Overwatch player proves simple change can boost your win rate

Working as part of a team is forced upon Overwatch players, whether it’s with friends or randoms, and one member of the community has discovered one way of boosting the team’s win rate after crunching their own stats. 

There are many different strategies you can choose to explore when loading into Blizzard’s multiplayer title, with different roles on offer among the character list. These include Tank, Damage, and Support.

Having a nice blend of those three is important, of course, although one player has revealed what may be the real difference maker, and it’s simple enough for teams to incorporate right away.

Oddly enough, even with it being a team-based title, not everybody in Overwatch connects their microphone.

It’s something that can be particularly frustrating for those who have been linked up with random players and don’t really know what to expect from those around them. And one Reddit user, PLPeeters, has been trying to figure out how much of a difference it really makes to have people in direct communication while playing.

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After crunching the numbers of a season’s worth of games, they have come to two interesting conclusions.

The user posted: “Voice chat makes one hell of a difference once three or more people are active.”

On top of that, they wrote: “People should always get in voice, even if they can’t talk or aren’t willing to talk for whatever reason (this makes me strongly believe team voice chat should be opt-out rather than opt-in).”

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It’s unlikely that players would ever be forced into team voice chat by default in the future like the suggestion here, although after seeing the statistics presented in the post, it’s hard to make the case against teammates using comms to their advantage.

For example, in the comments of the post, PLPeeters states a stark contrast between those using voice and those not taking part in chat. Some of the key statistics from their findings can be found below.

Having said all this, this post in no way suggests that there is a definite correlation, and the poster stated that in a disclaimer.

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They said: “I’m well aware that correlation does not imply causation, but in a competitive team-based game, it seems pretty obvious to me that communication is key, and I think most of you will agree; these numbers just seem to confirm this even more. A bigger sample size would definitely be better, but I can only gather so much data alone.”

It is, however, certainly food for thought for those who are playing Overwatch regularly. You never know, playing with others that aren’t in voice chat might well be harming your win rate, and it might be worth sending those who do communicate a group invite if you do happen to win.