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buff-pink · 4 years

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Overwatch Tip: Competitive Mode Advice For Beginners

Speaking of competitive mode...

I often get asked when I stream about tips on what to do when playing solo. I see a lot of people say they just plain stopped because it’s too stressful or they experience the same things they see me experience (when I bother streaming it) in low ranks. It doesn’t stop me, though, and I don’t think it should stop others either.

Here’s a bit of advice and encouragement:

1. Ranked is not for everyone. You either like the competition, and have the mindset for it, or you don’t. If you’re not having fun, and/or absolutely hate losing to the point that it causes you anxiety and stress, I recommend taking a break from comp mode and playing another mode, or another game. There’s nothing wrong with that. Competition should be fun and you should go into it with confidence and humility, so try it again when you feel ready.

2. Practice, practice, practice. If you want to see improvement in your ability, play consistently! Watch how higher rank players play, read their guides, post in forums/discords for advice. Get your VODs reviewed. An important skill to have in competition is to be aware of, notice, and own your strengths and weaknesses. Most importantly, remember you are never done learning.

3. Be a good sport. Read up on ‘the pygmalion effect’ - which essentially is a phenomenon where, if you’re surrounded by people who give good vibes, you are likely to perform better and have more synergy. It puts you in a positive mindset and believe me, it works. Matches where all my teammates and opponents are in good moods and sincere about their compliments always end better, and even if I’m on the losing side, I still have a sense of satisfaction because it was a mutually friendly game. It feels like I lost fair and square, and I want to congratulate the opponents and praise my team for putting in their best efforts.

Likewise, though, if you’re surrounded by bad vibes and pessimistic teammates, or rude opponents, you are likely to perform worse - though, paradoxically, there are occasions where the adversity makes you want to do better and it has the opposite effect. The thing is that doesn’t rub off on all six teammates, and you need everyone’s cooperation, so that’s meaningless in a lot of situations. I’ve had matches where I’m so tilted by my teammates’ pessimistic comments, I see no point in trying, and put in much less effort into those matches. I want to get out of them as fast as possible, even if it costs me the win. Why bother if I need my team’s cooperation, and my Ana just promised she was done healing one of the DPS because they won’t switch?

In other words, sometimes it’s not about winning or losing, but the sportsmanship between the players, that makes a comp match enjoyable.

4. Report bad behavior. This is a huge one. If you want more fair, positive games, report those who are disrupting that. Make sure to explain why you made the report. For example, if someone appears to be uncooperative, admits to throwing on purpose, or claims they’re ‘deranking’, that’s gameplay sabotage. If they use racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, or otherwise rude and inappropriate language, that is abusive chat - specifying that it’s any of the above in the report helps raise its priority, so don’t forget to do so. (Those are the two most common offenses and usually the only two I ever see, and I try to report them whenever I can)

Another one I get a lot is spam - sometimes, after matches, rude players (and sometimes entire groups) send me tons of friend requests at once and it disrupts my ability to type in chat, because accidentally hitting the Y key will accept the request, then they blow up my whispers with more rude messages until I can unfriend/block them. That’s an example of spam. You can block these players, then report them, because they probably do this often.

Blizz mods can see and hear everything that goes on and will act upon reports as necessary, whether the player is suspended/banned from comp mode, blocked from typing in chat, or just banned from the game altogether. They even thank you for the reports!

Our lord and savior, Jeff Kaplan, wants games to be as fair and enjoyable for everyone as they can possibly be(or so he says), and reports help the mods take out the trash.

5. Your rank is not an accurate measurement of your true skill. Some people trapped in the Silver or Gold rank are actually skilled enough to be on a team with Diamond or Master players, but get mistaken for smurfs because they haven’t finished climbing to their rightful rank. Some players (like me) play for years, but can’t climb out of their rank alone because factors other than the game itself cause difficulties - whether it be irl issues, inconsistent playing, or ending up on a team without synergy. Solo queue is very unfair to all six players almost half of the time.

