Zenyatta in the Competitive Field

It's my first official post and what better topic to start with other than the current Competitive season, 14. I'm fairly sure that most people who play Overwatch are familiar with Competitive, and I'm also sure that, if you're reading this blog, you probably play Overwatch. For that reason, I'm going to assume that everyone who reads this has played Comp or has at least a vague understanding of what it is.

Quick Play and Comp: Is There a Difference?

The Iris is telling me that a few of you just wrinkled your noses at that sub-heading. You might be saying something along the lines of: "Of course there's a difference, Zenyeeta. QP is QP whereas Comp is far more important." Listen to me. Unless you're earning dollar from your rank, or have a reputation to uphold in either Master or Grandmaster, is it really that different? Sure, each successful match brings you five purple points closer to those golden Zenyatta orbs you've been eyeing up for a while now, but is there really much more to Comp compared to how hyped up it is?

Hero Combinations

Pharah-Mercy, Pirate Ship. It all comes to mind when I talk about which Heroes work well together. The enemy Reinhardt has his pocket Ana hidden safely behind his shield, carefully nursing her Nano Boost, whereas you've somehow ended up with that one Brigitte who hasn't worked out that she can heal yet and Winston can't time his shields for shit (to give him credit, though, he did attempt to pick a shield tank). Hero combinations seem to gain significant amounts of importance when playing Comp, whereas in QP, it's free for all! There will be some matches where, for some reason, your team expects you to solo heal (so you reluctantly switch to Mercy or Moira) and, in the end, the 4 dps players flame at you and that poor Reinhardt who honestly tried his best.

Other times, you get a team that understands what they're doing. They're not a four-stack or anything, they just get it, you know? They want to go GOATS, because they've read up on the meta, and since Lúcio is extremely fun to play, you can't say no. Besides, GOATS is good. You win the game and it's no surprise. Up goes your rank, you pocket the points. You don't get a lot of GOATS, if any, in QP. Never do the Genji Brothers™ (it's always one of them) on your QP team want to give up on their PoTG opportunities to be sidelined by some D.Va with an impressively thrown bomb. These meta combinations are taken far more seriously in Comp, and probably for good reason, as they guarantee higher success rates.

Organisation and Battle Strategies

This leads on from the previous point, but GOATS is the current favoured strategy, particularly in higher levels. Pharah's a good counter, but snowballing your way through the team can effectively win you the match within a matter of minutes. In general, though, players will make a conscious effort to group up (but they only begin to do this at Gold level). You'll have some guy talking through the white noise of his crappy mic, giving orders to go left, or right, or whichever way is best suited for the map. There's an effort for improvement. Alongside you, everyone is trying to get a better rank, so of course there's going to be more thought into how you play the game.

Players may also change heroes mid-game in order to counter the enemy team. Is there an annoying Tracer or Genji irritating you by constantly flanking? Tell the tanks and suddenly a Winston will be on them like nobody's business. It's seriously awesome, until the Winston is on the enemy team.

But Is It Really "Different"?

To the very core, Comp is basically QP, except you get graded. The main differences would be for those who get paid or are part of the League tables but, other than that, whether you're silver or gold doesn't necessarily rank you as a player. Some people use Comp as a form of expressing self-improvement, so you are going to get some salty comments along the way when they get butthurt that a team didn't perform to their expected standards.

A wild Widowmaker being slated by her raging teammate.

Personally, I've played some really intense games where all players have been highly strung, only to lose, as well as relaxed games where the entire team decides to meme, playing 5 dps and Lúcio, and still managing to win! With Comp, your personal abilities aren't necessarily weighed up correctly. It all depends on what team you work with, as you'll still lose points even if you are hard carrying your team.

Playing Support in Comp

Now that we've established the atmosphere in most Competitive games, you can probably imagine how hard it is to play a Support hero in a field where players expect over 15k healing per match from the primary healer alone. Now, I can average a range of 13k-16k healing on Mercy in a single Attack or Defence match, but not everyone can. 10k healing is sufficient, so long as your secondary healer is reaching a 5/6k mark to support you. However, it does all ride on you. If you die, your team will likely perish soon after.

High Stakes

As a Healer, I do get shouted at a lot from other players, especially in the lower tiered ranks. A lot of them don't understand how Zenyatta actually works. If I discord an enemy Reaper, silver ranks aren't always going to target him, and it can get very frustrating. Zenyatta's healing orb is less efficient compared to other healers techniques, but he makes up for it in damage. Lower ranked players, who struggle to maintain HP for elongated amounts of time, do tend to rely on mass heals, which Zenyatta can't provide and, if the Primary healer is constantly being targeted, it's not enough.

Actual footage of me when someone on my team so much as looks at me aggressively.

Since dropping to Silver, I've found it difficult to play Zenyatta and get the support needed from the rest of my team. Players at this rank don't quite coin on that Genji and Tracer are my literal worst enemies. For that reason, I might switch to Brigitte on some occasions, just so I can defend myself or, if no one else wants to go Primary Healer, I'll pick the Moira or Mercy option, depending on the situation.

Toxicity

Ultimately, when the team loses, the healers are always blamed. It doesn't matter how much healing you've done, or how useful to the team you've been, the stick will always land on you, and an overflowing wall of orange and blue text telling you to "kys" and "uninstall Overwatch" has become numbingly common. And people wonder why no one wants to play Support...?

Zenyatta, in the Scale of Things

So, how does my boy fit in with Competitive mode? He's slow, but can pack a punch, which has actually made him very popular amongst the Top Ten Most Used Overwatch Heroes in each of the Competitive ranks. He was considered a very meta character, given his ability to increase his team's damage by placing discord orbs on the enemy team. It wasn't until Season 12, when the GOATS tactic came into public play, that Zenyatta began to drop down the list in a sad state of decline that every child star reaches in their career at some point. Zenyatta didn't fit into the GOATS equation, with Support characters Lúcio, Moira and Brigitte overtaking him in popularity.

I'll still remain faithful with my favourite healer, though. I just can't resist the damage he can inflict on his enemies! Seeing each Bastion and Wrecking Ball quake with fear before they inevitably explode beneath the wrath of my discord orb is just too much. I strongly believe that Zenyatta is a character people always come back to. He's always making appearances in League, and playing this character inspires me to do better than how I normally would on a day to day basis!

Also, if a Hanzo ever tells you that he's meta ever, remind him that Hanzo hasn't been considered or used as meta for quite a few Seasons now. Some people really need to be humbled.

The beautiful community of Overwatch in action.

That's all from me for today! May the Iris be with you,

From a Tired Zenyatta Main