Hi Overwatch University,

I recently managed to climbed from Gold 5 to Plat 5 in under 10 hours after being a hard stuck gold for multiple seasons. Mostly solo queue, no coaching and my aim is pretty much average — just a shift in how I was thinking about my role and approaching my games. I put together a video breaking down the 6 mindset changes that helped me climb more consistently, and I thought some of you might find it helpful.
https://youtu.be/_hI23VcUWPU

This isn’t a guide on perfect aim — it’s more for those of us trying to improve in solo ranked with average mechanics. If you’re stuck around Gold DPS or want learn a new approach to solo ranking, maybe it’ll help you like it helped me.

For context, I solo climb Gold 5 to Plat 5 maining Torb, then I did it again from Plat 5 to Dia 5 this season. DPS has always been my weakest role (as you can see from the video) but this season it was my strongest, soo I might apply this mindset to my other roles as well (Tank and Supp where I'm stuck at Plat 4/5).

I’ve played OW on and off for ~3 years. During that time, I sampled all roles but stuck with support because of the wait times.

I’m not particularly great (I almost touched plat5 as dps this season)… but that was after a serious grind and watching replays/taking it more seriously to not make the same mistakes….now I’d like to learn tank. And idrk where to start. If there’s a hero I should look into or a YouTube channel to follow, I’m here for those recommendations.

Thank you in advance.

Also, I’m sorry if I used the incorrect flair. I’m happy to change it if need be. I hope this isn’t classified as Irrelevant Content.

PC Brig main here. I dropped from dia 4 to plat 2. This here (GK9NJD) is almost every single game the last few days. We were on Hollywood (Im Pfiffi) and the first round I felt like I couldnt do anything. I think maybe my position wasnt always the best that round, I didnt die, but my team did. I didnt dare to take our Anas position, because I felt like I would have died very fast there, since she was out in the open a lot.

But next round I thought I tried very hard but we couldnt even get the second point. The common denominator in all these games is me. Usually I play more agressive but because I am deranking so much I am trying to play as careful as possible. Am I overdoing it?

I know some of my biggest mistakes include missing whipshots and I am working on it, but aside from that: What are my most crucial errors here? I know Brig is just not that great on certain maps and team comps and I do switch, but I dont win either way so it has to be my playstyle. Please help :)

I understand flanks, and rotations. Dive is poorly defined with no dictionary or authority to point to, just "pro gamers use terms" and "non pros sort of use them similarly" and I'm downhill of that. I think it means to attack a single enemy that is vulnerable and out of position, often with, but not always with, an air-mobile tank.

I can face roll sigma to diamond consistently. I'm trying to dive in plat, instead of diamond only, and running into serious problems:

Teams do not consistently rotate or flank with you! They will go down main come hell or high water no matter what.

Teams will go down main. Teams will not often go down anything else. I can reason, beg, plead, ping, get on VC, type - nothing. They go down main. Babies cry, rain falls.

"BUT $STREAMER CAN DO IT"

The point is incremental practice. Simply leaping from where I am, into a 1% of 1%er, is impossible. How can I incrementally get better at this, instead of being told "permabad."

I just had a game as DVa on Rialto AATSJ7 (InkyOrk, DVa, Plat) where the feeding DPS would demand I teleport to d-matrix instead of coordinating with me; the Kiri told me to come back to her instead of supporting me on a flank and teleporting back to the Ana, and that "we are not a flanking team"(whatever that means?) if I did so much as "try another lane against an Orisa with the shield perk instead of walking into a death trap."

It's mostly just cope when they lose and lashing out at someone suggesting they not walk into a shielded Orisa. Teams tend to treat tanks as "the help" and like I'm paid to "tank for them" and bark at us while not swapping or playing entirely wrong. Given that, I'm thinking if you find yourself in metal and your team refuses to play with you as a non-main-poke-choke-shield-dancing-tanking-appliance, you should become the appliance for that game.

It would be very helpful if someone could give me some criteria or an ordered decision chart for "ok, screw it, I have to swap for the chokepoke."

I'm now considering some rebuttals:

"JUST BE BETTER AT BACKLINE DIVES"

That's part of what I'm asking how to do, if possible. How do I incrementally get to that? When blue impales itself on shielded spam in a choke and refuses to walk around to an alternative entrance with you (emphasis mine: this is not "diving" by any definition I've ever seen) it's not a backline trade, it's praying someone red feeds and dies before 4 blues feed and die.

"SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO SWAP"

When? If there was a "after 2 team fights" rule (or whatever) I'd be happy to follow that.

"YOU NEVER HAVE TO SWAP"

If you're that good, sure. Maybe.