The truth is the elo scale becomes a meaningless system when the playerbase becomes so drowned out by players who either don’t take their matches seriously, or actively disrupt them. It becomes easy to get trapped in what they like to call ‘elo hell’. This is to say that you shouldn’t be discouraged if it takes you a while to climb alone, because there are more things working against an average player than it seems - after all, you have to compete with millions of players of highly varying skill levels in the rank you might be in.

For some perspective, check this article out about the percentages of players in each rank. It doesn’t validate what I said above, but it helps to see the numbers with that context in mind. Don’t give up or let your SR get you down!

On that note, experience doesn’t equal skill. As someone with 2000+ hours of experience, I often get bullied because I have a ‘plat border’ but I fluctuate in rank between silver and gold. If you have thousands of hours, you’ve probably heard something like ‘lol ur a gold/plat/diamond border, what r u doing in this rank, obviously u suck’. They’re implying that every single player with that much experience should be masters or GMs.... and that’s honestly comedic. Everyone learns and improves at different paces. Don’t let that eboy get you down because you haven’t reached your fullest potential - and even if your potential isn’t that high a rank, just consider how irrelevant that number or rank is because the bottom line is when you play solo, you’re playing with 5 unpredictable strangers, and you can’t always control the outcome of that.

Uhhhh -twirls hair- I think that’s all for now, but I hope that’s substantial and makes even one person reading it feel a little encouraged.

Thanks for reading! (I have more guides btw, like outdated Zarya guides and stuff about mouse dpi)

#overwatch #competitive #overwatch guide

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ambersky0319 · 5 years

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Amber Rambles about a Story-

So I wanna ramble about an original story, the ideas I have for it, the characters, the world in general and the one person in my house that would listen and give good feedback or ideas and knows the basics of what I have planned is currently asleep so

There's a lot here oof-

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So to start off I wanna scratch the surface that is the world before I delve into the characters

The story(from what I have planned it'll take place over 11 books) takes place mainly on an alternate-earth that is more dystopian/sci-fi ish and an original fantasy world I've been calling Fandahli. The first part of the first book takes place in Fandahli, and the second and third parts on this alternate-earth.

The earth is basically unified, most people speaking a new language just known as Emor(basically English under a different name). Technological advances have come to a stop, or so it would seem. The world is pretty much American culture having taken over media, erasing other cultures, etc. They now call themselves Emorians. Not a good place to be.

They had created an organization about twenty-five years before the story takes place, at the time called Prosper, but later it renamed itself as Tempest. The organization was less of that and more like a government experiment, combining animal genes into the genes of humans in a certain way to create the 'ultimate human'. Originally, the Emorians created them to keep everyone in line. These humans were trained to be assassins without the government's knowing however and it wasn't long before Emorian officials began to disappear.

Now Fandahli! Fandahli is a world that's very similar to Earth, but is held together by magic(in this universe, Earth also technically has magic but it's very little/very weak and has been dormant for so long it's been forgotten). It was created by four Cinomeds, powerful beings that have powers no one still on Fandahli has. These four are: Rikki, Angel, Serranidae, and Aki.

Along with that, the most two important continents on Fandahli are Vola and Tione.

After the War of Cinomeds, where Angel rebelled against her companions, the land was pretty much destroyed. But portals to other worlds remained open and the land healed. Humans then arrived after discovering one of the portals, but soon after the portals all closed once more, trapping them there. The humans adapted, gaining magic to help them survive, and changed their name to Dalis.

The Dalis split over the different continents, and then into different kingdoms, and grew from there. The main kingdom focused on is Tongyi, located within Vola. It remains spring there no matter the time of year.

The powers of the Dalis vary, but usuaily end up being one of these:

Weapon-Creation

Barrier-Creation

Healing

Barrier creation and weapon creation can sometimes occur within the same Dali, though it isn't too common- but it's not rare either

Aside from Dalis, there are also Dragons. The dragon species vary on where on Tione they come from, or if they come from a different part of Fandahli. I'm still designing some of them.

