I was playing Hero League the other night, and the first person on my team instantly locked in Nova. Now, there are many ways people react to this; one of the most common ones is to one up the other person by picking Murky or Gazlowe, which did happen in my case. Subsequently, all hell broke lose, degrading my allied draft chat into name-calling and general resentment. Granted, I’m not a Nova player and stick to popular heroes like Thrall and Malfurion, so I used to have little sympathy for people who play heroes against the team’s wishes.

However, I remembered Blizzard silencing a player for refusing to switch from Widowmaker in Competitive after repeated requests from his teammates, and contemplated whether the penalty was justified. The GM’s rationale was that refusing to adapt to the team is as detrimental to player experience as trolling or insulting. Does playing what you want take precedence over other people’s enjoyment of the game? Or do you need to make some sacrifices for the good of the majority? I understand that both options lead to some dangerous slippery slopes when phrased like that, but I believe basic courtesy for fellow players is the glue that binds team-player games. Players shouldn’t be so quick to get angry, since having off-meta heroes on your team isn’t the end of the world.

Raging over your teammates’ draft is nothing new in competitive team-player games. In a Reddit post, OP posed the question as to why some people play sub-optimal heroes even though there are other, clearly superior, choices open. While the responses generally faulted the way HotS was designed that allowed for many creative picks, there were some genuinely valid points to consider. One respondent pointed out that not everyone is equally proficient at every hero. Another person despised the OP’s attitude that pigeonholed people to a certain play style.

In most cases, I agree that playing heroes that you know well is superior to drafting ones that are the flavors of the month. For example, I would take a competent Arthas over a mediocre Diablo any day of the week. For what it’s worth, HOTS Logs statistics show common off-meta heroes like Gazlowe, the Butcher, and Nazeebo floating above the average hero win percent among players in Gold League and below. On the other hand, heroes that are generally considered all-purpose picks such as Muradin, Li-Ming, and Auriel are showing underwhelming win rates at around 43, 42, and 40 percent, respectively. People can spin these numbers in as many ways as they want, but it’s clear that the player seems to matter more than heroes do, especially in lower leagues.

Actually, what plagues team player games the most isn’t unconventional heroes, but the lack of communication among teammates. Let’s imagine you’re a decent Murky player; you’re very much invested in the baby murloc, being fully aware of the strengths and limitations of the hero from your extensive experience. To get to that point of expertise, you must have endured numerous unkind words and blatant scapegoating from faceless teammates. It’s even likely that you may have developed reactance from other people trying to dictate your choice of hero, effectively increasing your resistance to persuasion and logic. I’m not trying to put every uncooperative Murloc player on a pedestal here, but I’m merely suggesting that trying to limit others’ freedom of choice can often have much more sinister consequences.

Unless Blizzard makes official win rates for individual heroes public, what ultimately drives the crusade against heroes like Nova and Murky will be people’s perception. However vague, players have expectations on what their team composition ought to be. When the reality deviates from the ideal, they want to understand the root cause by pointing their finger at something. Regrettably, the low-hanging targets often end up being unpopular heroes. On top of everything, people who get the most angry at their teammates’ choice of hero fulfill their own prophecy by demoralizing the team before the match begins or by simply refusing to participate.

If anything, we should at least be respectful to our fellow players, knowing that there are actual people on the other side of the screen. I insinuated that people shouldn’t infringe on other people’s freedom of hero choice, but I understand it also goes the other way, because people naturally want to win in a competitive setting. So, where do we draw the line? All I know is that I can’t force my teammates to play certain heroes. What I can do is embrace the diversity that games like HotS and Overwatch bring to the table and hope it goes well. If it does, then great, because the victory will feel that much more special. Even if it doesn’t, that’s okay. People learn more from mistakes than successes, and we can all improve next time.

Finally, if you’re getting really mad at people playing unorthodox heroes, then maybe it’s time for you to take a step back from the game and do something else to cool off. It’s a video game after all. And last time I checked, they’re supposed to be fun.