Average Overwatch Player

If you find yourself wondering why Ana seems to have had a recent surge in popularity in Competitive mode, the reason is most likely due to the NIP strat. If you've ever had team mates that asked the team to use three tanks and three supports, one of whom is Ana, you've come across people attempting to use the NIP strat.

However, while the strategy has proven effective at the pro level, it is unlikely to replace the current 2/2/2 meta team composition common in Competitive ranks under Master. Even if you know how it works, you'll want to think thrice about using it outside of a coordinated 6-stack team.

What is the NIP strat?

The NIP strat refers to a strategy created by pro Overwatch team Ninjas In Pajamas (NIP). Other names used to refer to it include 3/3 and tri-tank/tri-support.

NIP was the first team to realize the potential of Ana's Nano Boost ultimate in a tri-tank team composition, and successfully used it in tournaments. A team using their strategy will usually run a Reinhardt, Zarya and usually Roadhog, along with three supports. Two will usually be Ana and Lucio, with the third support toggling between Mercy or Zenyatta depending on the map and the other team's composition. Occasionally, the third support might be switched out for a DPS.

The entire strategy revolves around Ana and the use of her ultimate. Ana needs to build her ult charge extremely quickly by spamming heals on the tanks as they take damage. She should do it fast enough to get it before any other hero, then boost Reinhardt or Roadhog to create a hard to kill juggernaut that picks off the other team. This also has the effect of charging the ultimates of their teammates. Subsequently, each of the tanks in the team will have an ultimate up for every fight in addition to Ana's fast-charging ult, giving them a huge advantage.

Why you shouldn't use it in Competitive

The fact is that pro strategies and meta usually don't translate well to the uncoordinated play that makes up the majority of solo queue matches under Master rank. In fact, pro players will not recommend the NIP strat be used in Competitive mode outside of a coordinated 6 stack team that has practiced with it.

The tri-tank, tri-support composition depends a lot on ult tempo and coordination. Ana needs to be able to build her charge quickly, use her ult at the right time and communicate with her team. The tanks need to be able to cycle their ults on every fight.

Even beyond the advanced coordination needed, the tank who receives the boost will need to know how to use it. It's not uncommon for Gold tier Ana players to complain about boosting their team's Reinhardt, only for him to stand in the same spot with his shield up. It is also not rare to hear Ana's ultimate activate, only to see a nano-boosted Lucio or Mercy rounding the corner while frantically spamming their weapons.

In solo or small group queues, going for low teamwork comps is usually the superior option. Teams that can pull off simple ult combos like Zarya and Pharah or Ana and Reaper will usually gain the upper hand in the average player's games.

When should you use the NIP strat?

As mentioned, the NIP strat is highly effective, but only if the 6-stack is very coordinated. This requires a lot of practice together as a team.

Each player in the team will also need to know their characters well. This goes double for the Ana player. Boosting a tank at the wrong time results in little more than a waste of ults. Boosting a tank that doesn't have their ult up may lead to sub-optimal results, and the result might be that the team never really finds its rhythm.

Despite the difficulty of pulling it off, if your team can get it down, you just might find yourself steamrolling to victory.

Like many competitive games, Overwatch's meta tends to be dictated by the pros. The meta refers to the current strategies commonly used by the game's community, and most average players in competitive will eventually hear about it from their team mates.

While there are many things that the average player could and should learn from the pros, not everything should be copied wholesale in Competitive mode. Any high-level Overwatch player will tell you that the pro meta is very different from the standard Competitive mode.

Each ranking tier in Competitive mode actually has its own meta. Strategies and team comps that work in Platinum may not work in Silver. Platinum players who reach Diamond may initially face some difficulty adjusting to new play styles. Here are the five most common mistakes made by players who try to bring the pro meta into their Competitive games, with predictable results.

Forcing your team to play "Meta Comps"

Currently, the meta in Overwatch is 2/2/2, or two tanks, two DPS and two supports, with the 3/3 (three tanks, three supports) variation gaining some popularity. There are also certain heroes that will usually be run in most 2/2/2 teams, like Lucio, Zarya and Reinhardt.

It's not uncommon to find yourself queued into teams with a teammate insisting that everyone pick heroes according to their preferred meta strat. Sadly, having teammates that get toxic over non-meta choices before the match even starts is also a common occurrence.

If you find yourself getting tilted over your teammate's hero pick, stop. While the standard 2/2/2 set up does work at all levels, it doesn't mean 1/4/1 or a team without a Lucio can't triumph at lower Elos. In fact, they often do.

Even at the pro level, teams are not afraid to occasionally switch it up. In the recent Overwatch Open tournament, some of the best teams in the world like EnVyUs was seen running 3/1/2.

For the average player, what's actually most important is for your teammates to be able to play characters they're confident performing with. A player is far more valuable as a Torbjorn who knows where to build his turrets and can take out opponents, than as an inexperienced Reaper who keeps dying without a single kill.