And then there are the werewolves. Most werewolf villages are peaceful, and are respected by all Dali. It's believed to be a great dishonor to fight any werewolf village. I'm still developing the werewolves as well, I just know they play important roles within the story itself later on.

Back to Cinomeds cause I forgot an important detail!

After the War of Cinomeds(thought to be a war of gods by the Dali, they're also thought to just be legends), Angel was forcefully split apart. Her soul was torn and although Rikki(the one who defeated her) believed that she was gone for good, it seemed that she would just be reincarnated into two other people(Dalis for a long while, later encompassing both Fandahlian species and Humans) that when together could possibly turn into her. It was rare that any of the reincarnates actually met.

The other Cinomeds fell into a deep slumber until the portals would be reopened.

I feel I've rambled long enough about the world 😅 how about my babies next?

Evanna Mays

Evanna is a force to be reckoned with

The youngest queen to ever rule Tongyi, taking the throne soon after her (quite hated)mother's death. She took the throne midway through a war with another kingdom

Evanna herself is loved among her subjects, though many often try to tell her to do or not do certain things. Try to give her restrictions

Like don't fight on the front lines, have an heir if you're gonna do that, just stay on your throne, don't go to other kingdoms it's too dangerous

Each person fails

Especially whenever they bring up an heir, cause it's not like she doesn't like kids she just never wants to have a biological one

And she refuses to marry someone with a kid so they'd become her heir

She's Aro/Ace if ya didn't catch on

Her family all has bright red hair and pastel blue eyes. They're the only ones in all of Vola with these traits and are quite recognizeable.

She later adopts and people get off her case about having an heir because he is her son just not her biological son but that changes nothing cause she loves him and will fight anyone who thinks he's not fit for the throne

Dani Mays

The adopted son

He's just like Evanna, rushing into battle, and citizens of Tongyi just panic because oh fuck he's gonna die he's more reckless than her-

Very social but people treat him so differently cause he's the prince that he can't seem to make any friends and he h a t e s that

Then two humans come into his life and he is very very bi

Queue a whole love-triangle subplot that goes well

Dani adores reading and learning overall, spending hours in Evanna's old study

Becomes King far sooner than he had wanted

Life goes to hell not long after coronation and he suffers from depression and nothing's good for anyone during this time

Does he get a happy ending? Who knows

He doesn't

Oh also he's a biromantic asexual boi and proud

Leona Carter

Young woman with a troubled past, Leona is a very stubborn and apathetic human

Is a high-ranking member of Tempest

It was a last resort in a difficult situation and she's just glad her heart is still beating

Is pretty well-off so long as she follows orders

But if course she later joins a rebellion after becoming very gay for one of her targets that she now refuses to kill for other reasons

Slow burn subplot ensues

She nearly dies many times

95% of the time she does not care if she dies

Just wants a peaceful life

Does she ever get it?

Eventually, after losing something really important though

Marie Sydney

Marie had a decent life, great parents and an awesome protective older brother, and his new daughter

Yeah that all shattered after something happened to her and she was left to cope by herself cause she wasn't sure what to do about the situation

She just adopted a fifteen year old btw who has no idea about her situation

Then she meets Leona

She thinks Leona's great, but there's something off about this news reporter

And then Leona reveals her actual job and the original reason she ever asked Marie out and she's sobbing and a gun is in her hand but she's placing it in Marie's and begging for Marie to pull the trigger

Turns out Marie was a target but Leona just can't kill Marie, not knowing what's happened to Marie nor what could happen now that the two grew close. But Leona's incapable of taking her own life

Marie doesn't pull the trigger

Life somehow gets worse as she's tangled up in this whole Tempest bullshit

Falls for Leona in the process and is very conflicted about it

Taylor Sydney

Adopted by Marie at 15

Her life's pretty normal until a portal is discovered and when she's a high school senior her class is forced to learn about Vola and Tongyi specifically. They eventually go to Tongyi through the portal

Turns out her Mom and Leona know the queen of Tongyi cause things have happened

Meets Dani and Jeremiah

They find out they can form Angel and that's when shit really goes down

Things happen, love confessions made, near death experiences, loves drifting apart, etc. etc.

