Dear everyone in the Heroes of the Storm community,
We need to talk.
You’re probably wondering why I’ve gathered you all here today. No, it’s not about that time you played Vikings in ARAM, although that probably needs its own discussion. There’s been some strange behavior floating around the game for a while, and it’s time we got to the bottom of it. A few things have been bothering me recently: why do people draft dodge? Why did I write that book report on the Dark Nexus event comics? And why, oh why, do so many of us feel the need to say GG and mentally write off a match at the very beginning?
(Author’s note: From here on out, when I say “teammates”, I’m referring to the random folks matchmaking gifts you, not your actual NGS teammates. If your NGS teammates are saying GG to you at the beginning of a match, you have bigger issues than my silly little article can solve.)
Team Composition
I suppose there are several reasons why someone might think that the match is already lost and feel the need to convey it to their teammates in a rather rude way. The most frequent one that I’ve seen is team composition: one of your teammates thinks that you, or someone else on the team, chose the wrong hero for the situation. This usually happens either at spawn in a QM or ARAM game or at the end of a draft in SL. Sometimes people think that the entire team composition is a bad idea–never mind that this could be due to matchmaking’s wacky ideas of what forms a viable team comp–but more frequently, folks disagree with one specific hero choice and/or are upset that they didn’t get to play the hero or role that they wanted.
A good way to counter this sort of sentiment is to be communicative and proactive in draft or at the beginning of a QM. If you’re picking someone that might be seen as nontraditional for the map or situation, show your pick early and explain your thoughts. For example, if I was dead-set on going Murky on Garden of Terror (don’t @ me, it’s his best map), I could explain to my teammates that I planned to solo lane and take/steal camps while coming back to the team for the objective. Your teammates may still not agree with you, but at least you’ve explained your strategy and it’s obvious that you’re not throwing.
Look, I get it: when you play with me, if you don’t let me heal or play Murky, you’re basically throwing. Obviously I’m joking (somewhat), but if someone is hell-bent on playing a particular character or role, sometimes all you can do is work around them as best you can. Even if you think that the match is a write-off because of everyone’s hero picks, instead of informing everyone of this at the beginning and making life harder for your teammates, why not just try to play instead? I’ve won with some weird and wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) team comps in all modes.
Even if you don’t think your comp is viable, you truly never know what will work, especially if you’re playing with randoms. Genji might be awful in the meta right now, but MegaPeen69 could be an absolute god. In my experience, playing heroes you know and are comfortable with is almost always better than trying to reach for whatever the meta is at the time. Instead of accepting that the next 15-30 minutes will be a waste of time, at least try. It makes the game more fun for everyone, including you.
Something Bad Happens Right at the Beginning
Mistakes happen. Bad coordination happens. Sometimes you lose a fort within the first two or three minutes of the game. One of your teammates–usually one who’s dead–will type those two angry letters into team chat, and sometimes an argument will break out about whose fault it is. This is usually the point at which I mute everyone.
Personally, I think a premature fort destruction is the least likely event on this list to result in an actual lost game. Sometimes someone oversteps or makes a mistake and the other team takes advantage of it, or you just got unlucky and there’s (what used to be called) a specialist on the other team who was allowed to push unimpeded. Thanks to the changes that were made to towers, there are more ways for the defending team to pick off a few people, even if the fort itself is lost. Plenty of teams have gone on to win after losing a fort or even two near the beginning of the game.
Another no-fun situation is when someone dies in the initial mid fight or within the first 30 seconds of a game. Maybe you got overenthusiastic and went too far in, or went on an ill-advised chase, or your healer left you stranded, or you simply got CC’d. There’s a myriad of reasons why you or someone on your team might die this quickly, and I’m sure you’re all very familiar with them.
Someone getting killed in this initial fight doesn’t necessarily mean that your team sucks. I was actually curious if my team (of randoms) was more likely to lose if one of us got killed in the first minute or so of the game, so for a few days, I paid attention to whether that was the case. I don’t have any hard data, but to me it felt as though it had no impact on who actually won. This is probably because teams made up of 5 singles generally aren’t coordinated enough to really take advantage of an early kill (at least not in Platinum, where I am). I think it’s safe to say that this has little to no impact on the rest of the game. Sometimes it’s symptomatic of a dumb teammate, but sometimes it’s a genuine mistake.
Someone Disconnects
There’s not much I can say here. This one’s just shit luck. Sometimes your teammate will come back, but sometimes they won’t. Sometimes the entire team forgets to ping the bot and it just dances in spawn for 10 minutes while everyone dies a horrible death. It stings the most in SL because you’ll probably lose rank for something that’s not your fault, but hey–it’s just one game. If it tilts you that much, you probably need to go to bed or eat something that’s not fried. In most cases, disconnects and the resulting losses are no one’s fault, so don’t report the leaver for lag or a bad connection (unless they GG’d and left, in which case, most definitely report them).
And you know what? I’ve won games with bots before. It doesn’t happen often, but man, do you feel great when it does. “I am a Heroes god,” I whisper to myself as I rise to Gold 1. Chase that drug-like high and at least give the match a chance.
If all this isn’t enough to convince you not to GG at the beginning of a match, then I’m not sure what else I can say. Be a nicer person? Even if something bad happens at the start of your 20-minute odyssey, it’s not over until the fat Stitches sings. I like to think that admitting your defeat before the match is over, especially if it could obviously still go either way, actually jinxes you to win, so go ahead. Tell me how awful we are and that we’re certainly going to lose, and that this match is no longer worth your time. Honestly, we probably shouldn’t even take these folks and their GGs seriously. It’s strange that we as gamers have made these simple letters into such a big deal, but really, the best thing to do is ignore them. Pretend GG stands for Great Gamer. That way it sounds like they’re giving you the complement you deserve.