Hello, Heroes! There will be an upcoming patch to Overwatch that will wipe existing replays on Tuesday, November 3 at 11:00 AM PT. Please take the time to record your favorite matches before they are gone for good! Thanks, and we'll see you in-game.

Some of you already know what I'm about to say, but this is for those that don't.

First, I want to give you a replay code. I won't post the name, but there is only one Emre in the game. Some don't think cheats are rampant, but they are...they are just really hard to see because they are not your grandfather's hacks. This will give you an idea.

ZVM7S6

I got that funny feeling in the game, I did not report during the game until I watched the replay. I almost gave up thinking I was wrong until (watch at 0.25x):

3:07 - very subtle, ultra-fast snap to the head on doomfist to secure the elim. This is when the flag went up.

9:07 - locks on to shion's head as soon as she leaves cover, but the bot is confused by the torb behind and disengages. The shion comes out so fast on a bike that, at normal speed, would be super human. This was my confirmation.

9:39 - just another example here. aim is all over the place, but suddenly it becomes perfectly smooth on dom

I only reported this one yesterday, and had rank reclaimed today so I know this was the one. I suspect that they turned the hacks up after the first round didn't go well.

Here is how I've been having consistent luck and how to help the overwatch team catch these folks:

1. reporting the person in game doesn't seem to help (still do it at step#5 though).
2. report through the replay system
3. it seems you must create the replay code first
4. then use the report function using that code and I give time stamps. You have very limited characters to state your case so be precise.
5. I double up and report from the endorsement screen.

Doing this, I've had 3 banned/ rank reclaims in about the last 2 weeks alone when it was very rare before I started doing it this way.

Cheats like these are very hard to detect. DPS are using them, tanks are using them, supports are using them. Wallhacks are easy to spot and I've even had my own teammates banned when I was suspicious. I've seen them in new accounts, old accounts with skins and weapon charms, high endorsements, etc. I suspect they are dumping the replay codes into an AI system or something.

Anyway, hope this helps. When your spidey sense starts tingling, I've found it has usually been right. It sucks there are so many.

Lately I've seen posts on Twitter and even a few on the main sub citing OW Cavalry saying the midseason is gonna focus on balance changes regarding Supports and self sustain, but they're all lying and there is no such patch on the way. The post in question is all the way back from 2023 which is a full three yrs ago. Idk honestly why it's circulating again now, but yeah there's no dedicated Support patch coming. You can go to the link yourself to see it first hand. The date posted is 10/19/23.

https://x.com/owcavalry/status/1715071081776582793

Lately it feels like all the time I see a teammate or an enemy on point a little before overtime finishes and it just ends the game. They're very clearly on point before it finished, but the game doesn't seem to care. It feels like I've been noticing this happen a lot more this season than in previous seasons as if what the game registers as being on the point is bugged rn. Anybody else experiencing this issue or is it just me?

Now before some of you mistunderstand me, I am not saying that sub role are the bane of overatch balancing (like we have bigger fish to fry... well cats in this case.) but they have definitly some issue. Let's talk a it about it.

1 issue: They aren't equal at all.

Let's adress the elephant in the room. Bruiser passive is ISANE (relatively to other tank passive). Headshot damage reduction, literaly free damage reduction on what's suppose to be a weak point. To add to that they have a movement speed increase which make it harder to punish them when they over-extend. Add to that the fact that all these tank have some sort of damage reduction/negation and a good Mauga/Hog just never dies unless they get their healer cut off. Compare that to a 40% slow and knockback resistance. Doesn't seem really fair does it? Iniator, Tactician and Recon range from slightly overtune to "Wow this is broken, why can't i have that too?"

2 issue: They remove some skill espression.

