
• Stalk3r (CR): Good aim
• Jasm1ne (T1): Cos he shoots well

Trest (CB) - 22.4% (13)

• Homerunball (OB): Fell in love after watching him play
• Proud (T1): Go Trest~!
• Bliss (T1): Cos he plays well in competitive games
• Caffeine (PF): Brutal aim
• DONGHAK (T1): Seems like he will become even better

SENTIER (SE) - 10.3% (6)

• (Anonymous): My younger brother

Homerunball (OB) - 6.9% (4)

• Dumbbell (PF): Cos he's cute :)
• SORI (PF): Cos he's young
• MAX (CR): Cos he's hardworking

Dream Teammate (Total 53 votes?)

The player who you want to team up with (excluding current teammates)

Shu (ZD) - 13.2% (7)

• Belosrea (CB): This person's support movement is different (on another level)
• D4RT (SE): I think he's the best that's why I want to play with him
• TenTen (CB): Cos I want to support duo with him
• JUNBIN (CR): Cos he's Shu

Proper (ZD) - 7.5% (4)

• Proud (T1): No memory of losing when meeting him as a teammate in competitive games
• AZENT (CB): Cos I want to get some gameplay advice
• DONGHAK (T1): Too good

K4NE (CB) - 7.5% (4)

• Proper (ZD): Cos it seems like he'll be better than KNIFE (ZD)
• SENTIER (SE): Cos he shoots really well and plays cleverly
• iRONY (RZ): Cos he's cute

Viol2t (ZD) - 5.6% (3)

• SOAE (PF): Cos I think he is the coolest player and I respect him the most
• M1NUT2 (SE): Cos he's World's Best Support
• Trest (CB): Cos his mechanical skill is outstanding

JUNBIN (CR) - 5.6% (3)

• WuTian (OB): I'd like to hear his briefing
• A1IEN (OB): Cos it has been a while since we last played as a team
• Viol2t (ZD): Cos he's good

Fielder (TF) - 5.6% (3)

• Bernar (ZD): Cos he's good at healing
• ZEST (T1): I've known him for a long time but have never been on the same team
• Knife (ZD): Cos he's a good player

Best Buddy (Total 50 votes?)

The player I want to become friends with (excluding current teammates)

Shu (ZD) - 16% (8)

• WuTian (OB): He has a good personality
• ZEST (T1): Cos he looks cheerful
• Becky (RZ): Cos he's good and fun
• (Anonymous) Heesang (CR): Cos he's old

HeeSang (CR) - 8% (4)

• AZENT (CB): Cos he's my idol
• TenTen (CB): Very Cute (written in English)
• TaeJong (RZ): Cos he's good at flex dps

Dumbbell (PF) - 8% (4)

• Proper (ZD): Likeable and cute
• Knife (ZD): Cos he's a likeable rookie
• Viol2t (ZD): Cos he's reliable

LIP (CR) - 6% (3)

• K4NE (CB): Main dps' idol
• M1NUT2 (SE): To learn main dps
• OPENER (RZ): I'd like to be friends with someone tall!

JUNBIN (CR) - 6% (3)

• Mealgaru (ZD): Cos he's my role model
• Fate (OB): He's same position as me and plays well and seems to have a good personality

CH0R0NG (CR) - 6% (3)

• GamJung (OB): Likeable
• Bliss (T1): Cos he's same position as me and plays well
• Jasmine (T1): Cos he's same age as me and seems funny

Cookie (Bonus)

Best Buddy

• SoLA (PF) -> HanBin (TF): Cos I think he's the best
• Stalk3r (CR) -> Profit (CB): Promising young player
• OFF (SE) -> Fleta (T1): Because he's Overwatch God
• Homerunball (OB) -> SoLA (PF): Cos friends in PF told me that he's fun
• Someone (TF) -> Knife (ZD): Cos he said that we're on awkward terms
• lavender (SE) -> AZENT (CB): I wonder how different his personality is from his brother.

