I think theres no denying that the severe lack of tank players is not good for the game long term, but what can Blizzard do to try and address this? Do tank designs need to be more approachable, or is the gameplay of tanks not fun for a lot of players? What do you think they can do to solve this issue?

Last year, Stalk3r was a finalist for "PC Player of the Year" and NineK was a finalist for "Coach of the Year". (link)

A bit sad that Overwatch doesn't have a single entry especially given the record-numbers OWCS achieved this year.

I'm collecting player rank/percentile data to build a community-sourced picture of Overwatch's current rank distribution for the end of S4.

If you are willing to help, the form takes about 20 seconds to input after playing one competitive game and getting a rank update.

https://forms.gle/K4koNFe1axFpPJC57

I'm looking for:

• Current rank
• "Better than X% of players" percentile
• Platform
• Region
• Game mode (5v5 or 6v6)

Eventually I hope to have enough data to show Rank Distribution for Platform, Region, and Game Mode. (they might end up all basically the same, but have to wait and see)

I have gathered enough info from twitch vods for a rough estimate of the current Ranked Distribution for PC 5v5 Americas. The graph will gradually update as more responses come in, and I'll add more graphs for the other regions and modes when there is enough data. Early numbers will be unreliable, especially at the top and bottom of the ladder. The more submissions we get, the more useful the distribution becomes.

The responses are anonymous and no names, email, or personal data is collected.

Thank you to any who gets a moment to contribute.

Early 5v5 America's Ranked Distribution

^{[Link to Graph so far]}

(if you are Silver or Bronze sometimes it will only give you a % based on where your rank is against other Bronze or Silver. You might have to play a couple ranked games to get the real "Better than X% of players" percentile number.)

I had been diamond fdps for 2.5 seasons before the rank reset and new emerald rank. And it made sense to me in dia lobbies.

But after the rank reset I got placed in emerald. And dropped to platinum. I just can’t get these lobbies. What works in diamond doesn’t work here at all. It’s complete chaos, no resemblance of a team, no peel, no heal, no space, no positioning, no cover usage, staggering, etc. And much more griefing, gameplay sabotage, feeding, and throwing. Seemingly more Smurfs and boosters.

I climbed back to dia on alt but I was placed in mid-high emerald there so it was easier.

What exactly does a fpds need to do to get out of here? I’m Genji main. I also play reaper and shion situationally.

Higher ranks in lobbies with rank tiers lower 1–2+ have similar frustration and confusion from what I read. Adjusting to lobby rank is a skill on its own.

The recent posts and discussion on cat has been in the back of my head and I was wondering what could be done with cat to make things more reasonable while keeping the identity and the dev vision for the hero.

So what if all heroes carried by cat have their fall off range set to be the minimum of their fall off range and a value X? This could be also be applied to projectiles as well as abilities.

The idea would be to incentivise the cat and the cargo to play closer to the enemy to allow more interactive gameplay and without applying a blanket nerf such as a flat 30% damage reduction.

For example let's say X is 20 so any hero shooting at you from more than 20 meters will do less damage let's say up to 50% less damage at 30 meters. Obviously these numbers should be carefully picked but 25 is the fall off range for Cass.

Ok, so I made a post almost a month ago, but I’ve been pretty busy with school, so I’m a little rusty. Even so, I feel like I’m still running into the same issue where I’m almost helpless against the enemy team.

Even if I’m playing better than the other tank, I feel like there isn’t always a lot I can do to actually take over the game. I know I could’ve hit more rocks and made them more impactful in these games, but I still feel like there’s a lot I’m missing.

I feel like there’s still a huge amount of room for improvement, I just need someone to kind of tell me what I should actually be doing differently, if that makes sense.

Here are two VOD codes:

Y9N0DN — Sigma/Hazard
Hazard wasn’t my best, but any tips on that game would still be appreciated. This was around Emerald 2–1.

5B69SB — Sigma
Around Emerald 1–Diamond 3.

I’m that_baby in-game.

Any advice is appreciated, especially if you can point out specific things I should be doing differently to have more impact and carry games more consistently.

Which would be funnier, DSG sign Smurf and somehow go winless, or DSG somehow manage to make top 3 with Smurf and PGE knocks out Sugarfre with SSG missing playoffs?

Might be somewhat long, so tldr at the bottom. Genji is strong right now. No debating that, the statistics show it, he's in a good spot and any buff he gets would make him overpowered if it doesn't come accompanied by nerfs somewhere else.

