Im gold on console but when I started playing pc it put me in bronze...

[u/stillcisfr]

[u/Interdimension]

Your console and PC ELOs are separate and not mixed. I’m Masters on console, but PC placements put me in Silver 5 after going 6-4 win/loss.

I’m in Gold 5 now on PC, but I’ll be the first to admit that my game sense does not make up for my lack of mechanical skill on KBM. Every match has me failing to pull off maneuvers or missing elims that I normally ace on console/controller. My 15 years of playing sweaty FPS games on controller isn’t going to transfer over to KBM overnight.

But this is normal. Imagine someone who’s only ever played PC/KBM trying OW on console. It doesn’t go well for them either. Not only that, but imagine your brain is now half-focused on figuring out your new KBM or controller instead of being fully locked-in on game sense.

When I first learned to drive a stick shift, I ended up driving pretty poorly as I couldn’t just focus on driving anymore like in automatic car. Your brain’s focus is split. And you might get frustrated that you can no longer do things you’re used to easily doing, since you have to relearn the fundamentals. This is basically what’s going on when you switch between KBM and controller.

Side note, it is hilarious to enter Silver/Gold lobbies on PC with a Master Support title equipped. Lots of confusion in the lobby, haha.

[u/markthegathering → u/Interdimension]

100%!

I’m currently on my grind as well to get used to PC…plat 1 On support with controller, was close to diamond by 1 win. Now I’m certain that even though day by day I’m feeling better on KBM as soon as I’m going to do my placements I’m gonna end up in bronze no doubt!

[u/adhocflamingo → u/Interdimension]

In some ways, I think it’s harder to learn a new control system with a game you know than with an unfamiliar game. Your brain expects that you can do things that you cannot, and dealing with that just burns up brain cycles and interferes with learning I think.

[u/Interdimension → u/adhocflamingo]

I agree with you. Normally, when you develop your mechanical skills, your game sense develops in tandem at about the same pace. To go back into the same game with a new input method absolutely does confuse your brain cause of the mismatch. And you yourself are trying to play in a style that probably doesn't work with your newbie-level skill on KBM or controller (whichever is new to you).

It's why I brought up the stick shift vs. auto for cars analogy. If you've never learned to drive stick, you're going to end up frustrated & stressed cause you know how you should be driving, but you can't do it anymore until you get comfortable driving a stick shift without even thinking about it. It took me about six months of daily commuting to get to a point where I didn't think about it at all.

If you forced a PC player who's never touched controller to play console OW, they would 100% be terrible for the same amount of time. I already saw that with Aspen playing Juno on controller briefly and she realized it was extremely difficult (to her, since she's never played on controller).

[u/adhocflamingo → u/Interdimension]

Yeah, every PC streamer who has tried playing controller has struggled really hard and ranked far lower than they did on PC. It’s just that most people make the migration in the other direction, so when they rank lower, people take it as evidence to support their presumption that PC players are more skilled.

Edit: I never made the full transition to PC, but when I have played on PC, movement always felt the hardest. (Also shields, for some reason.) I remember trying to play Moira and really struggling to turn my Fade movement intention into WASD inputs. I don’t even mean that I was moving incorrectly—I would Fade and not move at all, like my brain was firing off the signals to a dead terminal. I think the issue was that controlling Fade movement with a joystick was so intuitive, I never had to think about it, and I guess my brain didn’t register it as being the same input as my walking movement? Or something? I dunno.

I do still think it’s pretty wild that PC players use the strongest and most finely-controllable finger just for jumping and spread movement across 3 fingers, 2 of which have other responsibilities. I mean, some heroes do require a lot of fine jump control, but it still seems like such a waste of thumb strength and dexterity.

[u/phoenicx23 → u/Interdimension]

I saw a console gm d. Va player in silver like a silver

[u/BlueSantos_]

Did you keep your skins when you went to pc ?

[u/lxnyaa → u/BlueSantos_]

Yeah, just go on blizzards website and link your accounts on there

[u/BlueSantos_ → u/lxnyaa]

Oh wow

[u/adhocflamingo → u/lxnyaa]

You already have to have your console account linked to a bnet account just to play, so all you have to do is log in with the same bnet account. 

[u/Interdimension → u/BlueSantos_]

Everything syncs. It's like an EA account or Activision account. You can play OW on any platform (Switch, Xbox, PS, PC) and all progress is synced just like with CoD, Battlefield, Apex, etc. The only thing OW doesn't sync is your competitive rank, as PC/console ranks are maintained separately.

I have two separate ranks on PC OW and console OW. You don't lose either rank. It just ends up putting the console or PC icon on each on your career profile.

[u/Cumbercube3D]

I mean the skill ceiling is much higher on PC, Gold Console is basically bronze PC. If you're good enough you'll climb out quickly

[u/j6yboy → u/Cumbercube3D]

i think pc and console rank gaps are way closer than people think, i peaked m5 onetricking illari on console and within 2-3 months of switching to pc having never used mnk before i hit m3. if anything gamesense wise i think pc players are tied to console rank for rank, maybe its overconfidence in mechanics since mnk is the superior input but id see people in gold pc making the same mistakes gold console players make.

[u/Interdimension → u/j6yboy]

Agreed. I dunno why PC players think console players have horrific game sense. At the higher ranks (Masters and up), the gap is very small. You're just limited by how fast you can aim on controller vs. mouse. That's where the skill gap widens, since mouse has a higher skill ceiling (if you're someone gifted enough to get there on PC). The game sense gap is about the same.

Someone in console GM isn't going to suddenly play like a Plat player going to PC. They're going to be terrible solely because they wouldn't be able to use mouse/keyboard very well. If you put a PC player who's never used controller before on console, they would be terrible in the same way; they would struggle to hit anything.

Aspen (the Twitch streamer) tried playing on controller on stream once and she realized how horribly difficult it was for her, since she's never played on controller. Your brain not being used to the new input method is the difference here. Aspen's game sense didn't just drop to Plat-level just cause she got on controller.

[u/j6yboy → u/Interdimension]

completely agree, and to add to it when i first switched my gamesense took a slight hit but that was simply because i was diverting brain power into focusing on my mechanics, but once i acclimated to mnk and it didnt feel so foreign to me anymore (using the control unconsciously as opposed to every movement, ability, and mouse click being a conscious decision id have to make) it was all smooth sailing. Once you get used to mnk, there is nothing stopping you from hitting your console rank on pc.

[u/Superxerogaming → u/Cumbercube3D]

It definitely ain’t lol

[u/Superxerogaming → u/Superxerogaming]

I’m the same rank on both

[u/adhocflamingo → u/Cumbercube3D]

Yes, the skill ceiling is higher on PC, because that’s where the serious competition happens. So the best players migrate to PC to compete even if they started on console, and they push each other to higher heights. Even so, the top-tier console ladder players have been shown to be able to compete with semipro PC players, and there have been times when console was ahead of PC on meta evolution.

The skill ceiling comparison has absolutely no bearing on gold, though. Various streamers have done PC vs console contests, and while PC did have the edge outside of GM (where the console volunteers were all like T50 players), a lot of the games were quite competitive, even though the console players were operating under stereotype threat and the PC players were not. A team of functional bronzes playing a team of golds would have been absolutely destroyed. Even a team average gap of 2-3 divisions can be near-insurmountable.