Dragged to elite levels

Tyler “Trainwreck” Niknam is best known for being one of the most popular slots streamers on the internet, but he does like to play competitive video games, as well. And it is that type of gaming that is the source of controversy this week, as Trainwreck has been accused of engaging in a form of “boosting” to rise in the Overwatch 2 competitive rankings.

Specifically, Niknam is being admonished in the video game community for paying some of the world’s best Overwatch players to team up with him and thus help him win the games he needed to reach higher and higher competitive tiers. Trainwreck boasted on X that it took him just three days to go from the bottom to among the top 200-ranked players in “tank” hero category.

While this is not technically boosting – boosting is when a highly-skilled player takes over a lower-skilled player’s account in order to level it up the ranks – most would probably consider it “boosting adjacent.” Trainwreck played on his own account, but he was carried by elite players, including some who used to play in the now-defunct Overwatch League.

It pays to pay

None of this was done in secret, as Trainwreck and those who he queued with – names that included Moxy, Dafran, Kragie, Warn, and Guru – streamed their Overwatch 2 sessions for all to see. Dafran even titled his stream: “BOOSTING TRAIN TO TOP 500 REAL QUICK.”

has a video clip on his Twitch page that shows when Niknam donated $3,500 during his stream

Posters on the “Competitiveoverwatch” subreddit said that Trainwreck donated thousands of dollars to some or all of the Overwatch streamers with which he played. Warn even has a video clip on his Twitch page that shows when Niknam donated $3,500 during his stream.

One person replied to Trainwreck’s celebratory tweet above by posting clips of him making terrible plays with various Overwatch heroes, a sort of needle at Trainwreck to say he is not top-200 material without assistance:

And again, while teaming up with better players to carry one to greater ranked heights – even paying them to do so – is not technically considered boosting, it is certainly frowned upon. It is looked at as a slap in the face to those who put in the work to reach the highest ranks, especially because it looks like Trainwreck paid thousands of dollars for the assistance.

Competitive mode overhaul

Overwatch 2 has had a rough go of it since its release in October 2022. Its lack of significant improvement, or even significant changes at all, over the original Overwatch has drawn the ire of gamers.

Among the many problems players have had with the game is the changes Blizzard made in the competitive mode from Overwatch to Overwatch 2. The mode was panned for its lack of transparency – nobody understood how it worked and mystery when trying to move up in the rankings is not fun. Rankings were adjusted every five wins or 15 losses, which was just weird.

built a better system that’s more accurate”

Starting with the current Season 9, though, the Overwatch dev team revamped the competitive system, saying it “built a better system that’s more accurate.” Ranks are now updated after every game and progress gained or lost toward the next skill division is displayed. Modifiers are also shown to the player after a match as way to explain why their ranking progress bar may have moved like it did.

And because there have been so many changes to the overall Overwatch 2 gameplay lately, everyone’s rank was reset.