It's much more important to be flexible and play around your team's strengths. If your team chooses to play 1/4/1 and you're the sole tank or support, you'll want to take the lead on coordinating a more aggressive approach. If you have a Bastion, play a Reinhardt and help to shield him while he melts the enemy's face.

Playing Pro Meta heroes at all times

After receiving a buff in the Ana patch, Mccree was a staple in most games at the pro level. This trickled down to the lower Elos in Competitive mode. There, players frequently choose Mccree for DPS without fully understanding his role in teams or having the mechanical skill to play him effectively.

However, Mccree is considered effective only if the player can achieve high accuracy on him, including headshots. Most pro players have around 50 per cent accuracy on Mccree, which means they are doing a lot of damage and eliminations. Mccree is also considered an anti-flanker who does best with a Reinhardt to shield him.

If your team is not running a Reinhardt, your accuracy on Mccree is under 40 per cent or you find yourself unable to take care of Pharahs, Reapers and Tracers harassing your backline, consider switching off. Many high level players actually recommend playing Roadhog — who is unpopular in the Pro meta — as he's much more effective at lower Elos than a lacklustre Mccree.

Meta heroes are only effective if you have the capability to play them at the level your team needs, or if your team can support your pick. Sticking doggedly to them because "it's the meta" is not going to help secure the win.

Refusing to play "F-tier" heroes

Conversely, don't dismiss the potential of "F-tier" heroes to carry a team to victory. F-tier refers to the characters who are almost never played in pro tournaments, as documented by Overbuff's Meta Reports.

At Silver and Gold tier, many random teams do fall prey to turret-based defenses due to inexperience or lack of coordination. Good Pharahs are deadly at lower Elos because many players do not play hitscan heroes well, allowing them to rain justice on enemies unimpeded.

Soldier is also commonly seen as a "carry" character at lower Elos due to his ability to move quickly, self-heal and do large amounts of damage. In fact, streamers have purposely gotten low ranks on second accounts to prove that they can carry themselves out of "Elo Hell", with Soldier being a popular choice if the match proves more difficult than expected.

Trying to make pro strategies work

A defense strategy that you'll find at higher Elos is teams setting up on high ground to be in an advantageous position when the fight starts. But this requires that your team understands how to use high ground.

There's no point for a Reinhardt to stand on high ground if nobody else realises they need to be behind his shield. A team can also give up a lot of unnecessary ground on payload maps if nobody realises that they should be jumping down to engage the enemy when the opportunity presents itself.

Similarly, while the 3/3 strategy was popularized by the pro team Ninjas in Pajamas, the strategy requires a lot more coordination than you'll find in a Gold match filled with random solo queuers.

The strat revolves around the Ana player being able to quickly build her ult via healing tanks, then nano boosting a tank who can deal a large burst of damage. This means that not only does Ana have to be a good shot and position well, she has to coordinate with the tanks to ensure she boosts them at the right time. The tank must also know what they need to do when boosted.

Both these strategies are very good when used right. However, if your team does not know about them or have not practiced them much, the team is unlikely to benefit much from utilizing them. You might be better off gauging the skill level of your team and whether they're willing to work with each other before deciding to use pro strategies in Competitive mode.

Note: This post explores how Lucio may maximise his rank gain in Overwatch through personal performance. As Blizzard will not reveal how exactly the game measures individual performance due to potential for abuse, conclusions drawn in this post are educated guesses based on available data.

This post will be updated as new information becomes available over time.

It's a common misconception that Lucio receives less skill rating on a win and loses more on a loss than his DPS or tank team mates. However, this is not always the case. Data received from several support players on the forums have shown that supports are able to have similar Skill Rating gains and losses as their team mates.

Having tracked my own SR changes relative to my performance stats over 50 games, certain patterns have emerged. The biggest modifiers to SR gains/losses appear to be streaks, the difference between your personal MMR and your group's MMR, and personal performance.

Personal performance is the only factor which you have total control over, and getting more SR as Lucio revolves around performing above average for the player's rank. We've covered the general metrics every player is scored on, and metrics specific to Lucio in Part 1 of this guide.

Previously, I've covered how to set personal performance goals in your games to get more SR. This post looks at how a Lucio should perform

I've collated and averaged out the data of 50 Lucios from Silver to Diamond rank to get a rough idea of how well Lucio needs to perform at each rank in order to get more SR. What I've found is that every time I matched or surpassed my tier average for three or four of the following stats, I would gain more SR.

Lucio average K/D at each tier

Silver: 1.57

Gold: 1.61

Platinum: 1.96
Diamond: 2.19

I'd originally eliminations were more important in factoring into the scoring. However, what I found was that the higher my death count, even if I did an impressive number of elims, the less SR I got. K/D thus appears to matter more than just kills alone. If you're playing a hyper aggressive Lucio that dies a lot just to rack up kills, it may be prudent to play more cautiously in order to keep your K/D high.

