Overwatch, like many other competitive multiplayer games before it, has earned a reputation for having a toxic community. This player experienced it firsthand but was quickly taken aback by an unexpected display of sportsmanship soon after.
How Baptiste, Brigitte, Genji, And Other Overwatch Heroes Got Made
According to GameRant, Reddit user zzzzzzzztuo was left alone during a competitive Overwatch game after all five teammates left mid-match. The player, who was playing Mercy, was basically stuck with a non-damage-dealing character against a full stack of opponents. It was 1v6 with no hope of winning.
But in an incredible display of sportsmanship, all of the players on the opposing team basically let the Mercy win during the overtime attack round. All they did was get out of the spawn, let the lone Mercy escort the payload through the map, and move enough not to get kicked out of the game due to inactivity.
A video of the encounter was posted on the Overwatch subreddit, which has now earned over 3k upvotes and over a hundred comments at the time of this writing:
In response to what the opposing team did, zzzzzzzztuo gave the enemy team's Genji props for landing the Play of the Game with a 4-kill Dragonblade spree. As per the original GameRant report, that big blast may have been the catalyst for the Redditor's teammates to quit early, leaving them alone to fend for themselves.
The reception to zzzzzzzztuo's experience seemed to be of pure awe, based on the comments.
One user commented that they'd been left solo in competitive Overwatch games, with the opponents still fighting against them like they're a complete team. They commented on how rare this situation can get in the popular Activision Blizzard shooter, considering the alleged current state of its community.
Read also: 'Elden Ring' Player Beats The Game Using Only... His Bum
Overwatch And Its 'Leaver' Issues
The long-running Activision Blizzard hero shooter has had problems with "leavers" (players who quit mid-match) for years. This type of negative player behavior is extremely detrimental to their teammates, which is why players have been clamoring for an official solution for so long. Among these is backfilling and how it still isn't being widely used throughout the game.
In a comment on a Reddit post last year (reported by Dexerto), Overwatch dev Scott Mercer mentioned how a certain "fix" for leavers called "backfilling" wasn't being implemented. Backfilling is a potential solution which involves quickly replacing a player who leaves mid-match with somebody else queuing for a game on the server.
According to Mercer, backfilling was never considered as a fix for leavers because of two reasons. One, a player who gets backfilled right before a match ends may not end up happy with it. Two, Activision Blizzard believes it could "encourage" people to throw matches or act like d***s in-game, especially if it's implemented with no effect on their SR (rank).
Either way, there is an official penalty system in place for leavers on Overwatch. According to a post on Battle.net, the basic penalty is a 75% decrease to all XP gain (if players leave shortly before a "Victory" or "Defeat" screen.
As for competitive Overwatch games, the penalties are more severe. First, you lose some SR and get demoted in rank. Second, you're prevented from joining another game until the match you left is finished. Third, people who leave "at any point before the "Match Complete" screen will get a 75% XP penalty, a temporary ban from competitive play, or even a full season ban if you're a naughty, naughty kid.
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Story posted on GameNGuide
Written by RJ Pierce