Doesn't have a happy ending

Jeremiah Canales

My trans boi

I love him, he gets mistaken for Evanna's son quite a lot, usually by humans

He identifies as pan, and doesn't experience dysphoria. Oh and he was a Tempest Engineer for awhile

His family was pretty accepting of him once he reconnected with them(originally drifted apart cause of reasons I have yet to create)

Is pretty much the only braincell Angel has when formed

He feels really, really guilty that weapons he created were used to kill dozens of people and somehow equates that to him killing them even if he was forced to make the weapons

Oh and Deathstriker(highest ranking member of Tempest) uses his Tempest name and despite being absolutely awful in every way refuses to deadname or misgender him

It's the one thing he'll ever appreciate Deathstriker doing

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This ain't even all the characters(obviously). There's still Kord Sydney, Chloe Jansen, and Neva Sydney, all of whom are still being developed. Deathstriker, and all the Cinomeds. Past Angels that will be relevant at different parts of the story. And many other characters that I've never even mentioned in the past.

Anywho fair warning, the series does not end quite that happily. I'm hoping to make the last chapter(an epilogue) to have a bittersweet feeling but idk I'm debating it.

Anyway if you got this far....

Thanks? I think? Idk I've never had anyone get this far I think in any original thing I've ever made- if you got this far tho here's some hearts cause I love you for taking some sort of interest in my personal creations 😅

💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤💘💞💖💕💓💗❤

#cinomed chronicles #ambersky ocs #ambersky #ambersky oc #ambersky original writing #original content #rambling #if anyone ever has any questions about this story #i will literally cry #and gladly answer through my tears and love you forever #but i doubt anyone will XD #yall are here for the gay fanfic #not my gonna-be-angsty confusing original story

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itsohh · 7 years

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Cariño Part 2

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A/N: I had some time at school before my production and thought I would upload. Feel free to request stuff btw.

Summary: Reader settles into Talon and does a mission with Reaper

Word count: 2107

Warnings: Possible swearing, and violence. Smut will be in the part. Possibly worse. You have been warned.

Master list Part One Part Three

Gasping you awoke in the middle of a hospital bed, perhaps it was all a dream, maybe you would turn and see Angela standing there ready to explain how they came and found you. But when you turned to your side it wasn't Angela you saw, it was him. He definitely was attractive even though his entire body was covered. It was strange you had just met the guy but you felt like you had known him for so much longer and you automatically felt so comfortable and safe around him. "Ugh remind me not to drink so much." You joked which earned you a deep chuckle from the man, barely loud enough for you to hear. "So um, uh. What happens now, like I'm pretty sure I've been in there for a hella long time. Is um Overwatch like still a thing or like?" "You have missed a lot. It would just be easier if Sombra explained." He told you and on queue, Sombra skipped into the room. "Good to see your still alive." She sang before sitting on the edge of the bed. She pulled up a small timeline of everything that happened, video clips and news articles which went along until you took control for a second and pulled up some news footage.

