I'll say it: Spiderman is a Strategist problem

At the risk of being downvoted into oblivion, bombarded with "L take", told I'm bad and should just get good, etc. I play an equal mix of Duelist/Strategist in Marvel Rivals and I have played hero shooters since 2011 and at a high level. I don't think Spiderman is overpowered, but I do think he creates a game that can make teams become toxic towards one another much more often than other divers.

All points are made under the assumption that the 'enemy' Spiderman is competent and a valid threat to squishies, has a good understanding of timing and movement, etc.

Dear Strategists, Spiderman isn't designed to be interacted with before he's already on top of you, stop expecting your team to zone or peel him from you.

Now, before you get your torches and pitchforks, consider: Spiderman caps his damage out at around or just under 300 damage per combo even with venom team-up. In a vacuum, it's enough to one-shot strategists and any duelist other than Mr. Fantastic. In practice, it means that if any strategist in the game throws a heal at his target at any point during the combo, he gets stuffed and has to try again.

What is easier? Having a Duelist try to track the spider on crack, hunt him down at half his speed, and struggle to finish him off before he inevitably web zips out of sight - OR - Luna Snow clicks the other strategist at least once.

To me, the answer is obvious.

Spiderman isn't like other dive characters. He has an out that takes half a second to execute, he's no Iron Fist or Black Panther who have to at the very least soft-commit to provide threat and draw aggro. Spiderman is All-In, then all-out regardless of his success in taking out his target.

Now, YES, of course if you CAN commit resources to killing Spiderman, sure! Put him in the ground. YES picks like Namor take off a great deal of the burden of aim and attention from countering him. But, while a fight is happening, the absolute WORST thing you can demand as a strategist player is that damage resources get committed, wastefully so, to a target that is essentially never a guaranteed kill.

Not only is a pick on him never guarenteed, it is essentially a valueless pick given that his rollout is faster than any other hero by a huge margin, so advancing on a spiderman pick thinking that it is an advantage is a mistake many more times than it is not.

But game after game, I get strategists that insist that they can't perform because they are being dove by Spiderman, and it's only because their team doesn't 180 in the middle of a teamfight and fly to their rescue, positioning be damned, that their performance is lacking.

THE WORST thing you can do is chase around the most mobile character in the game trying to swat a fly while the opposing vanguards walk on you.

This bears repeating - - Hyper-focus on the mobile hit&run guy is the worst response possible, because in the event that he doesn't one-shot his target, he has now ALSO drawn aggro for free, giving his team a huge advantage. He has generated additional value at no cost or risk, because he would have split after getting his combo off regardless.

So how do you deal with him? A strategist who is not his target heals the target. It is that simple. You stuff his combo over and over again, and the team has to ignore him. This leaves his options as "Get stuffed until you build ult, then hopefully ult the strategists."

"But OP!" I hear you decry. "Spiderman's ult can win team fights on its own! Even if he never kills with his combo, he'll get ulti and team wipe!"

You're right! But so can Starlord's, Psylocke's, Iron Man's, the list goes on. The way the game is designed mandates that many Duelist ults demand a Strategist ult in response if there is no option to retreat or take cover. Many of the other duelists, though, don't run out of gas in a second-and-a-half.

So in an ideal comp, the counter to spider-man is "Stop him from killing his target, and save a Strategist ult for his inevitable all-in." This prevents him from generating any additional value from cat-and-mouse games and trying to play bouncer to the slipperiest target in the game for your strategist.

Duelists, unless they are his target, CAN and SHOULD ignore Spiderman, unless they are in an organized group that forces a counter like Namor or Moon Knight for the sake of the team, and they can reliably know that the other duelist+vanguards can hold the rest of the game steady while they hold Spiderman off.

Otherwise, Spiderman not only may kill his targets, but also draw unnecessary, valueless aggro, and potentially tilt the team!

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.