If you can recall, last August I finally got out of Bronze 5 rank in this first-person shooter game called Overwatch 2, which made sooo happy! I was hard stuck Bronze 5 for 6 months, and mind you Bronze 5 is the lowest of many ranks in the game. It was definitely demoralizing stuck in the same low rank for so long, but that made me feel infinitely rewarded when I finally ranked out of it to Bronze 4! In that post, I ended on a hopeful note:
“I will continue to try and see if I can improve and get to Bronze 3, or even (dare I say it)...Silver? We shall see.”
Dare I say it indeed. Well within the next 2 weeks, I had rocketed up through the ranks from Bronze 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 to Silver 5 and then Silver 4! What a huge jump from when I was hard stuck for 6 months!
Well then what next? I ended up hard stuck in Silver 4 for the next 2 months, which was impossibly hard to get out of, then I managed to hit Silver 3 once, before ranking down promptly again. Sigh. And then over time I got up to Silver 3, to Silver 2, to Silver 1. Unbelievable!
I’m sooo close to being Gold, which has been a reach goal of mine and frankly a dream, a dream really to keep me motivated to keep playing. But a dream I never actually believed I could reach.
How many of my friends were stuck in Silver and never ever got out of it? I have seen so many posts and videos of veteran OW1 and 2 players who never got out of Bronze and Silver for 7 years! Who am I to get to Gold when so many have tried and failed?
What’s more, I’m a stubborn person who refused to play other support heroes besides Kiriko; I pretty much am a one-trick who refused to switch even when I’m losing or being countered. I believe I will get better only by playing against all kinds of team comps, regardless of being countered! But my goodness, it was really tough in many games. I felt like giving up.
I who have persevered for so long in Bronze, I told myself that I should not be afraid of being stuck in Silver for another 6 months. I reminded myself that it’s already such an amazing achievement to have gotten out of Bronze 5, not to mention be in Silver at all. I’m already grateful to have improved and learned more about the game, and to have become so much better than I was mere months ago. I should just focus on myself, on one thing at a time, and get better slowly, but surely.
Then it happened. I hit Gold 5 briefly, ranked back down, then on December 31, I ranked up to Gold 5 again!! Hurray!!!
I proceeded to rank up another level to Gold 4, and then struggled between Gold 4 and 5 for a long while. I figured I may stop playing ranked games in order to preserve my Gold rank till end of season (which should be early Feb), and maybe try playing Tank or DPS roles instead. My goal has been to end the season on Gold rank, so I could get the Gold Role Challenger title.
A friend of mine in the game ended up encouraging me to keep playing, and he partnered with me to play together. Another miracle started happening, we began to rank up together from Gold 4 to 3 to 2 to 1….
Annnnndddd I’m pleased to announce that I’ve achieved something I’ve never in my wildest dreams imagined. I’ve joined the Platinum community, even if it’s just for the briefest moment, even if it’s undeserved - I’m just shell-shocked. Overwhelmed with happiness and disbelief. I want to memorialize this moment so it will go down in my gaming history that I’ve achieved something wildly impossible. On Monday, Jan 8th, history was made:
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That’s it for now friends. I figure I’ll probably lose and rank back down to Gold, but at least I feel confident that I can stay in Gold, and having ranked this high makes me feel hopeful and motivated to keep striving to do better in this game. It’s not all about ranks, but really how often is it that a 6-month Bronze 5 could end up ranking up to Platinum? (How often does anyone actually play for that long in Bronze and keep playing 😅?) I want to ask the entire OW2 community just to find kindred spirits who can understand what this really means! This is absolutely wild.
Next season, I will do my best. I secretly (or openly?) admire this OW2 gamer who started out as Silver/Gold and had ranked up one rank per season, until she’s now Diamond. We played PUGs (pick-up games) together twice and she’s really good. She’s the only other person I know who started in a low rank and went up so many ranks. It’s not quite the same as starting from Bronze 5, but now I kind-of wonder if I could do the same and reach Diamond? Maybe it’s not that far out of reach…