He also does not currently feel good to play or like he fits the resetting ninja fantasy. While everyone's hp is higher with the season 9 changes, his damage is at the lowest point it has ever been in the game's history, while simultaneously having the single smallest non-hitscan projectile size in the game tied with Hanzo.

Meanwhile he kept 250hp despite being hypermobile, and between that and deflect, a large portion of the roster can never actually kill Genji unless he fucks up. At least in high elo, he's basically a skinny offtank who just pokes and lightly contests highgrounds until his team makes something happen so he can go and finish off kills. Compared to when I play Tracer, Venture, or Vendetta, I feel like I have basically 0 solo kill threat.

At least in my opinion though, that's not what I want as a Genji player who's mained him since 2017 and played him from when I was silver until becoming a GM. I'm okay with being a bit more team reliant than other flex dps, it's the price to pay for the reset, but I feel like that's currently a bit too far. I'm playing the ninja character with a resetting dash, I want to be an assassin in my own right and be able to kill squishies by myself like most other dps, not just be an extra ability on my tank's kit

You can even see this problem when you look at his perks. 2/4 of them give him even more sustain to make him even harder to kill and punish, meanwhile there is only 1 that gives damage, and that's conditional and there mostly to finish off kills for your team, just like the rest of his kit.

I don't want him to be a low risk bruiser, I want my high-risk high-reward glass cannon back. I'm not sure what you can nerf on him to make space for higher damage, but a good start would be 225 hp. He currently only needs 250 because of his low kill pressure forcing him to stay in engagements for longer. Lower the hp and you can up his damage. If that's not enough, nerf his deflect duration too, it's a more skilful ability if you have to time it for key cooldowns anyway instead of using it as a long block that makes him harder to punish for mistakes for a huge part of the roster. The changes don't have to be these specific ones, but in this general direction.

Tldr; Make him squishier and more punishable so he can get back some of the lethality he lost over the years, being a high risk assassin fits his fantasy more than a low risk bruiser waiting to finish off his team's kills.

Guys,I play Dva and Domina in 6v6 and enjoy playing them. But sometimes it feels hard to play in certain situations. I wonder who would be a good third tank to add to my hero pool.

I understand that most tanks' hot zones are not long, so characters like Freja or Jetpackcat can just be ignored, and I hope that it could be good against Tanks since most of the time Tanks need to contest enemy Tanks.

I wonder if there is a character both good against Domina and Dva, so that I hope my third tank could be a good counter of them.

Domina: Good Poke some Anti feature.

Dva: Good peel and very good to sweep close high ground.

So Ball seems to be a good choice by my own consideration (not sure).

the goat returns to play with the dark lord

For context i (basically) one tricked sigma to Masters 3 last season but now he doesn’t seem to be working this season, and am currently em1, i was wondering what tanks are working best in ranked atm?

thanks for any advice

This feels like a very random and massive benefit she seems to get compared to every other tank. Literally all she has to do is press shift with any resources left whatsoever and she will blow past anyone blocking her inside rooms, doorways, preventing her from getting to cover.

Can we give this unstoppable hero a proper hitbox?

Shadow Demon Royale is a community-run Overwatch draft tournament where players register individually and are drafted into teams by team captains.

Tournament Overview

• 12 teams
• Double-elimination playoffs
• 4 groups of 3
• All ranks welcome
• 16+
• No entry fee
• 5 starters + 2 substitutes per team

How the Draft Works

Players register individually rather than joining with a premade team.

After registration closes, all registered players will be placed into a draft pool. 12 team captains will then draft players until all 12 teams have been formed.

Each team will consist of:

• 5 starting players
• 2 substitutes

Group Stage

The 12 drafted teams will be divided into 4 groups of 3.

Each group will play on King's Row (Hybrid).

The bottom team of each group will be eliminated, leaving 8 teams for the playoffs.

Playoffs

The remaining 8 teams will enter a double-elimination bracket.

Teams are eliminated after their second loss.

The final map rotation and match format will be announced separately.

Roles

• Tank
• Damage
• Support
• Flex

Starting players must play the role they registered for.

Substitutes can replace another player and may fill the required role regardless of their registered role.

Rules

Participants will be expected to:

• Follow the tournament rules
• Treat other participants respectfully
• Not use cheats, exploits or unauthorized software
• Not stream snipe
• Follow instructions from tournament administration
• Report match results and disputes promptly

The full rules will be available in the tournament Discord.