Lucio overall average healing/min at each tier

Silver: 944 healing/min
Gold: 1036 healing/min
Platinum: 1142 healing/min
Diamond: 1478 healing/min

The interesting thing about healing is that most people seem to think that's what should matter most when calculating personal performance for Lucio. However, data indicates that past a certain base amount of healing done, doing more healing doesn't seem to significantly affect your SR gain.

Lucio average offensive assists per game at each tier

Silver: 0.53
Gold: 0.92
Platinum: 2.82
Diamond: 2.95

Note that these are averages for a 15 minute game. If you have a short game, you might do less offensive assists. The more accurate calculation would actually be offensive assists per minute, but it's hard to estimate that at a glance while the game is ongoing.

There is no hard evidence to suggest so, but offensive assists may be one of the stats that help differentiate lower Elo Lucios from higher ranked ones. Getting a good number of offensive assists on top of good healing and K/D may result in higher SR gain.

Lucio average defensive assists per game at each tier

Silver: 12

Gold: 14

Platinum: 15
Diamond: 17

Again, these are averages for a 15 minute game. Defensive assists don't seem to differentiate Lucios at different tiers very much, but they do still count towards your score and shouldn't be ignored.
Lucio average Sound Barriers given out per game at each tier

Silver: 16
Gold: 18
Platinum: 19
Diamond: 19

Sound Barrier is an interesting metric because the game doesn't actually score you based on the number of allies it hits. It provides score via damage blocked as well as awarding defensive assists for kills that happen during its duration. So while the number of Sound Barriers may be a decent indication that you're playing well enough to charge your ult quickly, using it efficiently is much more important.

Average Overwatch players who would like to experience Overwatch in a tournament setting can sign up for the Affinity Gaming Tournament.

Started by the Affinity Coaching Overwatch Discord server, the tournament aims to provide a setting for players under 3150SR to experience the competitive meta.

The tournament is scheduled for September 30, 5.30pm PST. Players can enter as teams or as individuals. In the latter case, the organisers will assign people to teams based on their preferred roles.

Affinity Coaching was started by a group of Overwatch players who are offering free coaching and organised scrims for lower-ranked players to help improve the standard of play in the Overwatch community. Coaches range from Diamond-ranked players to pro players playing in tournaments like the ESL and Gosugamers tournaments.

Personal Analysis posts critique my own replays to identify areas for improvement, while hopefully sharing learning points for fellow average players.

If you see something you'd like to add or would like to share your own videos for future blog posts, please do so in the comments!

Solo queuing competitive mode in Overwatch can feel like you're playing the lottery at times. Get the right team mates, and enjoy your steamroll. Get matched with a troll or toxic player, and all you can do is just pray for a minimal hit to your skill rating.

For better or for worse, Overwatch was designed to be a team game. That means no one person can carry an entire team unless you happen to be a misplaced Master rank player. The most reliable way to get good players on your team is really to group up.

Optimal Group Sizes

There's no definite answer to this. Some people have reported finding success in a full six stack. Others swear by duo queuing. Others will tell you queuing as a group of three, where each player covers one role, results in higher winrates.

The answer really, is whether the group you bring to competitive can create a balanced comp for matches and work together well. The current meta for competitive is 2/2/2 — two tanks, two DPS and two supports. You may find variants like the increasingly popular 3/3 — 3 tanks, 3 supports, but those typically require practice to pull off as a team. The most stable team compositions in competitive under Diamond rank is still currently 2/2/2.

So what this means for forming groups is that you don't want to be in a group with six players who play mostly DPS in a competitive setting. Having a group of four players who can cover a tank, DPS and support role well, with the fourth filling in any role based on your random teammates' choices is much better. This is because your team can create and comfortably play a balanced team composition, dramatically increasing your chances of a victory.

Do note that queuing in a group of 4 to 5 increases your chances of facing off against a full six-stack. While that does stack the odds against you, it's nothing that can't be overcome by communicating with your randomly assigned teammate. On the other hand, queuing as a group of six is hardly easy mode, since you'll also be matched against other six stacks. This means your games require more coordination and team work to win.

Finding Teammates

Figuring out the roles you need on your group is easy, finding the people who can fill them, not so much.

Start with your own circle of friends. Do you have friends who've played other games together with you? Chances are you've developed a rapport with them, and they should be your first choice to group with. A team of average players that can communicate and are willing to work together will always be better than a team of lone wolves with good mechanics.

If you don't have enough friends who play Overwatch, keep an eye out for other solo queue players in your competitive games. When you find a team that you can play well with and win together, be sure to send a friend request. Lots of solo queue players are in the same position and would like to get a group. Someone just needs to be the organiser.

Alternatively, you could post on the weekly LFG megathread on the Overwatch Competitive sub-Redd it or the official forums, where potential teammates post looking for people to play with.

Practice

The bigger your group, the more you'll want to get some practice in. Going into competitive as a six stack when you've just met each other is little better than throwing a group of solo queue players against coordinated groups. You might get lucky, but don't count on it.