"Tragedy struck today here in the Overwatch Switzerland-based HQ where a massive explosion has claimed the lives of Strike Commander Jack Morrison of Overwatch and suspended agent Gabriel Reyes. While their bodies have not been found it is confirmed that they were indeed in the explosion and there is no possible way that they could survive." Sombra looked up at you to see the tears pricking at your eyes as you covered your mouth with one hand and she turned it off. "No, no, no." Was all you whispered as the tears escaped and rolled down your face. Your breaths were unsteady as you held yourself, grieving for the loss of your partner. "You close with them?" Sombra asked and you made eye contact with her, trying to stop your tears while you were sniffed them away. "I love him, I always will." "Jack?" You snorted at her question. "Gabriel." After that day you caught up fully on everything and soon joined Talon even though there was the Overwatch recall. After all, they did abandon you there, like hell you were going back. You worked well with Reaper and couldn't deny that you were attracted to him however you were so conflicted, you felt like you were falling in love with Reaper but you also had Gabriel and your love towards Gabe would always be so strong. You trained with Reaper to try and get you back into the shape you were in before what happened. You were too caught up in your own thoughts so when you felt yourself pinned under Reaper it was a large shock to you. "Dead." He spoke before getting off you and helping you back up. "Something's on your mind. It's distracting you. What is it?" He bluntly asked and you frowned. "Sorry, I've been thinking about what happened and I just don't understand why no one went after me. I mean they went to Kings Row anyway and Gabriel knew exactly where I was going, so why did they just dump me there. I knew I was expendable to them but I guess I didn't know how much. Like I should have known with Jack but I-I thought Gabe cared." At the end, your voice was just a whisper. "I guess that sounds kinda pathetic." You then added before getting in a defensive stance. "Use that." He spoke and you looked up at Reaper. "Use that emotion, turn it into anger and use it fight." "Why do you work for Talon, Reaper?" You asked taking a jab on the left side of him. "They have resources." You eyebrows raised, you hadn't expected him to answer honestly. "Why do you need resources?" "Revenge." He almost brought you down however you dived to the side and then collected yourself again. "Ooo, who against?" A small smiled was placed on your face as you blocked Reapers attack. "Overwatch." You hadn't been expecting that answer. "Does that include me?" You wondered out loud. "I have no reason to hate you. If anyone could understand it would actually probably be you." "What did they do which makes you hate them so much?" "Where do I start?" Reaper joked. That's something that didn't happen that often. "They turned me into this thing if you want a quick answer." He grunted as you caught his arm and twisted it to the side. However, he had been expecting this and countered you giving the advantage he needed and pinned you down on the ground again. You just lay there under him, puffing as he kept you still. "Why did you save me?" "What they did was inhumane and Overwatch never should have left you there." "How did you know what was-" "They documented it all. There were videos." "Oh. Gross."

It had been about three months since you joined Talon and about a month since you started doing missions again. You had become rather close with Reaper, Widowmaker and Sombra. Sombra was your best friend now, someone who brought light in the gloomy place. It was hard for you to get past what was done to Amelia but you eventually moved past it and she soon became close to you. You never really did get to know her in Overwatch so it was nice to get to know her now. Reaper, you had a strange relationship with him, the pair of you liked to be close but at the same time, you were both distancing yourself. It was also pretty hard that he reminded you so much of Gabriel. Sometimes it was hard for you, how could you move on when you were being constantly reminded of something?

