The amount of people who throw when their tank plays Ball is insane

I’ve been maining (not one tricking) ball for about a year now and this issue seems to persist no matter how well I do or how high Ball’s win rate is, so I just wanted to throw out this post in the hopes that some people learn.

First off, the job of a tank is not just to meatshield for their team. That CAN be their job depending on the character, but different tanks have different jobs. The job of a tank is attention and space. Rein is fucking huge and threatening up close, while having a big health bar and a shield. He does a lot of meatshielding, because that’s how his character is designed. Regardless though, his job is not just soaking up damage, it’s pulling attention and taking/holding space.

People largely seem to get it with Winston. He doesn’t meatshield very much, but he forces people to turn around and creates openings for his team to push forward and secure kills, as well as occasionally getting picks himself.

Now for ball. Ball should almost never meatshield. NEVER expect ball to meatshield. He may do it sometimes, but you shouldn’t expect him to. What ball does when is leveraging his mobility to live in off angles. He is BY FAR the best character in the game for pulling attention. He can reset in a new angle within seconds, he can self sustain very well with health packs and adaptive shields, he can CC constantly with boop and pile drive, he can push squishies into his team, etc etc.

Playing with ball is very different than any other tank. You have two options while playing with him. Either dive with him, or stay close to your team so you can’t get run down. If you choose to stick with your team, ball should still be setting up kills. Look at who he’s diving, shoot at them, and you’ll get picks. If you see ball pull most of their team’s attention, WALK FORWARD. Your tank isn’t the only person who can take space, so if you see an opening, take advantage of it.

Ball plays very selfish, but it’s important to remember that not having a tank to heal means the supports can spend more time healing the DPS or doing damage themselves. It’s a different playstyle that takes some getting used to, but a good ball with a team that can hold their own is basically a server admin. I get that some people may not like playing ball, but you not liking a character is not an excuse to throw. I dont like when my team sits in the back with junkrat torb spam and doesn’t push forward, but that doesn’t mean I’ll throw. Learn how to play around him, politely ask him to peel more if need be, and I promise you will see just how oppressive ball can be to a team who doesn’t know how to play against him.