Be sure to decide on your roles and set up sessions to Quick Play regularly. If you find that you're not getting proper practice in due to running into hero stacking cheese, consider joining servers like the Overwatch Coaching Group, which organises daily scrims with coaches to go over your gameplay. Servers like these also typically contain players who are serious about climbing the ranks and improving their game, so it may be a good place to look for like-minded teammates for competitive.

Don't Fixate On Skill Ratings

At least in the short term. New teams will always require a period of time to iron out the kinks as they get used to playing as a team. Depending on your FPS experience and how quickly people adapt, it could take a month or two before your team starts working like a well-oiled machine.

In the meantime, be prepared to take losses while your team is still learning to work together in a competitive environment. Stick with it and you might just find yourself having an enjoyable time playing with friends on the way to Master rank.

A common complaint about Overwatch's Skill Rating (SR) system is the seemingly arbitrary way it assigns SR gains and losses. The lack of transparency over how personal performance is measured is a cause of constant angst on the official Overwatch forums due to differing gains amongst team mates in the same match.

Blizzard has stated that it will not release how SR is calculated due to the potential for abuse. However, sites like MasterOverwatch offer interesting macro views of competitive player data that can give a good idea of why you might be gaining the SR you are in games.

In our post on how competitive ranking works in Overwatch, we cover the major factors that go into calculating your SR gain after a match:

1) Win/Loss

2) Individual Performance

3) Streaks

The first thing that decides whether you gain or lose SR is whether your team won or lost the match. Where SR gains diverge within the team is when it considers your personal performance, and whether you personally were on a winning or losing streak.

How You Are Measured

Start by throwing out the idea that medals mean something to the system. Getting medals in Overwatch is purely cosmetic, and serve little purpose other than to indicate how you did relative to your team mates.

But that's not how your SR is calculated. The system calculates your SR based on your performance on the character you played compared to the global average for the character on the same map, in your ranking tier.

So let's say you're a Platinum rank player and you play Genji on Gibraltar. You get 40 eliminations, deflect 700 damage a minute and get 2.5 dragonblade kills per minute, with a K/D of 4. That number is compared against the global average for other Platinum rank Genjis playing on Gibraltar. Since this performance is more typical of a player at Master rank, the game will reward you with higher SR than normal. If you lose the game despite that performance, the game will minimize your SR loss.

Setting Your Performance Goals

So how would you know what metrics you'll have to track and what are the numbers you'll need to surpass to optimize your SR gain? Again, use the data on MasterOverwatch.

Start by checking the percentile at which your rank belongs.

Mouse over the percentile number and the site will tell you that you are "Top X %", where X is the percentage of players who are better than you.

What this number means is that when you play competitive, your performance will need to be such that the metrics for your character approximate those of players in the same percentile.

The metrics for each character are unique to the hero. In addition to traditional metrics like eliminations and healing, characters like Lucio will be scored on Offensive and Defensive Assists. Reinhardt players will be scored on Fire Strike, Earthshatter and Charge kills.

Below is a screenshot of a Gold Reinhardt player's stats. This player has been receiving 40 to 50 SR a match for non-streak wins and less than 20 SR for losses:

Mouse over each metric to check where you stand on it percentile-wise:

As you can see, the Reinhardt player has made enough Fire Strike kills a match to put them in the top two per cent of players for the ability use. Combined with their top 10 per cent performance on Eliminations, K/D, Block, Earthshatter and Charge kills, this probably signaled to the game that the player may belong at a higher skill level, and their SR is adjusted accordingly.

As long as your character's metrics are at a percentile that is similar to your rank percentile, you are likely to gain the "average" of 20 to 30 SR a match. A better performance will see you gain 40 to 50 SR on a non-streak win.

If you are trying to reach the next rank tier, set a performance goal based on the metrics that players at that tier are expected to average. For example, if you would like to rank up to Platinum try to aim to be top 40 per cent on all your stats. You may need to find a few examples of players at that level to get a sense of how they are performing, then try to match that.

For a quick reference, here are some stats for games in which I gained a lot of SR, normal SR and lost a lot of SR:

Average stats per game for Platinum tier Lucio players:

Eliminations: 17
K/D: 1.96
Objective Time: 11.44 seconds/min (approx 02:56 in a 15 minute match)
Healing/min: 1142
Damage Done: 5210
Offensive Assists: 3
Defensive Assists: 15
Sound Barriers: 19

Stats for a match in which I gained 78 SR as Lucio:

Eliminations: 18
K/D: 2.25
Objective Time: 4:12
Healing/min: 1028
Damage Done: 4838
Offensive Assists: 5
Defensive Assists: 26
Sound Barriers: 37

Stats for a match in which I gained 27 SR as Lucio:

Eliminations: 18
K/D: 1.29
Objective Time: 02:04
Healing/min: 1023
Damage Done: 5692
Offensive Assists: 2
Defensive Assists: 27
Sound Barriers: 31

Stats for a match in which I lost 40 SR as Lucio:

Eliminations: 4
K/D: 0.36
Objective Time: 01:19
Healing/min: 790
Damage Done: 3646
Offensive Assists: 0
Defensive Assists: 4
Sound Barriers: 12

As you can see, the pattern is such that any time my performance registered as above average, the game rewards me with more SR. If I lost with very bad stats, I lost a lot of SR.

