Overwatch is an online multiplayer shooter game that relies heavily upon good team composition and communication. Without having a good sense of communication with your teammates as well as great composition you can not win in Overwatch, and although Blizzard has made that quite clear, there are still many players who do not understand, or just think they’re heroes and barge in all alone making their other teammates lose the game for something that isn’t their fault.
Bad teammates and toxicity are the biggest problems in Overwatch, especially at the lower levels of competition. From bronze to silver, the people you will be paired with will most likely be small children who have little to no skill and start swearing at you if you do not do what they want as if they themselves are carrying the team.
Overwatch has a reporting system to deal with any toxicity and abuse but it just doesn’t work properly. Most players that are reported face little to no punishment whereas players are banned quite rarely. Even in the higher levels toxicity is quite common as some players can not handle losing and take their frustration out on you. The only thing you can do to fight against this as of now is to just ignore it or fight them back.
Overwatch Endorsement System
Although the game does not have a great way of punishing the bad and toxic players, it does have one for rewarding the good and compassionate one’s. Overwatch has an endorsement system which allows players to give honours to other players of their choosing, whether it is your teammates or your enemies. The endorsement system is quite useful in determining who your good teammates are and allows you to be able to separate them from your bad and unfriendly teammates.
The endorsement system is a whole other mechanic of Overwatch that doesn’t have any effect in-game and only helps you to identify the good players from the bad players. You can give other players one of three different types of endorsements and also receive endorsements. You can give a maximum of 3 players an endorsement per game.
The endorsement system has its own levelling system, starting off at zero before moving to 1 after a single endorsement and being able to progress to a maximum of level 5. Getting to level 2 is very easy but after this, it is quite difficult. From level 3, if you do not get an endorsement once every 3-5 games your endorsement level will immediately drop. So if you see someone with an endorsement level of 5, immediately make that person your friend as you will never get a better teammate.
The 3 different endorsements are listed below along with a description for what they could be given for:
1. Sportsmanship
The name itself is pretty self-explanatory. The most friendly and compassionate players are given the sportsmanship endorsement by other players. It is the most commonly given endorsement as there are more friendly people as compared to actually great players, but these people make the game more enjoyable as they are very friendly. This is the only endorsement that can be given to enemies as well. The sportsmanship endorsement is represented by the green colour on the endorsement badge.
2. Good Teammate
The good teammate endorsement is obviously given to the good teammates by other players. These players are good at their heroes as well as understanding and actually care about the team composition. The good teammate endorsement is representing by purple on the endorsement badge.
3. Shot Caller
The shot-caller endorsement is the highest honour that can be given to a player in Overwatch. Although endorsements are considered a small deal there is something quite satisfactory about being given a shot caller endorsement. Shot callers hold the team together and do all the planning. The shot-caller endorsement is represented by golden on the endorsement badge.