Anywhere it is referenced, player rank is a big deal. In fact, it's not unheard of for players to drop whatever else they are doing in their life to level up. Hey, leveling up is hard work, but it turns out leveling down requires a lot of effort too.
Dale "Bacontotem" Brown participated in the first season of Overwatch's Competitive Play. At the end of the season, he hit rank zero, the exact opposite of what most players were aiming for.
The idea to aspire for rock bottom came to him after he got curious as to what goes on at the lower ranks. He wasn't that great to begin with at first-person shooters, so he might as well see how bad his plays could get.
Bacontotem wasn't alone in this quest, however. Over time, he met other players from other parts of the world who were also keen on going against the flow. Also, they may just have a preference for trolling. That's at least part of the reason why Bacontotem picked Hanzo as his hero.
With Hanzo on hand, Bacontotem purposely lost, falling in Overwatch's ranks. Along the way, he observed that those with skill ratings in the 40s are still trying their best to go up while those in the 30s are mostly made up of people who are still vaguely hopeful they'll improve. And somewhere between the mid 30s and upper 20s area? Some of the angriest people he'd met.
"They think they should be doing better and they're really not good enough, or these are just people stuck on really bad streaks," he said.
Well, if someone on your team was deliberately making you lose, you'd be angry too.
After losing some more, Bacontotem hit what was initially a rating floor: 18. Because his ranking was so low, Overwatch's underdog bonus kicked in, giving him gains of between three-quarters to a rank and a half every time he'd win.
The underdog bonus was clearly a bane to his efforts to hit rock bottom, so Bacontotem had to put in extra effort to keep his losing streak, handicapping himself by using the worst settings and equipment.
When this was not enough, it was then that he teamed up with other players who have set their sights on the bottom of the barrel.
It took months but Bacontotem finally got his skill rating down to one, and even managed to go below it. However, Overwatch simply reset his progress at rank one.
He said he'd give it a go again when Competitve Play Season 2 begins but is not sure about coming back in the same way for the third season, but only because he might be too busy with work as Season 3 might coincide with Christmastime.
Isn't Bacontotem afraid of being banned from Overwatch? He said Blizzard already knows about him as he tweeted them a screencap of the moment he hit rank one, to which majority of people have replied that he should be banned. Not to mention that he believes he's being reported at least once in every match he's been in. Bacontotem, and everyone else he's ticked off along the way, can only wait and see now if Blizzard will be keeping him in the game or not.
Season 2 of Overwatch's Competitive Play is set to begin Sept. 6.