Trying to achieve the right stats doesn't always mean you're doing what's best for the team. However, if you can improve on your play so you can achieve those stats while helping your team to victory, you should be in good standing to climb the competitive ranks in Overwatch.

In Overwatch, Elo Hell is a term frequently used to describe lower tiers of play, mostly up to the Gold tier. From Season 2's Skill Rating (SR) distribution, Gold tier appears to be the equivalent of Season 1's rank 40 to 29.

Elo Hell appears to exist at different levels, depending on the player. Former rank Diamonds will call Platinum tier Elo Hell. Former Platinums believe all is lost once they've dropped to Gold. And the pattern continues.

Whether it exists or not, here are six common characteristics of players who believe they belong in Elo Hell.

Personal Analysis posts critique my own replays to identify areas for improvement, while hopefully sharing learning points for fellow average players.

If you see something you'd like to add or would like to share your own videos for future blog posts, please do so in the comments!

A long maintenance last night to patch in fixes brought with it some interesting changes. According to the patch notes, several bugs have been fixed which hints at issues with the ranking system, especially for Junkrat players.

Fixed several issues causing some players obtain a skill rating that's higher than their actual rating

Note: A very small number of people were affected by these issues, but those who were affected will have their skill rating adjusted appropriately

During PTR testing for Season 2, changes were made to the formulas that governed skill rating calculations. This change was implemented because a number of players were found to have placed too high during placements.

The change had only been in place two days before Season 2 suddenly went live early on September 1. Did the unfixed formula go live? How will the adjustment take place? If the PTR was any indication, players affected will start seeing major skill rating drops while gaining only 2 SR per win, which may pose a bit of a shock to the system.

The more concerning issue is whether a promised fix to support ranking had been implemented, and whether supports are still ranking lower than their DPS/Tank counterparts. A post confirming that Lucio and Mercy had been placing too low was made by Jeff Kaplan, with a fix promised as "in flight". However, no mention has been made of this fix in recent patch notes.

The fact that there was still an issue with ranking is not reassuring for early Season 2 players, supports in particular. Anecdotal posts on the forums suggest that supports are still receiving less SR than other roles.

Fixed a bug preventing Junkrat’s RIP-Tire from receiving credit for kills, achievements, and other stats

This is a cause for concern among Junkrat players, especially considering his popularity at the Silver and Gold tiers.

Individual performance in Overwatch is derived from your score/min in a game. Junkrat's ultimate is one of the most common ways for him to get a large amount of score in a short time. For example, if his tire performs a team kill on the point, he not only misses out on +600 score for eliminations, he loses score for killing on the objective.

In the same post about supports ranking too low, Junkrat was listed as another example of a hero that had been placing lower than others. If this was due to the bug which has just been fixed, players who've used Junkrat in Competitive play or placements may well have placed too low or not received the SR they should have.

We've previously suggested waiting until later in Season 2 to place. The Season is approaching its 2 week mark, and it may be prudent to wait one more week — especially support players — to see if any new issues surface.

Note: This post explores how Lucio may maximise his rank gain in Overwatch through earning in-game score. As Blizzard will not reveal how exactly the game measures individual performance due to potential for abuse, conclusions drawn in this post are educated guesses based on available data.

This post will be updated as new information becomes available over time.

Lucio is quite possibly one of the most misunderstood supports in Overwatch. The ease with which most players can pick up and use him at a basic level has led to a perception that the Brazilian DJ is a low-skill cap healbot.

The truth is, if you play Lucio and only stay on healing boost the entire time, you are only using part of his kit. This means you aren't generating as much score as you could be. Generate less score than the global average for your character, and the system will punish your skill rating accordingly.

For more information on score and why it matters, take a look at our guide to score in competitive Overwatch.

In addition to receiving score for general actions that contribute toward capturing objectives, Lucio has his own unique ways to rack up performance numbers. We'll cover the known ones in this post.

Healing

Lucio receives score based on the amount of life healed. If there are injured team mates near him, the score is based on the total amount of HP healed for the entire team.

The key to maximising healing score is to wait until several team mates have taken damage before switching to healing or better, using his 'E' ability to boost healing. Typically,you get +1 to +20 per second, while amping it up boosts it to about +15 to 45, depending on the number of team mates healed and amount healed,

To find out if you performed above average for your tier on healing, check your healing/min stat on MasterOverwatch after the match.