Let's take for exemple the Tactician passive. Oh, you hold your ultimate for too long? Well now you are not as harshly punished as before! Isn't great? Now you can still hold to ult with the main drawn back being greatly reduce! Another thing is the iniator. Just like Bruiser, this passive make it so tanks can go further then should be allowed to because of the healing. It might seems little but even 10 hp can make a diffirence in a fight so regenarating 50 over 1 second definitly saved tanks that couldn't time their escape well enough. Same thing with survivor altought it's a lot weaker since the passive healing can get canceled easily. Medic is a worse offender of this. Let's take Kiri for exemple. As a Kiri when you get low you have to make a choice, either hide and stop helping your team or continue helping and risk death. That choice (that is also present in other Medics like Moira and Lifeweaver) is part of their skill expression but now they can just continue healing their as they would get heal too.

3 issue: They negate some weakness the Hereos had.

Let's take Sharpshooter. The one weakness of these characters are that their movement are limited while they are relatively fragile so when they used their one escape cooldown they were free for that duration of time but now with sharpshooter they can get it back faster. Now this isn't as bad as you have to deal critical damage so it kinda reward skill but you can also just farm the tank so yeah. Another exemple is for Recon, all the Characters in recon are very loud in one way or another so when you lost your target finding them would hard as they hear you coming from a mile away but now you can easily track them for five whole second. 5!!! Passive regeneration kicks in after 6 so you can pin them and now all your team know exactly where this half hp character is for five second just because you damaged them.

All in all the Sub role have issues but are they necessairly bad for the game? Well yeah kinda, like i explained but they aren't all evil. It does help new players and rewards them for using their tools correctly. As much as we smach Blizzard for rewarding basic buttons press we do need some of it and i think sub role are kinda like Kiri. A necessary evil that just has to be in the game for the casuals. We have bigger balacing issue right now anyway so no need to focus on that but still tell me what you think about the Sub role passive and if they are bad and should be remove or they are fine as they are and we should keep them.

So ever since the season 1 patch earlier this year, JQ has been seen as one of the worst tanks. A commonly cited reason is that she really needed the headshot dmg reduction, however there’s no way taking that away damaged her THAT badly.

Since season 1 she’s received more healing on her passive and a shorter cooldown on shout (maybe more changed too but I only remember those). Those changes alone should’ve buffed her a ton but I guess it didn’t. So can somebody tell me why she’s apparently so bad when a year ago she was considered pretty decent? I’m not being sarcastic either lol please educate me

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I know I know, junkrat is terrible, a throw pick, high skill, etc. I just CANT win against this guy for the life of me, and high diamond is infested with junkrat otps nowadays.
I just played against 3 different junkrats in a row, and even the game i won was terrible to play in, you just have to hope nobody gets mind controlled into walking into tight spaces where he lurks and one shots you, or accidentally hits you with a cross map spam. I play fdps so as tracer im basically just hoping my team shoots at him because i cant stay near him longer than 2 seconds or he will (most likely) hit a shift mine and force recall. GM games are nine times easier than these junkfest diamond games and in gm he just gets destroyed because everyone hits their shots or knows not to peek his house of horrors.

Its TM vs Risk, 1234 vs Peps, Liquid vs Kafe, and Dallas vs SSG.

My opinion? I think Risk and Peps are losing, and that Risk gets knocked out of worlds. While NA. I THINK it'll be Kafe that misses worlds. But I wouldnt mind SSG losing out too.

For those of you who are nerdy enough to review your replays, what is your usual methodology of review? Do you just look at the game again from your own point of view and try to identify your mistakes? Do you look through a neutral third person viewpoint? Or something else?

I will usually use a distant third person camera, so I can see the battle as a whole, but I'm not sure if that's an optimal way to learn and improve.

I feel like this hero is actually pretty solid right now. Her winrates seem to suggest that she's among the worst tank heroes in the game, but having played her a little and watched recent pro PoVs, I think she's a situationally quite good. It seems like every pro tank is breaking her out in certain contexts.

She has a very interesting dynamic where she can adapt to the amount of resources she gets better than almost all other tank heroes. She can operate decently as a low-resource tank, but unlike the other options in that niche, she can anchor the frontline well. With the meta being pretty fast paced, it makes her pretty solid on linear maps where fights start front-to-back, but can devolve to a point where trading backlines becomes an option. She does seem to be quite bad on maps where the enemy backline can easily out-rotate her, though.