You were on a mission with the group of them, you all had become a small squad. Sombra had gone in ahead of the rest of you while Widow covered from behind. You and Reaper were together and slowly entered the building without notifying the place. However, things didn't go to plan when the alarm went off. "Sombra." Reaper hissed into the intercom. "I stopped us from tripping the alarm." "It was someone else." You realized out loud. A large group of armed men came your way. You scanned the area for a hiding spot but gasped when felt Reapers arm snake around your waist. Before you could speak it happened, your body turned into smoke before reappearing after the men passed. Coughing you turned to Reaper who stopped you from talking, "later." However, his efforts were for naught when you were soon found immediately. It wasn't the guards though. It was the people who also infiltrated the facility, Overwatch. A gunshot whizzed past your head and you looked over to see an old woman with a sniper rifle at the top of the building. Widow was at the other side of the grounds so you highly doubted she would be able to get the woman. "Ana, she's switched to bullets most likely to do damage against me." Reaper started running with you to get to cover, but the pair of you went different ways. She could only shoot you one at a time. "Regroup at Widows location." Reaper instructed as you ran back into the facility away from Ana. As soon as Ana was out of range you were knocked to the ground by a large muscular man. By using the momentum he had created you grabbed him and smashed his face into the ground. You picked yourself up and automatically went into the defensive position while he got up and ripped his now broken visor off his face. He paused as the pair of you made eye contact. "Agent." He spoke with a voice you could never forget. Jack Morrison. You heard Reaper in your ear again. "Did you copy instructions? Regroup at Widowmakers location. He asked, you were kinda busy. "Noted." You muttered to him as Jack took a step forward. "Did Talon take you?" He asked. "They saved me." "Saved you? You saw what the did to Am-" "You left me to fucking die! I was tortured I was experimented on and you never even fucking tried to find me. Talon took me away from that. Gave me my life back." You hissed at him, anger boiling in you. He grunted and raised his gun and you dodged the rockets he fired at you which smashed into the wall behind you. He didn't care, he was trying to distract you. The large bulletproof coat you wore stopped any casual singular bullets which came at you, however, there was only so much your coat could take. You noticed Reinhardt swinging his hammer towards you. You rolled to the side but at your side so you felt a sharp pain in your side which cause you gasp out. You were outnumbered and overpowered. "Report." Reaper spoke in your ear. "Leave me, go and finish the mission." You replied, there was no point in coming back for you. "I'm not leaving you behind again." He growled back before the com went silent. Again? Ignoring the pain in your side you ran into a side room and slammed the door close. Normally you would have gone in the vents but there was no way you could hoist yourself up with your injury. There was only so much time before Reinhardt's hammer would break through the metal door. However, there was another door at the other side of the room but you knew you weren't in the shape to outrun them. Blood continued to flow from your wound which you used to your advantage and created a trail outside of the door. Then you managed to stop the trail for a few meters as you walked behind the desk on the left side which stretched across the entire room. You held your breath as the door was smashed open and Jack ran through, what was his name he used? Soldier 76. He was followed by Reinhart who fell for the false trail and pause when it finished. “Split up, she injured and won’t be able to fight.” He spoke before the pair ran off down the fork in the path. However, you soon heard more footsteps, heavy footsteps. Had Solider come back? Did he realize? You raised your two pistols towards the sound and let out a sigh of relief when Reaper was in front of you. He crouched down and examined your wound, the blood kept forming around and was slowly pooling on the floor around you. “Take your jacket and shirt off.” He instructed, you did as he told, wincing when you had to lift your arms. He took your partly bloody shirt and ripped it in half before wrapping it around the wound. He tied it tightly around your abdomen where the bullet had hit. Ana had probably switched from her usual gun as they weren't as effective on Reaper. You put your jacket back on, now only in a black bra and your jeans. He gently helped you off the group before picking you up in a bridal state. “You shoot, I’ll move.” He told you which you responded with a nod. “The others have gone on and finished the mission and have left already. We are on our own but there is a safe house not too far away from here. The chopper left behind a bike, do you think you can ride it?” He asked as you turned the corner and immediately shot the three guards which were running towards you. “With your arms around me, I could do anything.” You smiled weakly. “Yeah but I don’t think I'll be able to hang onto you from behind.” You then added in more seriously. The pair of you had eventually got to the bike and then the safehouse however by the time Reaper opened the door you had nearly passed out, your vision was hazy and you couldn’t hold on your guns any longer. Reaper placed you on top of the metal table in the middle of the kitchen. He had taken off his gauntlets before disappearing for a minute and reappearing. He had taken off his mask and robe and had a white box in his hands. You tried to focus on his face to see what he looked like but failed as your vision finally failed.

#reaper x reader #reader x reaper #gabriel reyes #gabriel imagine #gabriel x reader #reader x gabriel #reaper imagine #overwatch #overwatch imagine #talon

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