Speed Boost

Lucio receives +10 Assist score for each opponent killed while the team is under the effect of his speed boost aura. He receives this score even if he does not damage the opponent.

Offensive Assist

Lucio receives extra Offensive Assist score whenever team mates begin killing an opponent while under the effect of an amped speed boost. The extra score received is based on the damage done to the opponent by your team mates.

Getting Offensive Assist score does not require the opponent to die in the three seconds that the amp is active. You get offensive assist score as long as your team mates are already in the process of taking the opponent down during the amp.

In the screenshot above, the Assist +10 score is awarded for having normal speed boost on during the kill. Lucio gets an extra +20 for the damage his team mates did to the downed opponent while under the effect of amped speed boost. Finally, he also gets score for directly contributing to the elimination of Dva's Mech.

Offensive Assist may be one of the metrics for Lucio that truly differentiates the average healbot from the truly great supports. While metrics like healing and objective time can look similar across ranking tiers, the amount of Offensive Assists done per game consistently go up the higher the rank. At Diamond tier, Lucios generate four times the Offensive Assists of Silver tier Lucios.

Defensive Assist

Defensive Assists work the same way as Offensive Assists, except they are earned by amping while on healing aura.

Like Offensive Assists, the higher the rank of a Lucio, the more likely they are to get more Defensive Assists. The difference is not as marked, however, possibly because many Lucios tend to use healing aura and amp for most of a match.

Sound Barrier

When Lucio performs Sound Barrier, he gains score for the amount of damage his sonic shields absorb. He will also gain Defensive Assist scores if opponents are killed while Sound Barrier is active.

Despite the game tracking the number of Sound Barriers given, there is no indicator on-screen that just the act of giving out Sound Barriers generates score. Possibly because if the purpose of the scoring system is to differentiate between Lucios of differing skill, the efficiency of their Sound Barrier use will matter more than the number given out.

Maximising Your SR

Lucio gains about 20 to 30 SR when the system deems that the player had an average performance for his current rank on the map compared to other Lucios. So for example, if you are in the Gold tier and finish a match on Ilios with stats that are similar to other Gold Lucio players who have played on Ilios, you will only gain 20 to 30 SR.

However, if you have stats that are comparable to Platinum tier Lucio players on the map, the game will reward you with more SR, likely around 40 to 50 SR. On the flip side, if you had a performance that looks like a Silver tier Lucio's, you'll gain around 2 to 15 SR.

This also affects how much SR you lose on a loss. If you had an above average performance, you will lose around 15 SR. If you were average, you'll lose about 20-30 SR. On a poor performance, that shoots up to 40 to 50 SR.

Streaks appear to modify the SR gain both ways, so you might be gaining or losing up to 100 SR depending on how many games you've won/lost in a row.

For more information on the performance of Lucios at each tier, refer to Part 2 of this guide.

A Note On Scoring And Team Play

Keep in mind that these are just ways to optimize your performance when the opportunity presents itself. While increasing your score may mean you get better SR gains, there are situations where you'll have to give up on a bit of score to ensure your team wins a fight.

Don't stay on speed boost to try scoring more offensive assists if most of your team is taking damage. If they die because you're not healing them, you're not getting those Assist scores either. If you need to get off the point to help a team mate at critical hp or speed people running back to the objective, get off the point and go to them.

As always, read the situation and respond appropriately. Winning with below average scores still adds to your SR. Losing with above average scores will still cause you to lose SR.

Was there a score-generating action you've noticed that isn't covered here, or have you seen different minimum/maximum scores assigned for an action? Let us know in the comments!

Note: This post explores the mechanics of scoring in Overwatch and how it relates to competitive rank gains. As Blizzard will not reveal how the game measures individual performance due to potential for abuse, some conclusions drawn in this post are educated guesses based on available data.

This post will be updated as new information becomes available over time.

Not all Overwatch players are ranked equally. Although there are six players in each team, everyone gets a different skill rating gain or loss based on their personal performance.

Score is how Overwatch measures individual contributions to the success of a game. Every action a player takes that the game deems a contribution to the team's success is assigned a numerical score.

To account for the difference in the length of matches — since a short game will naturally result in less absolute score — it appears that Overwatch tracks your average score, or score gained per minute. At the end of the match, if your score/min is higher than average for the character you are playing on that map, your hidden MMR will see a bigger increase on a win.

The bigger the difference between your MMR and your skill rating, the more your skill rating will increase to match your MMR. To find out more about how MMR works, check out our post on competitive ranking.

An easy way to see if you're generating score quickly is the "On Fire" meter, found under your own health bar. It takes about 210 score to get set on fire, The On Fire meter decays at a rate of 4 score/second, so you need to be generating 240 score/min to stay on fire.

Here, we've put together the following list of general actions that generate score in a game so players know what they can do to maximise their score. These actions can be performed by all characters.

Season 2 unexpectedly got an early release on September 1, five days ahead of the originally announced date.