The hero seems quite strong situationally, but unlike a lot of situational heroes, she has one of the highest pickrates of any tank in ranked. Also while she can be a bit of a turret, she does have decent mechanical skill expression for a tank and her value scales well when you're focusing your resources on squishies rather than the enemy tank.

This Junbin PoV highlights that to the extreme. He basically gets to spend the entire round gatekeeping the enemy backline without needing much help from his team. She seems to have earned a real spot on some maps. I've seen quite a few PoVs of Orisa swaps on Paraiso 3rd and she was getting a lot of play time on Grimsvotn and Neon Junction.

Bernar seems to play her the most, sometimes seemingly forcing her on maps she's not ideal. I think it does make sense for him though because Zeta has really adopted a "5 duelists" playstyle with their current roster. Orisa (like some of his other picks) doesn't need constant attention from his supports which opens up Shu and Viol2t to hunt for picks.

Is this what healthy Orisa looks like?

One of the first orgs to believe in OWCS, they may have only stayed for the first year but they helped to provide the foundation where orgs like VP and Geekay now stand. You’ll always be a part of Overwatch Esports history, and you will always be champions. Ez 4 ENCE.

From @OW_Esports

Hola a todos ✨ Ando investigando sobre nuestra experiencia con la toxicidad en los juegos y necesito su ayuda urgente. Ya completé la cuota de 102 personas en League of Legends, pero en Valorant, Overwatch, Marvel Rivals y Apex Legends tengo menos de 10 respuestas. Y sigo en 0 en eSports.

Si le dan a alguno de esos títulos, ¿me ayudan respondiendo la encuesta? Es cortita y de verdad me ayudarían un montón a avanzar. ❤️

Link 🔗: https://tally.so/r/MeYkX0

OJO: Esta investigación ES SIN FINES DE LUCRO.

PD: Cualquier duda ❓ o consulta con respecto a la investigación me la pueden hacer en los comentarios. Me alegraría responderlas. Muchas gracias 💖🥹

I was watching vods from last year. I miss it so much. I am sick of this fucking cat. D.mon everywhere. Doctrine is just a marvel rivals hero. Take me back to lucio kiri dva tracer sojourn. Please. It can be every map, I don't care anymore. I'll take symm even. Who asked for this? Who enjoys watching this, playing this? I used to scrim pretty regularly(low-mid adv) and becoming the cat player legit killed all enjoyment for me. It's so boring. There has been a clear shift to cater towards casual players, I think. Fucking chungus cat meow. And D.mon's still broken. 1000 years of kiri meta instead of this, please. I don't care anymore. I'll never complain again. I don't want variety if it's this. We had one week without this shithead cat and it was the most fun I've had watching the game all year. I feel like, in the past, when the game has had bad metas for ranked and unorganized play, scrims and watching pro meta felt like respite from all that. Now it's worse somehow. At least in ranked cat is banned every map. Doctrine is powercreep incarnate, I don't even know how you nerf him. How will he ever be worse than illari without her being OP, or him being especially weak? I really think dev team stretched themselves thin this year and I'm so worried for the future of this game competitively. I hope it changes. Sorry if this was incoherent.

I love this game so much and it's genuinely like deeply important to me, and has been for the last decade. The current state doesn't just feel like a bad meta, I've been through a decade of that on and off, it feels like it's incongruent with a competitive game. Would love to hear other thoughts.

I play a lot of mauga and it’s been incredibly hard to play him this patch. Factors such as the big nerf to his spread, projectiles size being halved from .04 to .02 and specifically kiri getting +25, orisa benefiting from the size buffs, have dropped him substantially.

Currently it is impossible to land shots at any target close range that isn’t a tank with both guns. Opting to single fire gun to anyone skinny point blank.

What I’m aiming to understand is, how big was the ammo size nerf for mauga, or how much is placebo. Thank you :)

After watching Zeta vs cr yesterday. I realised that the top 4 arguably top 5 players of all time, play for those teams.