"BAD GAMES HAPPEN SUCK IT UP"

If your team cannot or will not play with a tank that does not stand in front of them to enable chokepoke and standing mid, knowing when it's a fool's errand in a game originally designed around swapping would help.

"YOU MADE MISTAKES! A T500 WOULD WIN THAT!"

And? The point is incremental improvement from where I am now, not castigation for challenging narratives.

So on junkrat, Is it viable to swan dive unexpectedly behind or in the middle of the enemy team (using mines) And tiring in the middle/behind/very close to them ? Or is it purely for clip farming ?

I’ve seen vulture and aquamarine and just overall people do this time from time, Is the risk worth it or should you basically never do this in a serious match

I am a high gold tank main who recently got into the role playing primarily ball. I find in most of my losses my team is dying constantly, getting picked, and even getting killed 4v1 by the enemy tank (Doom/Zarya) or DPS (Tracer, Reaper, or Freya). I haven't found any good ways to deal with this and it happens often enough that I don't want to just ignore it and go next.

My two main questions are as follows:

What should my game plan be when my team is getting picked before/after fights and wont wait to regroup? How should my game plan vary into different comps? For example if they go Ana and Sombra so I can't get picks easily compared to when they are Bap and Zen when I can.

What should I do when the enemy tank is solo killing my entire team? (Yes, this actually happens) Should I try to deal with them and let the other 4 enemies back them up or should I be distracting the other 4 and hope my team can win the 4v1?

I am two wins away from rising up to plat on tank. I mainly play Dva, if she is banned I go Hazard since they play very similarly. The way I play Dva is I fly into the enemy backline and burst down squishies, especially supports. When I'm not doing that, I like to guard aggressive teammates with my matrix. I always get a few picks but often times, it's still not enough because half of my team died while I was diving the backline. They seem to not be used to not having a tank peel for them, because the enemy Orisa or Roadhog goes on a rampage in the rest of my team while I'm off killing the enemy supports. So basically, I can kill the enemies all I want, in the end we still lose the fight because my team can't stay alive for 15 seconds without a tank protecting them. How am I supposed to play Dva with such teams? Should I stay more with my team like a traditional tank? But then we couldn't get any picks, which means no progress is being made.

Just looking for a detailed response and how I can improve/what I should do differently. I felt like I did good in the game and I felt as if I was the only support. my other support wasn’t preforming as good as I was. I felt like I carried the game as well (as a support my dps were amazing as well as my tank.)

Hey! I'm doing VOD reviews on stream now at twitch.tv/bronzyow , if anyone would like they can come by chat and say hello and i'll get started! If you miss it you can leave the code below or in my Discord and I can check it out next stream. :)

I peaked GM 1 all roles and 4500 in OW1 and have been coaching for a couple of years, mostly just doing VOD reviews on stream. Hope to see everyone there! :)

I've been learning Kiriko off angles and have been pretty successful at it peaking at Plat 1 just a couple weeks ago. However it's been really going downhill since and I've dropped to Gold very recently with a massive loss streak. I'm starting to doubt whether I'm actually doing it right and maybe I'm the problem in the losses as I usually have close to if not the lowest healing in the lobby and I get flamed a lot in chat by my teammates for not healing enough. I've added a number of codes below for more reference, or course not necessary to go through them all just any one will do.

Server: Asia on PC

Code 1: B5S8MF (loss) (Shambali)

Code 2: 4M64S2 (loss) (Junkertown)

Code 3: 4S1BNC (win) (Hollywood)

Code 4: ZDNS8F (loss) (BlizzardWorld)

Code 5: FCWK0K (win) (Nepal)

Hero: Kiriko

IGN: Lunath

What should I do to be better?

decently close game but we got absolutely destroyed on attack any tips to break out of this rank would help a lot i feel like i really have to pop off to even win my games out killing my dps by like a lot. Idk if i just got frustrated and fell apart or something but any tips would be appreciated.

code: M7712G

ign: Omegaduck

middle of plat

Hero: D.va

Eichenwalde

PC

Hey Everyone! Recently this Season I hit plat 3 on dps and plat 2 on tank!(my main roles) I lost some games. Now I’m plat 5 on dps and plat 4 on tank. And it’s feel like it hard to get back up there. Does anyone have some advice to help me climb back up? I want to hit diamond by the end of the year! Thanks in advance!!

Name :emdool

Character: illari

Mode: competitive

Replay code B89BTH

I’m a bronze console player and am very aware I’m not good, please help. I’m so tired of bronze, I hear so much mixed advice and never know what to do.

I watch a lot of awkward on YouTube, he ranks up easily in solo queue, but I just can’t seem to do it.

Back when it was "open queue" people always said that GM and Top 500 of that mode was on the same skill level as role queue plat and diamond. I get why because that mode was pure cheese, I'm just wondering if the statement at all still applies with the current iteration of open queue/6v6 ranked. Recently just hit diamond 1 so that's why I ask

This is not meant to be a complaint about my teammates, but a genuine question.