Dream Teammate

• SoLA (PF) -> HanBin (TF): Cos I'm a fan
• Profit (CB) -> Stalk3r (CR): Cos I like him
• TaeJong (RZ) -> Stalk3r (CR): Cos he's damn good
• LIP (CR) -> Fleta (T1): Glory of the past
• CH0R0NG (CR) -> Someone (TF): Cos he's noisy

Fun Facts

• KNIFE (ZD)'s reply to fans about Proper's (ZD) provocation on Discord: I'm now motivated by comments like that and will work even harder to show everyone. Because that's how I've always been to get to where I am..
• SENTIER's (SE) older brother is AZENT (CB). And they were on the same team (SuperBad) in Stage 2 along with SENTIER's twin brother UNIV2R.
• Dumbbell (PF) and SORI (PF) (and also Soae (PF)) were on the same team (SuperBad) as Homerunball (OB).
• Homerunball was born in 2008.
• Youngest player is SENTIER? (2009)
• Oldest player is Fate (OB)? (1998)
• Shu along with Bernar and Viol2t were born in 2000 and are the oldest in ZETA DIVISION (followed by Proper, 2003), and they're the reason for having one of the highest average team age in OWCS.
• DONGHAK (T1), when playing dps in comp, had been playing Tracer and calling himself Donghyun (Proper's real name). And because his friends think he's throwing games by playing dps, it has been a running joke for other players to Avoid him as Teammate and/or delete him from friend's list (temporarily or until morale improves).
• TenTen, CB's main support, wanting to team up with Shu, ZD's flex support, and Trest, CB's flex support, wanting to team up with Viol2t, ZD's main/flex support is kinda cute.
• Someone (TF) has had his viewers on stream judge whether he's on awkward terms with other players on his friends list based on their interaction.
• While they were both streaming, CH0R0NG (CR) has been seen spam whispering Someone while he's playing comp just to bait his reaction (and he did not disappoint).

Edit: reddit is auto-fixing my number lists to all 1.!!! ARGH! so i just left it out..

I wanted to talk about Sombra, I was watching an Unter video analyzing some pro Sombra play (link) and it was really interesting getting the break down on what a more efficient gameplay loop for her should look like. Early impressions of course we still need time for things to fully develop and of course this is organized play the approach is going to be a bit different than what the average experience is and that's addressed in the video. But overall I though it was a good analysis and a good breakdown on what the approach to games should be on sombra rn.

But just want to know what do people think about her gameplay loop and how are we feeling about her new abilities/kit? Not much of a hot take think she is way more interesting now and I think she is a great addition to the support roster. Cyberspace is a cool ability I like the application of dmg/heal reduction and I like how the ability interacts in game it's versatile, impactful and interesting, it's just a bit overtuned rn 50% is a little crazy lol. I think hotfix is cool I don't have a lot to say on it, it's strong and enables aggresive play, I also just think it looks cool I like the hack animation and the yellow glow is nice lol.

What's the vibe on her best match ups comp wise and playing into and what is looking to be some of her worst matchups?

Also what do we think on perks

I really feel like Life Hack is the clear winner on minor perks, but both her major perks are interesting and I can see the use for both, I question cybersecurity a bit though because I feel like more often than not you are using it aggressively and throwing it at the enemy team not your allies or in duels/securing picks, could just approaching that completely wrong as well and would like to get other peoples opinion.

Thoughts on her being in the tactician subrole? EMP is one of the better ults in the game, it does not feel like it takes that long to generate for how strong it is and getting the potential additional 25 in the tank is a lot. I am just going off vibes with that and it might just feel that way and I am way off lol. But I have really came around to appreciate the strength on the subrole over time and I am not saying it's bad/too strong here just wanna know what the thoughts are on it's implementation rn are.