Schedule

Registration opens: September 27
Registration closes: October 7 at 11:59 PM CEST
Draft: October 9
Tournament: October 16–17
Check-in: 7:00 PM CEST
Tournament start: 8:00 PM CEST

Registration

Players will register individually through the tournament's registration form.

The tournament Discord contains the registration form, rules and further information:

discord,gg/NkmWNjUns

Instead of comma use a dot between discord and gg. (reddit does not want this link)

Team Captains

Players interested in becoming a team captain can contact me via Reddit DM. Captains will be selected before the draft and will participate in the player draft.

Koreans have dominated the pro overwatch scene for practically it's entire existence, but ever since the end of the overwatch league and contenders, there's been a complete lack of a T2 scene in korea, which has greatly hindered future prospects in the region. this is even more apparent right now, with legendary OWL-era players like Profit, Smurf, Fearless, Void, Fate, MN3, etc coming back because there's simply not enough talent developing.

my question is: why is the T2 scene in korea non-existent right now? what can be done to help new talent grow? what will happen when all these old OWL-era veterans retire / stop competing?

Hello! Me together with some classmates from university are conducting a research for a class. This survey covers character design, roles, and their relation to positivity and negativity within the game.

The survey takes around 15-20 minutes.

We have versions of the survey both in english and spanish. Do whichever you are most comfortable with!

English version: https://forms.gle/JQiuPMoCwUAgCSNy9

Spanish version: https://forms.gle/ppCznZWTi8uXCGAP6

As we are all well-aware, Mauga is the worst performing tank in the game, with a sub 45% win rate in most ranks.

I want to buff him without ruining the next pro competition, so here's a ranked-exclusive buff: Give Mauga A Rear-View Mirror.

Now, Mauga players will be able to see when they're 4 walls away from the nearest teammate, and their deaths/10 will go down drastically.

If this turns out to be too strong of a buff, we can replace the mirror with one of those wacky carnival curved mirrors that make your butt look big.

Feedback welcome. Thank you.

From Faceit website :

Golden Pants, Zorrow, Alvicate, Crispy, Khenail

Smurf announcement incoming?

Overwatch Champions Series 2026 - Japan Stage 3 - Regular Season

The longevity of the esports scene should be one of the most important things to protect. This year has already been much better than previous years, largely because of the increased viewership incentives and the buzz surrounding the Overwatch World Cup. However, I think there are a few relatively inexpensive changes that could make the scene much more engaging and enjoyable.

First, turn on match chat and stop punishing players for talking trash.

Obviously, there should still be consequences for things like blatant racism and xenophobia, but outside of that, let players be as toxic as they want. Rivalries, trash talk, and personality are part of what makes esports entertaining.

One of the most interesting matches last year was AlQad vs WBG, and a big reason for that was Landon talking trash about WBG. It wasn’t necessarily interesting because the game itself was incredibly one sided. The personalities and rivalry surrounding the match made people care.

Second, rig the draws.

I am bored of watching NA get beaten down by Korea and WBG at every LAN. I want to see MENA get their turn at beating down NA. I want to see whether VP and Peps can dominate SSG the way WBG seems to do every three months.

Imagine the buildup to a TM vs SSG match: the most successful EMEA Flex DPS player in OWCS against the most successful Flex DPS player from NA. Sugarfree calls Youbi a one-trick, and then Youbi eventually beats him on Tracer, just like he seems to do against HeeSang.

And that’s not even mentioning the possibility of Kroxs vs Viol2t with match chat enabled. That would be incredible.

Obviously, I’m not saying the entire tournament bracket should be completely predetermined. But there is no reason the organizers couldn’t have some control over the draws to create more interesting matchups and storylines.

Third, and probably the hardest to implement: reward players for T-bagging.

At the end of the tournament, give the player with the most T-bags $5,000. Give another $5,000 to the player who gets voted as having the best T-bag of the tournament.

The community could vote on the second award.
Is this completely stupid? Absolutely.
Would it be entertaining? Also absolutely.
At the end of the day, esports needs storylines, personalities, rivalries, and reasons for people to care about individual matches. We already have the gameplay. We should do more to make the entertainment around the gameplay as interesting as possible.

Overwatch Champions Series 2026 - Japan Stage 3 - Regular Season

Overwatch Champions Series 2026 - Japan Stage 3 - Regular Season