While most will likely want to get into a new competitive season asap this weekend, average players looking to achieve the highest possible rank in placements may wish to consider these five reasons to wait before jumping in.

The time is early in Season 1 competitive. I'd placed 43 on the first day, in a 6 stack of friends who played extremely casually, and we got destroyed. Two of our 3 wins were on KOTH maps, which were later confirmed to be bugged and not awarding the proper amount of rank XP.

After continuing to play in a group of four with friends who were more serious about competitive, I rose to rank 47. Then life happened. One left on a trip, another was slammed by work and left too tired to play most nights. Timezone issues resulted in my having to solo or duo queue most days.

I dropped to rank 42.

And boy, was I angry. I truly believed I deserved to be above rank 50, and the toxic mouth breathing team mates who chose bad characters, lacked awareness and refused to group up or fight on the objective were to blame for my predicament.

Then someone on the forums took a look at my stats and called them horrendous, describing me as an "ult feeder". In angry denial, I argued with him. Then, feeling that I had something to prove, I went straight back to solo queue, confident that my average skills would take me to rank 50, where I truly belonged.

I dropped to rank 39.

I could deny it no longer. Every game, if equally matched, held an equal chance of my getting better team mates. The only constant was me. And if I was losing this many games in a row, then the problem would, logically, also be me.

So I took a hard look at my profile statistics, compared it to other players, and I realised:

He was right.

I had terrible stats. Less than 1 elimination per minute, K/Ds of barely over 1. Every stat aside from healing was under the 50th percentile when checked on MasterOverwatch. I wasn't even average. Combined with my blatant denial, feeling that I was a good player despite what my winrate and numbers were telling me, I had become the kind of player who helped to coin the term "Elo Hell".

Elo Hell, Myth Or Reality?

"Elo Hell" is a concept originating from League of Legends, describing the lowest ranks in team-based games where the players are so bad that even skilled players find it impossible to climb out of them.

It's existence in Overwatch is an ongoing argument between players at all ranks. If you've played competitive for any amount of time, you'd have experienced teams where players seem to think all maps are deathmatch mode, think 5 DPS is an acceptable team composition and play like bots on easy difficulty.

Players on bad loss streaks swear by Elo Hell's existence. However, while some cases do look like pure bad luck, most believers tend to have less than stellar competitive stats. They also seem to universally be in denial even if they are ostensibly asking for help.

A few players have shared their experiences of "carrying" themselves from rank 40 to 60 playing characters like Soldier, Roadhog and Zarya. These accounts have been few and far in between however, and not nearly enough to convince most players that they are where they deserve to be.

It Exists In Your Mind

A strange thing happened when my MMR tanked in Quick Play while learning offense characters. In matches where players were either significantly below my level or appeared unaware of basic gameplay concepts, I could dominate matches with gold eliminations as DPS. I did not repeat this performance when I played with friends who had high QP win rates.

If you study the complaints of people about getting stuck in Elo Hell, you'll realise there's a consistent pattern. Former rank 60s will call rank 50 Elo Hell. Former rank 50s believe all is lost once they've dropped to the 40s. Elo Hell may really a reflection of your inability to carry your team at your current rank because your true skill level is not that much higher.

After looking at my game stats, I stopped playing competitive and focused on my mechanics. I looked up guides for my characters, videos of high level play and started recording my own match videos to analyse my gameplay issues.

I started to understand why I was dying in matches. I realised why I'd been bored playing Lucio was because I had been playing him as a healbot, effectively ignoring half his kit. Playing a range of characters in Quick Play also helped me understand what tanks and DPS needed from me as their support.

After three weeks, I started playing competitive again, In two weeks, I rose ten ranks, playing less than five games a day. To be sure, there were bad team mates and loss streaks, but my rank was going up at a steady rate. The only thing that stopped me from reaching rank 50 was time, as the season ended just as I hit 49.

There may very well be a rank at which Elo Hell is real. Chances are, however, that you're far above that. Elo hell likely exists at the very bottom of competitive Overwatch, where trolls like Bacontotem of "I Hanjo" fame hang out. For 99 per cent of players, however, Elo Hell may be an indication that it's time to take a hard look at your performance.

Update: Blizzard has confirmed on the forums that a majority of players have been found to have placed too high on the PTR, and players will experience abnormal drops in skill rating until they reach the SR they should be actually at. This change will not affect live placements. This post has been updated with my latest observations of the effect of these changes.

Overwatch Season 2 will feature an overhauled rank system, with ongoing testing in the PTR.

Instead of ranks 1-100, Season 2 has now taken a leaf from fellow Blizzard game Heroes of the Storm (HotS) with skill ratings of 1-5000. Players will now be sorted into different tiers based on their skill rating range.

The new tiers and their skill rating range are as follows:

Bronze: 1-1499
Silver: 1500-1999
Gold: 2000-2499
Platinum: 2500-2999
Diamond: 3000-3499
Master: 3500-3999
Grandmaster: 4000-5000

Given the multiplier of 50 to create rank 5000, a common formula most players are using to estimate Season 2 rank is: Season 1 rank x 50. Therefore, a rank 50 player in Season 1 is likely to expect placing at 2,500.

