Strategist players in Marvel Rivals are on strike – here’s why

Being a support player in gaming is often an underappreciated and thankless job, especially when teammates refuse to protect you. That being said, when you have a good, supportive team on your side, playing support can be a rewarding and fun experience. 

Unfortunately, Marvel Rivals support players have not had the best experiences with the game recently. The struggles that Marvel Rivals Strategists have been facing are so significant that the player community has decided to host a strike by refusing to play the role. 

The strike has gained so much momentum that the Marvel Rivals devs have had to address it and have agreed to make changes to combat the issues that Strategist players are dealing with. But what problems have caused such an uproar in the first place? Let’s take a deeper look at the Marvel Rivals Strategists strike. 

The origins of the strike began when a popular streamer called Necros insulted Marvel Rivals Strategist players by calling them “morons” and “idiots.” Despite Necros being a pretty generic streamer, the disparaging comments were met with severe backlash. 

A significant Reddit post called “The ‘support strike’ and Necros’ comments – why this actually matters” perfectly explains why these comments could not go unheeded by players: 

“That kind of statement, coming from a big voice in the community, does real damage. Streamers don’t get to opt out of influence — if you have a following, what you say matters in your community. And now we’re seeing the consequences of that.”

The post goes on to describe the poster’s individual experience as a Marvel Rivals Strategist following Necros’s comments, such as being abused in voice chat and hearing other players say that Necros was right about Strategists. Support mains are protesting this lack of respect by refusing to pick Strategist heroes in games.

Another issue that has caused Strategist players to protest is the aggressive domination of Vanguard and Duelists in Marvel Rivals, which has only gotten more significant in Season 2. Not only are many of these DPS and Tank heroes strong, but a lot of them are also highly mobile, making it increasingly difficult for Strategists to do their jobs effectively. This extends past the point of challenging and into the realms of near-impossible survivability in certain games. 

As mentioned, the Marvel Rivals Strategist community came together to form a protest against the issues surrounding support mains. This became so prevalent that NetEase, the developers of Marvel Rivals, not only addressed the matter in their Dev Talk Vol 13 blog, but they are also planning to buff Strategist heroes in a patch expected to release in May. 

In the blog post, the devs acknowledged the increased strain that Marvel Rivals Strategists are facing in Season 2:

 “Strategists face increased pressure, needing to monitor teammates’ health closely while carefully using their key abilities and being mindful of their positioning on the map”.

The devs go on to explain that the upcoming patch, which will likely also include new Strategist hero Ultron, will buff the damage abilities of particular Strategist heroes. The patch will also alter certain other characters, which should help Strategist players do their job more effectively. One example of this is plans to reduce the survivability of Vanguard heroes Captain America and Groot. 

At the time of writing, the patch does not have an official date of release. However, as mentioned, it will likely be coming sometime in May. The developer’s blog encourages players to stay tuned for official announcements regarding the patch release. 

The struggles that Marvel Rivals Strategist players have had to deal with recently are pretty significant. Even if you don’t know who Necros is, it’s apparent that his influence has led to certain players looking down on the Strategist role and disregarding (or even insulting) those who choose to play as them. The strike is understandable, and its success suggests that it is an issue that thousands of players around the world have had to face. 

The upcoming buffs to Strategists and nerfs to other heroes suggest that the NetEase devs are keeping an eye on their community and are taking feedback seriously. There is still much to do when it comes to keeping Strategists balanced and addressing the toxicity against support. However, there is no doubt that the responsiveness from the developers is much appreciated by the Marvel Rivals Strategist community.