Overwatch: “I Hanjo” – Player reaches lowest rank in record time

Overwatch player Dale “Hanjo” Brown reached the lowest rank possible in Overwatch in Season 1. This time, he set a world record together with a friend.

Most players probably dream of climbing the career ladder in Overwatch as quickly as possible. Dale “Hanjo” Brown has different goals; he only aims for the lowest. On the very first day of Season 3, Brown and his friend Jon “WrstReaperNA” Kingham reached Rank 1 together, becoming the first in the world. This time, the two North Americans managed to outpace the Korean players.

The descent was no walk in the park

Even though one might think that reaching the lowest rank is easier than the highest, it took Kingham and Brown some effort to get there. They started their journey downwards already in Season 2. After Brown had established a certain reputation after Season 1, a large group supported him in the following seasons. The descent was no walk in the park, but rather a laborious fall.

“Season 2 was a grind. In Season 1, it took about 15 matches per rank to drop the last 15 ranks. In Season 2, the equivalent multiplied to about 27. Losing only 2 SR per match starting from Rank 600 made it difficult to lose these 2. Especially as the queues got worse. Once we had a queue that lasted for hours.” – Dale “Hanjo” Brown

Team Hanjo always thinks in extremes

Kingham even started Season 2 at Rank 800. He had days where he did nothing but fight his way down to reach his goal. On some days, he even played down for 10 hours straight. Since the guys had to wait incredibly long for matches, they naturally tried to make the matches as interesting as possible. The group decided to let the matches last as long as possible. Team Hanjo thinks in extremes – no matter what the goal is.

“I think one night, our Bastion player, iBeepl, set the record for the most kills by a single player in one match. We found out that some maps can essentially be played forever if no one captures the control point. We had a match that lasted around 50 minutes and he got way over 100 kills in it. I had over 100 in one match too.” – Dale “Hanjo” Brown

Spawn camping is frowned upon even in Hanjo-tier

Team Hanjo fights to lose, and that means they actually fight for their loss. Anyone fighting at the bottom of the ladder with as much experience as Team Hanjo doesn’t really have difficulty being superior to their opponents there. Team Hanjo has managed to push other teams back so far that they could camp them at the spawn point. Everything is allowed, but spawn camping is considered absolutely bad gamer etiquette even in Hanjo-tier.

Additionally, they stirred up suspicion among other players that Team Hanjo is a bunch of dirty smurfs who bully worse players for their enjoyment. Team Hanjo almost got the ban hammer from Blizzard.

Although Team Hanjo was already on Blizzard’s list, the low-tier hunters were not banned from the game. Brown believes that Blizzard knows exactly what Team Hanjo is really up to and apparently looks at it with a wink. Nevertheless, players sometimes get extremely mad at Team Hanjo, as can be seen in the chatbox in the image below:

Players improved their skills in matches against Team Hanjo

On the other hand, Brown, Kingham, and the rest of the crew help lower-ranked players to get better. Kingham was sure he encountered the worst Reinhardt player in the world during their journey to the lowest ranks. This Reinhardt lost and lost. A player from Team Hanjo wanted to find out how quickly he could rise back up from the bottom and decided to invite the catastrophic Reinhardt and help him improve his skills at the same time.

Other players improved their skills simply by playing against Team Hanjo over and over. Brown noticed a player who started his rank at 1200 and finished the season with 1900: “We forced him to get 700 SR better just by existing.” Here, Team Hanjo helps a Junkrat to achieve a pentakill.

Accuracy has a major impact on rank

For Season 3, Brown, Kingham, and their team had a plan to get ahead of everyone else. Because the Hanjo style has found many imitators. During Season 2, a Team Hanjo member discovered that accuracy has a major impact on rank. During the placements, the team purposely missed as much as they could. Shortly after the placements, Kingham and Brown made it to the top of the ladder at Rank 1. Placements depend on the rank in the previous season and the results of the placement matches. They didn’t have to go far this time to return to their strange little kingdom.

Kingham does not plan to stop striving for the lowest anytime soon. He has a lot of fun doing it.

“It’s a lot of fun. We’ve even become a bit famous. I’m not a competitive person at all because I’m not very good at eSports games. I’m bronze in League of Legends, I’m silver in Counter-Strike. I’ve never really had a big drive to see how good I can be. I kind of feel like I’m the worst. That also attracts me to this playstyle, as it… I would say is the most carefree way to enjoy Overwatch competitively. I only stress myself out when trying to stay in Gold and losing streaks and such. It just makes it a lot more fun.” Jon “WrstReaperNA” Kingham

I Hanjo!

Brown especially enjoys being recognized by other players. It’s funny for him to see when other players react with: “Wait, are you THE Hanjo?” often followed by: “Oh God, I hate you.” Because Hanjo is responsible for a lot of imitators coming into the game who say “I Hanjo” and thus signal that they are aiming for the lowest. But hey, at least you know beforehand that you can’t expect much from that Hanzo player.

Some strive for the highest and others for the lowest. Congratulations on this deep achievement!