However, this is unlikely to be the case. Players have been reporting placements that are inconsistent with the formula outlined above. Developers have recently patched the PTR with a "fix" that affects the majority of players, who were deemed to have "placed too high".

As a result, many are reporting that the rank they are placing or currently is at is far lower than what the S1 rank x 50 formula will indicate.

So with a view to managing expectations for the average player, where can a rank 50 player expect to place in Season 2, assuming a 50 per cent win rate in placements?

No matter which role you play in Overwatch, the ability to hit a target is paramount. It should be no surprise that the higher a player's rank, the better their aim, even if they play mainly support characters.

The good news for average players is, while natural ability and reflexes play a part, aim for the most part is something you can train. Most players in the top skill brackets have been playing FPS games at high levels for years.

Fortunately, there are ways for you to train your aim without having to tank your Quick Play MMR.

This post discusses how rank gains/losses likely works in Overwatch's Competitive mode. Blizzard has not released detailed information on how the ranking algorithm works, so the information here is very much up for discussion. Information is based on Blue posts on the official forums, forum/Reddit discussions, data from MasterOverwatch and corroborated by personal experience.

This post will be updated as more information becomes available.

What Goes Into Competitive Ranking

According to this post by Bliz zard CM Lylirra, when calculating your rank gain/loss at the end of a match, Overwatch takes these factors into account:

1) Your rank vs Match Making Rating (MMR)
2) Individual Performance
3) Win/Loss Streaks

Given the personal nature of these factors, this is why players in the same game will find that they do not rank up or down equally on win/loss.

Rank vs MMR

There are two types of ratings at work in competitive Overwatch, of which only your skill rating, or rank, is visible. What determines your opponents is your hidden MMR, a more complex calculation of a player's skill level based on a number of variables.

A great explanation for how MMR works can be found here, This post by Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan also describes how MMR generally works in Overwatch.

According to Kaplan, MMR is the most important factor in determining match ups. In a team setting, the team's average MMR is used to determine a match up.

MMR will always rise or drop faster than your skill rating. If there is a significant difference between your rank and hidden MMR, you will gain or lose more rank until the gap is closed.

For example, if you go on an extended win-streak and have an MMR that's higher than normal for your rank, the system will increase your rank gains until you reach the rank that your MMR indicates you should be at. The opposite will happen if you lose a number of matches.

Similarly, if you play vs a team with higher MMR, you'll gain more rank on a win and lose less on a loss. This partially explains why players with different ranks in a group will gain or lose different amounts of rank.

Individual Performance

If you're looking to maximize rank gains while minimizing losses, this is where you'll have the most control. Overwatch measures individual performance by having actions that contribute towards the map objectives grant you Score.

Generally, pushing a payload, capturing a point, getting eliminations and destroying enemy turrets generate score. The more score you have, the better.

Given the varying length of matches, Overwatch uses average score, or the amount of score you're generating per minute (score/min) to track how well your character is doing. The game then compares your average score to other players using the same character on the same map.

A visual indicator that you're doing well on score/min is if you're on fire, and spend most of the match on fire.

The meter below your HP bar is your On-Fire meter. it increases when you generate score. Your character will declare that they're on fire at about 210 score, although the meter goes up to 300 score. Score decays at a rate of 4 per minute, so if you're not generating score for a prolonged period, you stop being on fire.

In addition to the standard metrics, every character can also generate score based on character-specific mechanics, which you can see on the bottom right of the screen while hitting the tab key:

Character-specific metrics

The screenshot above shows the metrics Lucio is scored on, so each Lucio player's personal performance is gauged via the number of defensive/offensive kill assists and sound barriers in each game. Watch this blog for character-specific guides to score in the future.

Since your skill rating gain/loss is based on comparison to the historical data of the same characters used on the same maps, rather than to the rest of your team, medals do not appear to count towards skill rating calculations.

If you used several characters in a match, Overwatch will weight your score based on the proportion of time spent on each character. So if you spent 40 per cent of your time as Lucio and 60 per cent as Ana, your rank gain/loss will take 40 per cent from your performance as Lucio, and 60 per cent from playing Ana.

Win/Loss Streaks

When you win or lose around three games in a row, the game starts to become uncertain about your skill level. This results in your MMR being increased or decreased at a higher rate. As previously mentioned, MMR increases or decreases faster than skill rating, which results in larger gains or losses after the third or so game in the streak.

If the win or loss streak is broken, there is likely to still be a large gap between your skill rating and MMR, thus the change to your skill rating will be minimal. This may make it a good idea to keep going after three consecutive wins and taking a break to recover after three straight losses.

Is there any aspect of the skill rating system you'd like to know more about or that we might have missed? Let us know in the comments!

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