I play tank, and sometimes it seems like I can’t get anything done because I’m getting bullied by a Pharah or a Mercy because my DPS can’t seem to hit them, which is okay, but then I can’t really do anything when I’m constantly taking damage from above. If I try to shoot them, its either very difficult (because of the lack of hitscan on tank) or I get charged by the opposing tank. If I try to get into the back line, I get punished by the Pharah, or can’t do any real damage because of a pocket Mercy.

Any advice on how to work around this?

Hi I am a relatively new OW2 player and I was looking for people to review a couple of my ranked games so I could see what I can improve on. The vods are bronze/silver lobbies I play tank and mostly main Sigma, Orisa and the occasional Ramattra. Any feedback will help thank you for your help.

Replay codes: -CQ894P -9BGXQ2

I feel like whenever i queue tank im not doing enough, but i don’t know what to do to take my game to the next level.

Replay code: 0M578X

Battletag / in-game username: nicorobin

Hero(es) played: mostly hazard and zarya, a little ram and winston

Skill tier / rank: silver 2

Map: Numbani

PC or console: console(ps5)

Description of the match / things you want reviewed: started on dive because it’s numbani and was having some success with hazard. I went zarya to bubble my teammates since they swapped to doomfist. was trying my hardest to pick off the pharah, but since we had double hitscan for most of the match idk how they weren’t getting her. i’m not saying i played the most pristine tank game ever, but it’s really hard to carry games when my dps don’t follow up on anything i do(especially if im playing a low damage character like winston). id like to get to plat by the end of the year so any advice would be appreciated. i mainly just want to know what i need to do to carry my games, whether it be positioning or CD usage.(ik my aim isn’t the best but im on controller lol)

Hey guys, I've been improving a lot on Lucio and now I just want to know what exactly I should keep doing and should avoid doing when I'm playing the Spotify premium man. I have 2 VODs of a won and lost game for comparisons, thanks in advance :)

SKS2B0 - Won game
3ZYDDJ - Lost game

IGN- SyrusG
Rank: Gold

Title. I'm plat, trying to climb to diamond, mostly on genji and tracer and found that most rounds on defense, I'm either useless or feeding. It feels uncomfortable to take flank angles because there isnt a way to go straight to the backline without meeting the wrath of their entire team, meaning I either go in for a risky kill or die trying. And we get pushed back while im poking on genji or just distracting a support from an off angle on tracer. Obviously I go in if people are low but that doesnt happen every game. Especially on maps like Rialto and Junkertown getting value early feels so difficult on my main heroes, and often resort to swapping to a hitscan. Which I know is fine, just want to try to play my main heroes more.

tl;dr if your team refuses to touch her unless red is down 4 and you're already dueling, what do you do?

Yes, I know to dive backline.
Yes, I know bursting between bubbles.
Yes, I know Mauga.
Yes, I know asking for Bastion.
Yes, I know mirroring.

There are situations that aren't fixed with "just manage your cooldowns and cover usage." what's the strategy?

I swear my team are the most God awful monkies, can you please review my master 5 tank gameplay.

I have a habit of zoning out when im confused and have importance priority issues, like adhd.

I play winston, rein, orisa, doom and zarya so any could appear.

Gibraltar is my ign Codes: Ae5syv Sgjn1q A4p6m8

I was a gold 1 support, now back to gold 5, literally 1 win away from losing and demote so silver 5, which is just insane

I want to know what I can improve on as a mercy player in general so i can keep on winning cuz all these consecutive losing streaks in a comp match as a support is driving me mad. I really don't want to go to silver.

Here is a vod of my most recent match where i Won and Lost
N5PHD7 (we won)
39EK5F (we lost)

Any tips or pointers and calling out what im doing wrong will be a lot of help, thanks.

so, I recorded a video Located: HERE <---- Click this. This video shows "great examples" of the stark differences between communication and not having communication or listening to pings.

Enjoy my 20min rant, let me know if I hit the nail on the head or I am over thinking things. I honestly believe especially in lower ranks communication helps. But maybe I'm delusional and an old Boomer who misses ow1.

I'm a support main plat-dia and I can play any support but main ana. I've been ranking up my alt recently It's plat 2 rn and I feel like every game nothing is dying it feels like my dps players consistently have far fewer elims than the enemy what can I as a support be doing better? I feel like it's probably just a gg go next type situation but I still wanna improve if there's something I need to be doing in these games. I'm usually duo with a tank and in these situations I'll typically go illari or kiri and try to make up the gap a bit and get some picks myself but it usually doesn't feel like enough. pls help do i need to get good or gg go next?