My personal ranking is
1. Lip
2. Violet
3. Proper
4. Shu
5. Stalk3r

The top 4 are in my opinion unarguably the top 4, but interchangeable. I feel like it’s very difficult to rank because it has so many different things to take into consideration. But overall as players and achievements I feel it’s reasonable. Stalk3r is the only one, but he’s been consistently a top 5 player for many years with the achievements to back it up and being the most flexible player on the list

I’m a damage players that’s recently been learning tank and I’ve been pretty much playing only Winston having a blast but sometimes he feels really hard to get value from especially on flat maps or against comps with reaper, bastion etc so I want to pick up another tank to have as my back up but not sure who. I want them to be strong where Winston is weak so maybe ram or sigma? Let me know

So, as we know, Bernar, Viol2t, and Lip are going into military duty next year, and Shu MIGHT also join them.

With this, while Lip isnt really a functional loss to CR. Losing 3 would HURT Zeta Division.

Plus we have the potential for Falcons leaving for EMEA, however, with the Roster most likely to be taken by Falcons having missed Playoffs. I'm not as confident anymore.

So, what do you want to happen and what do you think will happen?

My Hope is that Zeta grab Attack, Leesoomin, and Maka. Although I think the most likely candidates will be Hanbin, Fielder, and Chiyo. Since Falcons doesn't seem like a well coached team anymore.

If Crusty can manage it, he will gladly take proven talent over potential talent. While still grabbing potential talent for the future. Hes a great coach to have for an Org that wants to last long.

I dont watch Japan and Pacific.

DSG and SSG are funny as hell.

TM is hardcarried by TVNT, Youbi and Fastro also have funny memes.

Zeta has Viol2t…

TL has Vega and Rupal.

AG has Mag

T1 has Bliss and Donghak(Donghak is funny as hell on Social media)

Falcons has Mer1t

VP has Landon.

Other teams dont have funnyness to them, or I find the jokes not funny.

Just curious, no wrong answers. there are a lot of heroes I see people want nerfed, but idk if they make sure the unfun heroes aren’t as good, I’m typically cool with it.

this isn’t about what actually is the strongest but what you think the game would be most fun with them as the strongest.

and it could be 5 v 5 and 6 v 6.

for me, I have a lot of fun playing sombra + zen or sombra + a good Lucio, but I know that’s not for everyone and probably not ideal for game health. but sombra, ana, echo/shion, soldier/Cassidy, with a winston tanking is fun. Maybe a zarya as the other tank in 6 v 6 for some double bubble shenanigans.

i play sombra tho so obviously biased

Now that VP and Geekay are out emea will be considerably weaker internationally. With symm out of the meta and cat being so dominant i dont think TM will be as good as it was before. This might be the chance for NA to place higher than Emea since stage 1 2025.

I'm so excited for the last Lan of the season, mainly because seeing some non partner teams at the event would be cool

Only one spot is guaranteed to be a non partner team, being either 1234 or risk but they could both make it if peps have a stinker at play offs

The kafe would be interesting, a rooster that's been together for a while defeating one of NA's giants isn't impossible but just not probable

Korea is where it gets interesting, realistically if cheeseburger can beat varrel they will make it to lan as the fourth seed in Asia, I think they can do it they have so much potential and fight

China is where I can't really say anything cause I don't watch it so much, but weibo loosing opens up possibilities in there playoffs for an upset as well

What do you think, and if a non partner team gets to pan what org will pick them up?

Edit cheeseburger have to beat a korea team (minimum) to qualify fuck

What the title says. I feel hitscans have been too easy to pick up and play since Season 9. I don’t think we should revert the hitscan changes. Hitscan’s main skill expression is aim, so it should be hard. Instead of walking it back, just bring overperforming flex DPS in line.

As for Genji, since he is complained about a lot. We need a nerf that impacts lower elo, where he has been performing well even before the buffs. But I do think he needs some help outside of that, this is the first patch in a while where Genji has a good winrate in high elo.

I am not going to comment on other heroes, because I don't play them and/or there isn't such a strong consensus that they are overperforming as there is for Genji.