I think the rework was great, great addition to the support role. Way more interesting now and I think will be in a way healthier place in the game once she is toned down just a little more. I think the team did a great job with her.

is something up with in-game pings? i thought they reduced the frequency someone could ping but my team had someone who legit pinged every 0.5s. including every single one of wrecking ball's mines. i ended up muting the entire team comms bc i couldnt hear any audio otherwise

Probably another content creator / vtuber centric tournament in Japan, we will see.

https://x.com/ratna_petit/status/2110368759395619169

to be expected now that Lazuli is out of the race to go to asia playoff with Lazuli

https://x.com/FARMER_OW/status/2110650330920951836

Maybe its too much to ask, since most reddit advice is basically counter pick whatever character annoys you or somehow make the team work together like we've been scrimming, but I'll give it a shot.

How do you effectively get passed the bridge? Who is good at it (both map wise and match up wise considering a standard comp played on it). Who pushes? Do you hold high ground? What job is there for each role?

I swear, if we cap first, we always stall out at this point. Either we clear bridge but whoever is pushing gets ganked, or bridge gets retaken while pushing and they drop and we get folded. The only times I feel like we make it past th8s point of the map is when we get staggers. Similar situation with first point Gibraltar. Peak is D1 for reference.

Am trying to main a difficult hero just for ego reason, yes I know it stupid but still…. Am thinking one tricking Winston? But idk but if ones of the hardest heros to master so I ask what are yalls top 10 heros?

What do you do after three consecutive losses? Do you log off for the whole day or just take a break? How long is that break? Do you feel this rule has saved you from loss streaks? I only tilt from forced losses so I only subscribe to the rule to deal with matchmaking. I am still not familiar with it since I just go until I win.

I got two expected losses back to back and then trash teammates today and am unsure what to do right now since it’s so early in the day.

Sombra needs a new UI which indicate how many times can she heals like brig or doctrine infuse. I cant remember how many times I wanted to heal but wasted time pressing right click which is kinda annoying. I know that it can be seen in the bottom right but it will be much easier if it was in the middle or something like that.

For context, I am currently gm 4 with 1,000 points. Under my rank it says I need 1,400 more points to be top 500. Meanwhile on the top 500 leaderboard there is gm 4 with 1,600 points in total. Shouldn’t I only need 600 more points to be top 500? How does this work? I’ve been winning games but the points needed to be top 500 is getting more and more.

For the record I like dive metas and Genji is far from the most oppressive hero this season.

But I have no godly idea why they felt the need to buff one of the best performing DPS going into a season that would already be favorable for him.

If I ever see a Genji main complain about how much the devs hate him again I’ll throw my monitor through the wall.

Hello. i wanted to raise attention to the fact i think suspensions and account actions should not be tied to deprecated/obsolete systems. I know you think im bullshitting, but it’s true. my initial action was a few days long, and it technically ended over a month ago. however, because the system is tied to endorsement level of all things, it doesn’t matter how much time it has passed or how many games i play i don’t think ive seen a single person endorse.

if you believe me using bad and evil adult words is worthy of a permanent silence, then that’s fine that’s your opinion, but wouldn’t you agree then that the system should therefore silence me indefinitely, or for however long you find appropriate rather than leaving it up to obsolete systems?

Why on earth are we enabling Genji while nerfing histcans? It's not fun to play against.

Poke is the supreior meta. You just sit in the backline, turn off your brain, and shoot whatever moves. No need to worry about positioning or getting punished for mistakes. Overwatch is in it's best when the game plays itself for you.

I enjoy the illusion that I'm good at the game more than actually being good at it. Especially with the post season 9 inflated hitboxes and projectile sizes which made everyone a walking Reinhardt. That was taken away from me this season and now I have to actually aim. Absolute nightmare!

I'm not buying any skins until Blizzard fixes their game. I want my Valorant 2.0 back.

I’ve been a projectile player most of the time in this game and I’ve got the itch to improve after a long break. I really want to get good at aiming with hitscan. I’m sure I have bad habits I need to fix.

The problem is that I know the usual advice for getting better at aiming.

“Make sure you have a decent sensitivity, make sure you have good posture and aim train. VAXTA, Aim Labs, etc. are all fine. Even just playing the game more. You will improve.”

This is the usual advice. It isn’t even bad advice. It works. I want something more specific though. Let me give an example. Let’s say you are learning to shoot a basketball. The general advice isn’t that much different from learning how to aim.

