Hi. This is something that sort of hit me while watching a recent video of Apply getting coached on his Rein by Flats. Obviously Flats is an experienced Rein player that can offer a lot valuable advice but what caught my attention is just how much giving someone a stylistic direction to their play can be just as effective as giving them directly applicable gameplay advice. In this case Apply took a long flank route with his charge, leaving his backline potentially exposed to their Doom. Flats advice was to stay with the Doom to try to make his life more difficult instead of giving him his backline to him for free. Basically he told Apply to "bully him more, you're the one in control". Vague motivational words, right? But it stuck, something in Apply's head clicked in that moment and I'm sure that's the bit he'll remember for next time something like that happens. I was watching that thinking, "that's exactly the type of bs I look for when learning a new hero".

I don't know how much others can relate to this or how real the weight of it is in teaching someone a concept but these little gameplay identity blurbs pretty much make or break my experience with picking up and mastering a character. I'll never forget my DVa player awakening moment. For most of early Overwatch, I didn't like DVa, I didn't get what was fun about playing her at all. I was watching Jayne's coaching videos at the time, I thought his insight and way of teaching was easy to digest. One of his videos at the time (this must've been 2018 or something) was on a DVa player and he dropped this nugget of generational gameplay direction that stuck with me ever since. He said "DVa is like a firefighter, there's all these little fires happening all around you and it's in your ability & responsibility to deal with them all". I instantly got it, it just made sense. DVa has a high mobility tool with a low cd and a defensive skill that completely neutralizes most enemy heroes. You can deal with enemy dives, help your own team's dives, deal with snipers, eat big ults, etc. It's all about being situationally aware and making it there in time consistently. Over the next while of learning how to play this character, I was a firefighter, I was looking out for fires everywhere. Now that particular analogy doesn't hold up as well nowadays in 5v5 due to solo tanking saddling her with different responsibilities but the idea of her near-omnipresent gameplay direction is still alive and well in my mind if I decide to play the character today.

One of my biggest challenges in recent memory was picking up Widowmaker. The thing is I didn't pick her up for the first time. I've been playing Widow 1v1s in queue for fun. I find Widow 1v1s to be the most fun mirror match in the game and I enjoy the mind games. For years, that was my reason to pick Widow. If they had Widow, I mirrored her just to flex all those hours spent in Widow 1v1 lobbies. Outside of that, I didn't pick Widow ever. That's because every time I would kill their Widow, I proceeded to miss my every shot on everyone else. Despite her being my 3rd most played DPS overall, I never would've told anyone I'm a good Widowmaker. My whole gameplay identity was 1v1 their Widow and inshallah. Nothing seemed to improve my impact in other areas of the match. I learned all about refreshing angles, taking the easy shots, crosshair placement, flicking vs. tracking. I still felt the same despite all the added practice. In hindsight, it was all because I still perceived myself as the mirror 1v1 Widow, praying I hit at least a bodyshot on any other target. At that point, I recognized it's a mental approach problem and decided to one-trick her. Eliminating my only escape route, which was swapping off is what pushed me out of the rut. I started watching top ladder Widow one-tricks and a lot of them do grapple shots, take flank routes to pop up behind their backline, stuff I rarely every tried myself in my games. I decided to get arrogant and just go for it. Even if I didn't think I had it in me, I started taking hyper aggressive angles, taking grapple shots, going Widow 76 on their Sombra instead of running away, whatever. Suddenly, I'm hitting shots, stringing kills, flicks I still surprise myself with. Turns out, I had it me to not be a complete deadweight Widow in most games, I just needed the impulse to nudge me towards putting it in practice. My point is, the gameplay identity you give yourself can totally shape your performance in your games and in some cases, even limit you from applying yourself entirely.

I know it may almost sound like pseudoscience to some but picking up on these kind of specific character design traits and using them to give yourself a direction on how you conduct yourself in your games can make a big difference. You can fill your head with a bunch of mechanical tips and techs and edge case scenarios but once you have that backbone, that idea that anchors you, it all starts coming naturally. You'll start figuring out stuff for yourself much quicker because you know exactly what your set of goals is.

For example, I knew I wanted to be an Echo main even before I knew what her kit was from the moment I saw her zip around in the sky in that Overwatch 2 trailer cinematic. It looked so smooth. She's by far my favorite hero in the game and that's because that hero identity was incredibly well translated in-game. She's got fluid movement and high lethality as long as you don't forget yourself. My whole skeleton for playing Echo revolves around two keywords: nimble & streamlined. I made it a goal to use my mobility with purpose, never end up in a poor spot because of it and put real intent into every one of her abilities. You won't catch me taking my chances with reckless flight usage, trying to wing it in a duel. I will never play Echo like I'm Reaper in the backline because my vision of what Echo is, is already well-established and my gameloop is strung together by a few simple, surface-level ideas. No need to overcomplicate it past knowing what your gameplan allows you to do and not to do.

This can apply to anything you're trying to learn, really. I mostly played Ana as a support main back in my OW1 days but swapped over to DPS because of Echo. I had to first and foremost learn DPS macro because I felt like a fish out of water sometimes. I picked up advice on taking angles, pressuring backline, flank routes, blah blah blah. What tied it together for me was the idea I heard thrown around of "playing like a rat". Sneak around the flank like a filthy rodent, always shoot first, always blindside them, never take a fair duel. I've never looked back since and that very idea still guides my gameplay as a DPS player, no matter what hero I'm on. Loose macro concepts feel like a chore to arrange in your head on their own but we're all drawn sets of ideas we can align ourselves with. When you properly group them up and define them, it becomes way more palpable for you to internalize.

Many of you will think Mercy is a boring hero and don't see how anyone can endure playing her. I was in that boat before but I got one of my friends into Overwatch years ago and decided to play Mercy as a challenge of sorts, so I can keep my eye on him 24/7 and guide his play. I wasn't taking it too seriously at first but I got into it over time. Subconsciously, I took pride in learning her movement over time and making myself as hard to catch as possible. I was trying to be as obnoxious as I could be, not running from divers and instead pulling out my blaster on them to try and ego duel them, following my DPS into their backline, valking just to pistol their Ashe, even rezzing behind a wall made me feel exuberant. "Pesky Mercy player" is the identity I gave my play at the time to make it way more fun for myself than I ever thought it could be. That's where I feel certain heroes end up "clicking" with people while others "aren't for them". I believe any hero can be for you if you manage to figure out what your motivation on the hero is, and that can often be an abstract idea that isn't 100% dependent on gameplay mechanics, just vibes.

Finding the whimsy in any given hero is what kept the game fresh for me personally. I don't chase rank anymore, it's all about putting together a gameplay loop that I enjoy and work towards bringing it as close to the vision I got of it in my head as possible. I can't get into the flow of things if I'm not having a little fun with it. What are your thoughts on this? Is this valid at all? The first thing I tend to ask people who are really good at a hero I'm trying to learn is always their thought process. What do they think about generally? What's their goal? How do they like to use X ability? I have no real experience with coaching but the concept of gameplay identity has proven to be very effective for me personally in understanding a hero before I even picking up their kit or in some cases, way after picking it up.

I noticed that the twitch drops running currently go until the 24th but I checked the schedule and the playoffs ended on the 12th. Does this mean that it’s impossible to get the drops now?