reddit overwatchuniversity and competitiveoverwatch.

anything decent ends up there.

this seems off to me

winston should be able to absolutely dominate below diamond BECAUSE the teams are so uncoordinated

flame/mattr0d puts out a lot of analysis stuff and i think also goes over play during his streams

i don't care much for his attitude in-game but if you can get over that he's obviously very good and has lots of good tips (or at least insights into how you should be thinking in team fights/meta-game/etc)

Thanks for the recommendations and the video. I have started to work on that. I've found my best games come when I play DVa since I can just click and hold. I also really like healing so I enjoy Zen. Lucio seems like he's fun, but I'm having a little difficulty with him.

I have toyed with the idea of sticking to one hero, but as I was learning the game I was trying to play each to learn what each does.

Playing with the bot aiming, Lucio's shots go on an angle if you're strafing. That is what has made it a little more difficult so I have to strafe, stop, shoot, strafe, stop, shoot. But my hits are still few and far between.

I'll definitely practice more and work on slowing down my shots. I'm still working on trying to hit level 25.

Got masters, now I can't queue with my friends because the max rank gap goes from 1000 to 500 :/

This seems do dumb to me.

The more I play Lucio, the more I absolutely love him. I love being in the middle of the action, healing, timing shots, jumping around, running on walls. So much fun since I started concentrating on him only. I'm 3-0 last three and in one game I did nearly 10k healing.

I want to try to get his other skins now.

yeah Ive been watching some of his review vods. coming from a bad player it seems pretty good

https://www.twitch.tv/flame/v/105397640

Went 7-2-1 in placements, and placed at 3234 ~200 above where I finished last season. Played all 10 games with my friend who ended last season at about 2850, and placed at 2950. So I got ~100 more placement points out of 10 games together than he did.

pretty sure the new GTO meta is triple tank triple support

ana lucio zen, rein dva hog

replace hog with mei or bastion situationally

I've very quickly climbed 250 SR since placements, feels good man.

ive been gaining 40-50 per win while only losing 20ish per loss this season

Yeah same. Gains have def been bigger.

Starting to learn Ana, what heroes should I be nanoboosting?

soldier, rein, genji, reaper, winston, pharah, roadhog

pretty much anyone dropping a sustained offensive ult is a good target (and then spam heals on them)

I'm still learning the game - have only been playing since Black Friday-ish (and it's not like I play hours upon hours a day). I just reached Level 25. I'm somewhat interested in competitive mode, since that seems like where it's at, but I'm more of a casual player, so I'm worried about getting in over my head. Concerned that I'll suck amongst all the competitive players, that people will get frustrated with me on their teams since I don't know all the meta, don't have all the map intricacies memorized, don't know every super-secret mega-move, etc.

I'm perfectly competent with a handful of characters (Mei*, Zen, Lucio, Mercy, Sombra, Reaper...maybe Rein and Bastion), but I'm no expert and I'd be screwed if I had to fill in as someone I'm not good with yet (D-va or Roadhog, for instance).

Should I just hold off and keep having fun in quick play (and I'm definitely having fun), or is competitive/season too good/important to miss out on?

*I just played for about an hour and had a proud moment when I was playing Mei and someone on the other team wrote, "**** off, Mei."

Ideally you have a friend who mains Soldier you can combo with, Soldier is your ideal target. Barring that, it's become very situational based on positioning / context of the fight, you need to time it better so the enemy team is committed to fighting. In general I tend to give it to the person who is performing well if I have the option as well.

Some common ones:
-Ulting Roadhog assuming you dont think he's going to get quickly disabled
-Rein hard charging into the fray
-Dva in the fray with boosters still up
-Any tank who has positioned themselves to take a bunch of damage can be good
-Ulting Genji if you suspect he might need the extra health (damage doesn't really help as much)

Less common ones but sometimes useful, Tracer, Pharah, McCree, Reaper, ulting Bastion. Basically anyone who ends up in that "go for it" moment where they are taking a big risk to do big damage.

IMO comp is like 20x more fun than qp but I'm a competitive mf'er, I don't think they are really the same game so nothing can really prepare you for starting comp. The ranked system is really good so you'll have even games regardless of your skill. The only thing to be aware of is that if your going to improve a lot after a lot of games it will take longer to hit your improved SR level (who cares though).

For hero pool, my experience is unless you want to play a lot of DPS you can get your hero every game (DPS also need to switch the most). One thing I will say to be ready for is that different skill levels have their own metas, for example I remember in my lowest games last season (1650) there was tons of Symmetra, Bastion, Hanzo, Junk Rat, etc.. To max out on winning you will have to adapt your hero choices to the meta you encounter, for example I had to play Dva to break choke points / TP hunt in that meta or I was essentially throwing.

Sombra is really bad at low levels and people know it, so you may want to avoid that pick for winning and toxicity. Mercy is also atrocious but people accept it (but avoid to win). Other picks are great, Dva could be worth learning better as she is god tier in lower games. Pharah can also be great if you place where people don't aim well and play lots of Hanzo / Widow / Genji type stuff.

yeah just play. only way to get better and nothing wrong with hovering in bronze as a new player. lucio is good basically every time and most people dont play support

Coincidentally, of the characters I mentioned, those are probably the two that would be lowest on my list if I tried competitive play. I tend to play Sombra because I just think she's a lot of fun, not necessarily because I can increase my team's winning percentage by a ton.

My Sombra rounds tend to either be a) I totally kick ass, getting behind the other team and just ****ing them up, or b) I can't quite accomplish what I'm trying to do (perhaps it's hard to get through a choke point because all the spray fire renders my invisibility useless) and when I do get behind the defense or get to the CP and occupy a couple opponents, my team still just sits around fanning their balls.

I've really been enjoying Lucio and Zen lately, probably because being able to do something on offense while still being support is pretty satisfying. Had a game last night where I won the gold medal for damage as Zen (and three other golds) and another where I never died as Lucio.

My accuracy/focus are way better in ranked, and as such I get way more into it. It's hard to play quickplay for more than an hour or so w/out getting bored. Ranked I could play all day... way more interesting. Classes play more like they're supposed to, and I just have more fun all around.

That being said, I sometimes have to quit out of tilt.

Competitive is usually going to be way more organized than quick play. As others said there isn't really a way to learn without jumping in. If you're pretty new still I'd recommend knowing at least one hero in each role so you may want to learn a tank (Rein and DVa are both good in the current meta, although they are very different types of tanks).

Lucio is always useful (though boring IMO) and Mei is really good on certain choke points using her wall to separate teams. So you seem to have a decent pool of heroes to start competitive play.

Watch out though, once you start playing Comp then Quick play might become unplayable for you

Just play competitive. It's not a big deal and competitive >>>>>>>>>>> quick play. You'll see.

For reals, I'm putting in some offensive symmetra games so I can drop 200-300 pts and safely play with my friends again.

Thanks for the tips, everyone. If I get some time later, maybe I'll give competitive a shot. I think part of my hesitancy is probably the word "competitive." I just play for fun - while I consider myself above average once I log enough hours in FPS games, I'm never going to be someone who can compete with anyone that would be considered at all advanced, nor do I really want to be. Just want to have fun and not worry about rankings and reputation and stuff.