The official Marvel Rivals account unveiled questions that are controversial and have the entire community split. They published a picture and in a very straightforward manner asked the players:’ What is your response when a Psylocke ult is done?’ The image shown has two different choices. One of the choices is a bunch of superheroes together, and they appear to be trying to withstand the destructive winds. The other is an individual hero, whose legs are not clear, running out of the picture. The question is very simple, but the answers are nothing short of a dogfight. It looks like the confrontation between cooperation and survival instinct in NetEase’s famous hero shooter at the top and the players are venting all over.
The debates are rather profoundly divided. In the middle of them, the brave tanks and supports are standing; they feel that there is no alternative but to take the hit as their duty. ‘As a Vanguard main I am OBLIGATED to say 1, even if I’m not sure if we’ll make out it: THE WALL STANDS STRONG,’ proclaimed one player named Crow. This statement was echoed by others, for instance, AndrewL who said, ‘As a tank player, I have to choose 1, it’s my duty.’ They need to be granted acknowledgment, even if it means the respawn timer. One Hulk main, zknc, so well conveyed the tragic hero character that he said, ‘as a hulk I try to jump in and bubble… this of course usually leaves me as the only one to eat the ult lmao.’ Ouch. We have all experienced it, my friend.
On the flip side, optimistically every other player in the lobby was the realistic types, the ‘I’ve been burned before’ crew. Their motto is clear: run. ‘getting the fuck out bc i dont trust anyone,’ said RayRay, and really? Mood. Another player, Zeberet, bluntly told the one urging a group hug with, ‘Fuck that I’m running.’ The trust issue is indeed huge, especially after so many matches. Materaz narrated a tale of disappointment that surely rings a bell: ‘too many times as a tank I’ve went into the psy ult to help tank the damage only to be ditched and die.’ That’s the very reason people just up and leave. Why suffer the inconvenience when you can go away waiting for someone to fail you?
Not only was the conversation made even more tactical but also it turned out there were more thoughts behind the answers. Some players hinted that ‘stack up’ tactic could be the correct play from a numerical perspective. A user by the name arcvdiazz brought it to the core: ‘Ppl saying 2 pmo sm, the more people is in psylocke’s ult the less damage she does since she has a limit of slashes, each slash spreads between all players and shields, so the more people is in there the less value she gets.’ Whoa, that’s a really good argument actually. So if everyone pushes up the damage is divided among them. Yet, this still requires everyone to, you know, actually gather in and not panic. Which seems to be quite a tall order when you are playing in a random queue.
Others pointed out some specific counteractions. The invisibility of Gambit was mentioned with dkmuo commenting, ‘Most people are running invis gambit so this ult lowkey is useless if you play it right. Jump or dash away.’ MrBiscit also referred to, ‘With gambit you can stack and E E everyone lives,’ which is how some abilities can turn a death circle into a survival moment. There were even mentions of trying to push Psylocke away with Sue Storm’s force and that one glorious moment when a Hawkeye somehow managed to score a headshot during her ultimate animation. What a highlight reel play that was!
But the predominant sentiment among the responds was this comical mix of obligation and self-preservation. Rude_EE, for one, definitely expressed the mind of many when he said, ‘If the team seems competent I pile in, if they seem a bit slow i save myself.’ It is all about situation evaluation, or in this case, your team performance in the first two minutes. Asterix20_YT verbalized the annoyance of trying to act like a hero: ‘I try to do first, but when i do it to save someone, that guy abandons the circle and i die.’ That kind of betrayal is what makes you switch to the ‘run every time’ camp for a week.
This is the kind of conversations about strategy that players drive in such an organic way which can be a source of great enjoyment for the gaming community. Marvel Rivals is still at the beginning and the players are discovering the meta, interactions, do’s and don’ts. A question as simple as ‘what do you do when the psychic assassin goes supernova’ tells plenty. The community’s passion is evident on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox as well.
