Top 5 Most Common Overwatch Player Personalities and How They Affect Match Outcomes!

As with everything in life, there is always a small group of people who just want to watch the world burn. These players are the lowest of the low. Their lives in the real-world suck so bad that they have to drag the rest of us down with them. In fact, they seem to enjoy dragging people down. Now, bullies and trolls have the same goal, which is to ruin the game for the rest of us, but their methods of execution are different.

Bullies verbally rain down a never-ending barrage of constant criticism and negativity on other innocent players. Often, they have a trailing accomplice who adds to the assault and multiplies the damage.

Trolls ruin the game by intentionally playing poorly or by using gameplay sabotage. Some examples of troll behavior would be:

• Insta-locking a certain hero for the entirety of a match.
• Playing as an extra DPS, Tank or Healer in a way that doesn’t work with the team composition.
• Jumping off the map continuously or intentionally feeding.
• Going lone-wolf the entire match and not grouping up with the team.

Bullies and Trolls are an unfortunate part of Overwatch Competitive and having one or more on your team will most likely result in a loss because they usually break up a team’s focus, morale and cohesion.

The saying holds true, “Winners Never Quit and Quitters Never Win.” (Ted Turner). As it is clearly stated in the name used to describe these players, they throw and quit at the first sign of difficulty. They just give up and stop trying as soon as a match appears to have become more difficult. First, they tell everyone how the match is over, even though it isn’t. Then they proceed to stop trying and do nothing for the rest of the match. Sometimes they even rage quit, while continually restating that the game is over even before it has ended. They become dead weight to the entire team and can cause other players to stop trying, or rage quit as well. However, having a thrower or quitter on your team is not necessarily a lost cause. There are rare occasions where I have seen a team win a 5v6 match because the team was able to play around the Thrower / Quitter. However, working around them is a rarity and having a thrower on your team will likely result in a loss.

The Overly Competitive Player believes that they are a professional Overwatch player and that everyone else is obviously doing something wrong, when they start to lose. Their biggest flaw is their inability to accept responsibility for their shortcomings. They are often hot-headed and have a “Know It All” attitude. You can spot an Overly Competitive player when they state how they have X number of gold medals. As a result, they call out other players and accuse them of playing the wrong hero or just simply being bad at their particular role or the game entirely. Because of their behavior, Overly Competitive players can make or break a team. I would say there is a 50/50 chance that having an Overly Competitive player on your team will result in a win. Sometimes they can steer a team to a better composition, point out deficiencies and or motivate other players to perform, by applying a little pressure. However, the application of too much pressure and constant criticism directed at other players will lead to an ego battle that distracts the entire team from the match and directs their focus to the voice and text chat windows. When a team loses focus, due to an Overly Competitive player, the match will likely result in a loss.

Team players make up a large percentage of the people who play Overwatch Competitively. They are the best kind of teammates to have because they are polite, respectful and overall, just want to have fun. They are great for team morale and cohesion. Their ultimate goal is to win but not at the cost of disrespecting other players. If they lose, they don’t hold a grudge and move on to the next match. Team Players work with their team and do their best to work together with everyone on their team. They give compliments and meritoriously award other players credit for good gameplay. They politely suggest tips and hero changes that might result in a better composition and therefore a better outcome. And, they will often switch heroes to fill holes in the team composition when stubborn players refuse to do so. Therefore, the greater the number of Team Players you have on your team, the higher your chances will be for success.

You can’t speak to the Passive/Mute players because they have taken an oath of silence and refuse to communicate at all. These are the players that remain silent in both voice and text chat for the entirety of a match. Often, they don’t even join voice chat at the start of a match. Sometimes they break their oath and speak up at the end of the match and voice their opinions when it will no longer impact the outcome of the match. But for a majority of the time, you have no idea what they are thinking, seeing or doing. Like the Overly Competitive players, the Passive/Mute players can make or break a team. I would say you have a 50/50 chance of winning with Passive/Mute players on your team because there are two possible outcomes. The first outcome occurs when you establish a telepathic link with them and no longer require voice or text chat because you have achieved the next level of evolution in human communication. When this happens, even with the lack of communication, your team will just naturally work well together without saying a word. Therefore, establishing telepathic connections with Passive/Mute players will result in a win. However, the second outcome occurs if you fail to establish this telepathic connection, then the lack of communication will certainly impact your team’s ability to perform, due to the lack of callouts, therefore resulting in a loss.