“Learn proper technique and just put up a lot of shots. You will get better.”

That’s not bad advice. You will get better. However, that’s too broad for me. What if I’m having issues with how my feet are pointed, how I’m holding the ball, where I’m looking at the basket, etc? Just putting up more shots might fix these problems slowly or might not.

I want something more than just keep practicing your aim. I want to evaluate my aim problems, find out specific issues and do dedicated practice to fix them. I can kinda look at my replays and notice some issues. The problem is that I have no idea how to practice to target fixing that specific issue. Let’s say I’m having a problem that I over correct my aim when adjusting to enemy movement. I can just keep playing the game to improve it and it will slowly get better. If it’s a big weakness I want to target specifically though I’m not sure how to go about it.

I hope that made sense. I don’t know if I explained it well. Any advice on how to do this in a general sense would help. If there is a resource that has common micro problems and specific practice to fix it then that would be amazing.

JinMu was one of the most fun players to watch. I'm so distraught on how his teams never seemed to win anything and the whole milk tea situation that happened months prior makes things so much more sad. </3

Seeing the Hog buffs, I was very concerned to see the max duration increased to 2.5s and with the rework's heal per second increased to 200; that would mean he'd heal for a total of 500HP, more than before he had Trash Compactor. (450HP)

Thankfully, it seems the devs forgot to mention in the patch notes that they nerfed the HPS from 200 to 160, so the total healing is the same!

Also, it wouldn't be an OW patch without a typo in the advanced hero info panel, so ignore the fact that it says 3 seconds is the maximum.

Blizzard already removed his one-shot combo and reworked him just because low-tier players kept crying about him. But now that his win rate is already super low and he's getting a small buff, people are raging again, complaining that he’s "too hard to kill."

Strictly speaking, Roadhog's average deaths aren't even that different compared to other tanks. He isn't inherently harder to kill than anyone else. While other tanks mitigate damage with shields or defense matrix, Hog's core mechanic is to absorb damage with his huge hit box and heal through it. Complaining that Hog won't die is literally no different than complaining that a Reinhardt behind a shield won't die.

On top of that, if you have an Ana on your team, Hog is ridiculously easy to deal with. It's not like Ana is some unpopular hero or a rare pick—she’s practically an S-tier hero who gets played in almost every match and barely gets banned. Yet people still whine about Hog being invincible, and it honestly gives me a headache.

I swear these people won't stop protesting until Hog is completely removed. It makes me feel like Blizzard reworking him based on their feedback in the first place was a total waste of time.

Cat still has an absurd ban rate in the highest ranks and that's in spite of how broken Doctrine and Sombra were before their nerfs (hard to say how strong they are now, but obv more broken characters means lower ban rate per broken character cause u can only ban so much). They're still rated highly by the community, are still annoying af, and they're still meta in pro play. They full on reworked Sombra cause she was the most banned hero in low ranks, so why so little action for a character being banned so much in the highest ranks? They were completely absent from the latest hotfix, and the only direct nerfs she got at the start of the season were the Cat Noon change, Bastion form change (u can still play her just as easily without Bastion or Cass) and her hitbox changes.

Why is she still 225 HP? Why does her lifeline heal so much? Why's the lifeline still got no time limit? Why's lifeline not have a real impactful cooldown when u let go of someone? Why does she still have healing equal to that of a Flex Support while being able to dive as well as a Main Support like Lúcio while also being fundamentally undivable?!?!? In no way should any hero be a better dive DPS than a lot of Dive DPS while also pumping out heals at a similar rate to Ana while simultaneously being undivable. Why are they so afraid to nerf this character, especially in ways that actually matter?!?!?!?

I was checking out reactions across various communities to today’s hotfix patch, and almost everyone's response was completely out of touch with the actual statistics. People were asking why Sombra was getting nerfed, saying Roadhog didn’t need a buff, and some clueless players were even complaining that Hog got his one-shot back—even though his primary fire damage buff still doesn't enable a one-shot combo.

A simple ult cancellation like Cass's would be great on Reaper in situation like this.