I started playing Overwatch end of November 2016, and for the next 2 months, I couldn’t think of anything else. It was the most fun I’ve had in a long time, taking me back to the days of Team Fortress 2 and rekindling some very fond memories of the Heavy shouting that no one was pushing the cart, and the Medic demanding their names.

When the first Anniversary event hit, what began was a journey that was fun and entertaining, and one I hope to do for every Anniversary event.

2017 Anniversary – Limited Duel, Unlimited Fun

When I first tried out this mode, it seemed pretty straightforward. Because it was a 1v1 and not a 3v3, some heroes were inaccessible. I spent the first few matches experimenting with the hero choices, and then, got some neat ideas.



Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

First, I picked Ana, and would try to put the enemy to sleep, but instead of giving them a rude awakening, I would simple walk up to them, wave at them, then run off. If they chased me, I would simply sleep dart them again. The goal was to not appear threatening. Disabling someone was tricky at first, especially against Genji’s who would deflect it back to me, then chop me up while I was asleep.

Around this time, you may ask, “Wait, if you’re not killing each other, what happens when the control point appears?” Well, I’ll move towards the control point, the other player following behind, and I would start to melee them. I would pull my punches a lot so they would win (because this may come as a surprise, but some players are oblivious to the Melee button).



“The Floor is Slippery!”

A less common technique I used was to purposely fall into voids, and claim that the floor was slippery. This works especially well in the Black Forest, because the ground looks damp.

Emotes Galore

Another way of showing I’m friendly is using emotes. If I went with Soldier 76, I would announce that I wanted to do my push-ups first before beating the crap out of them. I would then proceed to melee them as mentioned earlier.



Works even better if both players picked Soldier 76.

Enjoying the Scenery

I would sometimes sit at certain locations on the map. This is usually done in Round 2 onwards once my opponent knows I won’t kill them. The cool thing is, they will come look for me, and sometimes sit next to me.

I Challenge You to a Dance-off!

Another emote technique using the new Dance emotes. Once they know I’m friendly, players will either watch the dance, or join in!

The Outcome

Of course, some players would just relentlessly try to kill me. A fraction of those even said “Sorry, I’m just playing to get the lootboxes”. I understand. It’s the first Anniversary event. New skins and a ton of dance emotes to unlock. Everyone’s scrambling for Arcade wins to get boxes.

However, some pretty interesting things happened. I found out that if you jump onto an enemy Pharah, she could fly up and you would’t fall.

Some players thanked me profusely because I let them win and they got another loot box.

Because I continuously went back into the 1v1 queue after every game, I ended up meeting some of the same people again!

There was even a player who pushed me into the point just so I’d win the round. Crazy stuff.

Most notably, I got a ton of friend requests from such players, but alas, I had to clean the list after the event, because I hardly knew any of them.

Why Did I Do All of This?

This has to be the most burning question on everyone’s minds right now. I lost all the matches (except if they jumped off a cliff 2-3 times in a row), gained minimal exp, and minimal lootboxes by extension.

So, why go through all this trouble?

As I stated above, I love this game. The first 2 months of playing it was heavenly, but after that, I was slowly exposed to the toxicity of it. I also had some really bad experiences in Competitive, which made me uninstall the game. I only re-installed it the next week because Uprising was announced, as it had some mad “Mann vs Machine” vibes I could not resist.

Point is, I wanted to make the Anniversary event slightly less toxic, and I think for most of the players I met, their Anniversary event was an interesting one, so that’s pretty neat.

RNG was on my side, though. I got 7 dance emotes, and 3 Anniversary skins. Decent haul, and I bought a few other items with creds.

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2018 Anniversary Event – Here’s Petra!

Now, the 2018 Anniversary brought in a new Free-For-All map. Good thing for me, because I’ve been practising a lot on Château Guillard…

…as Mercy,…

…making friends with other Mercies,…

…assembling a team of Mercies,…

…so I knew to the drill all too well.



Mercy Makes Friends!

Because Brawls were on rotation this year, I didn’t have much time. Hence, I put in many hours on Petra, doing my usual thing as Mercy.

Got a few double kills here and there.

I killed a Junkrat while he was ult-ing, then wrecked his Rip Tire when it circled around to blow me up.



Now, as I marathoned FFA sessions, it wasn’t long till I encountered a similiar problem from Château Guillard: You see, my priority-one instinct as Mercy is to shoot at anyone who isn’t Mercy, but sometimes, I would encounter players who would wave at me as I peppered them with shots. Then I realized “Oh snap! They’ve played with me before!”. This is was a problem when there’s a friendly Junkrat in a match with 3 Junkrats, as I had to identify the name instead of the silhouette (which would get me killed more than my current death rate).

Even so, still pretty fun.

After 8-Player FFA went ouf ot rotation, I decided to join Competitive FFA, and the usual shenanigans began. My most noteworthy ally in Competitive was this Tracer player by the name of Scarlet.

It wasn’t long till a Brigitte joined in. The alliance is growing!

Are dance parties allowed in Competitive?

My crowning FFA achievement was in one particular match, where I bumped into a Lucio and Bastion player 4 times in a row.

So we formed a team.

Wow, seems like the Bastion and I are rising up the charts!



BAM! 3rd place as Mercy! All thanks to a friendly Lucio and Bastion.



Got some nice comments, the best one being from a Tracer player called “MercyMain” who told me to get out there because people needed me. And here I thought the Mercy market was still over-saturated, heh.

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With that, another Anniversary Event has end come to an end. I hope you enjoyed this little write-up as much as I enjoyed putting it together. I look forward to the next Anniversary event, to explore new ways to spread the wholesomeness with.

P.S The next time you’re in a 1v1 Duel, be mindful of slippery floors, especially in The Black Forest. God knows how heavy it rained there prior to the match.