Personal Analysis: Anatomy Of A Loss

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!

Match Numbers
Team Average SR: 2539
Opponents Average SR: 2524
Starting SR: 2815
Ending SR: 2788 (-27)
Eliminations: 11
K/D: 0.61
Objective Time: 03:23
Healing/min: 742
Damage Done: 9923
Offensive Assists: 5
Defensive Assists: 17
Sound Barriers: 33

At some point in the season, every player will experience a bad patch. The kind that make you question your skill and worth as a player. Stories of precipitous drops in SR abound in the forums, of Diamond players who refuse to quit while on tilt, and suddenly find themselves playing in Silver.

I try to see the silver lining in losses, how they reveal weaknesses in your play for future improvement. This loss on Hanamura was completely unexpected and rather textbook. If I were to break down the three major mistakes made by the team, it'd be this:

1) Repeatedly allowing odd compositions on defence
2) Tilting teammates and allowing ourselves to be tilted
3) Miscommunication and lack of communication

Had we fixed just communication, 1) amd 2) may not even have happened. But it did, and now we have an example of how a team can throw away a win with poor communication.

Match Analysis By The Minute

04:51 — Had a reasonably good Attack round where we took both points quickly. I've no idea why, but at this point our Dva decides to switch to Mei, leaving us with Zarya as the sole tank. Overconfidence leads us to roll with it.

This leads our random Mccree to switch to Dva, presumably so we'd have a tank that would be able to shield the team. This creates a sub-optimal comp for the team, since his best characters are actually Roadhog and Mccree.

Given that defenders have a longer run back, probably never a good idea to go with "switch up if it doesn't work" when the team already had a comp that worked well.

06:21 — For some reason Mei decides to try to go behind enemy lines to try and surprise them with a flank. Considering the team was all behind the gate, this was a bad judgement call. This leads to nearly the entire opposing team converging on her and leads to an early two picks as our Zarya tries to compensate.

07:01 — Needs more wallride, rather than staying on the ground trying to be a DPS. Team calls for a switch up, but it's too late and in our panic we stagger in to defend the point.

07:30 — Seeing that half the team was dead, should have tried to fall back quicker. Mei offers to switch but misses the chat window asking our random Dva to go back to Mccree. The team had assumed that Mei would switch without having to be told. This miscommunication costs us later.

08:00 — The team is surprised as our Mei stays Mei while we get our Mccree back. This costs us a tank that could have held the point long enough for the team to respawn and run back. Unfortunately, the team can do little but trickle in an attempt to delay the timer for as long as possible.

08:51 — The first signs of tilt begins as the team leader thinks having more time means we win, and is unpleasantly surprised when the time bank system is explained to him.

09:17 — In my annoyance I tell the team in rather crude terms not to mess with a good comp. This may not also have been a good time to discuss the last round when the next is about to begin. Our Mei player gets extremely defensive, and is obviously on tilt from the mix up in the last round.

10:45 — I see us getting two picks and switch to speed to help the team push in. For some reason they do not follow and I am stuck behind what's left of the enemy team. Hardly an ideal position. As soon as I noticed the team falling back out at 10:49, I should have followed.

11:23 — I should have run back out to support the team but got greedy, thinking to cap the point. This leads to the respawned opponents coming around and I end up in a 2v3 on the point while my team is trapped outside.

12:42 — Waste of ults. Ongoing problem with coordination with Zen, although in this instance it turns out neither is needed since Mei blocks it. Team gives credit to the wrong person, which may or may not have increased feelings of tilt.

18:31 — Reaction too slow, creates an important pick for the opponents' next push.

19:55 — Again, Zen and I waste our ults via lack of communication. I had thought he didn't have his ult when he did not press Q during Graviton so I ulted - right at the same time he did. This sets up a sequence of events which lead to our losing Point B.

21:04 — The enemy team pushes in via the stairs and starts their ult crush. The lack of support ults leave the team defenceless.

23:34 — Opponents narrowly take the round and team at this point is likely tilted, having expected to win. Team does not learn from earlier loss on our defence round and Dva goes back to Mei for a one tank composition.

24:55 — Mei for some reason misses the ice wall, which allows the enemy team to deathball in with a quick pick. With Zarya as sole tank, the team is at a major disadvantage.

27:27 — Some members of the team should have switched to DPS or tanks that could hold the point better and get quick picks, but we don't and we lose Point B. Realising that we are at a disadvantage, the team is definitely tilted.

29:45 —   Team keeps getting picked in our panic at the timer. The match has been lost by this point.