I’ve been playing OW on and off since OW1 release and have a non-trivial amount of hours on almost every hero. Currently high diamond to high master in all three roles (not higher probably due to relatively poor aim, being heavily inebriated when playing and not putting in 100% effort).

More importantly, I’ve been a toxic player for a long time who has reformed the last year or so from bans and working on mental health.

I see a lot of frustration and anger in the questions and comments on this subreddit and wanted to share some advice and thoughts that have made my experience more enjoyable.

1. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say it at all. Criticism can be given in a friendly manner. If you want someone to swap, give a brief reason why and suggest an alternative to help that teammate succeed.

2. If you love this game but it makes your mental health worse, turn off all comms. You don’t need it if you are a team player. Half of GM lobbies are silent anyways. If that doesn’t work, take some time off.

3. Give your tank a break, there’s only one of them. Support them as much as you can. If you really are the god noob-stomper on DPS or Support you think you are, you will destroy the lobby even if your tank is just pressing W and dying nonstop (especially true below high diamond).

4. Playing “bad” heroes who need buffed isn’t a bad thing. Enjoy the game. But don’t be surprised Pikachu face when ranking up is harder on underpowered heroes. It’s the way of the game.

5. Just because you lost the first round or the first few team fights does not mean the game is over. I have literally won more than a dozen games that started with the first round with zero kills on my entire team. Keep your head up and understand that the game is winnable with the right attitude and swaps.

6. Swapping is sometimes a complex matter. Everyone and their brother knows the proper tank swaps. But how often do you swap support or DPS to better synergize with your tanks swap? Asking a single player to swap without considering the larger team composition and then blaming the player who didn’t swap for the loss is toxic and simple minded.

7. If swapping related issues are plaguing your games, I would recommend making sure you can play at least 3 heroes on each role. You’re gonna run into one tricks a lot and if you are really on that win-or-die grindset then you might have to suck it up and swap to support the one trick.

8. Finally, you will lose games. You will lose games when you do everything right and try your best. Losing is a part of the game. Say GG and go next.

This is truly a wonderful and unique game we have. Keeping our community positive is the best way we can maintain it.