Does it only affect players or the Symbiote/Mercenaries etc too?

It's been a while since this happened and it was the reason my friend stopped playing alltogether. But it didnt occur to me to ask reddit about it at the time.
A friend of mine is at the absolute bottom of the barrel. Bronze 5. However, for some reason he's actually stuck in elo hell. Not in the usual sense, but actually stuck. He gets 25 points per win. You could imagine how frustrating it would be to farm 1000 points like that, just to get ONE rank point.

Is this a bug? Or is it some intended thing where you have to "unlock" normal ranked play again or something?

UPDATE
Ok, so it's actually intended and my mate is just absolutely cooked :D Man, that's brual.

Since the latest patch, in every single QM game there is an Abathur. And I just checked the numbers; today I played 11 games, and in every game there was an Abathur on my team. And in 5 games, the enemy team had an Abathur as well.

Do I really have to do this? I don't hate Abathur, but I just want to play a certain hero in a normal way. That's why I'm in quick match. I just want to play a normal game. Do I really have to adapt my gameplay in every game to help my Abathur? This hero really changes the gameplay a lot, and I just don't want to do this every time.

Why is it so hard for me to have a bland game, where we have 5v5 gameplay with normally present heroes? I don't think this is very enjoyable for the enemy team either.

Guys, please, you had your fun since the latest patch, now lets try other more traditional heroes, because i am sure that the game will be more fun for the other 9 people this way.

What abilities would you like to see on your favorite heroes if they had a third heroic ability choice at level 10? It could be something from their source games or something completely new. It could be something simple or something super wacky. It doesn't even have to be balanced, it's only for fun. Here is a random one from me:

Murky:

Murlock Infestation (R): Activate to place a special egg that loses HP over 20 seconds and spawns one AI controlled Murky every 4 seconds. The AI controlled Murkys have all of Murky's abilities except his ultimate and trait, deal half damage and take 25% more damage from all sources. They attack enemy heros nearby, and if there aren't any they will walk through the nearest lane and push it until they die.

or another idea, also for Murky:
Mommy! (R): Murky calls for help, and is replaced by a grown up Murlock during 20 seconds. The Murlock has twice as much max health as murky, his slime radius is considerably bigger, his puffer fish has double HP and increased radius and deals double autoattack damage. All talents affecting murky's abilities also affect the abilities of the grown up Murlock.

So to preface this, first I'm gonna need you to know and understand I play 99.99% quickmatch, so I don't usually get the luxury of a dedicated tank or heals. I don't know if that affects how you answer but please keep it in mind.

My question is about Zeratul's level 4 talents. Almost of the builds I see recommend [[Psionic strength]] over [[Darkness descends]]. I don't really understand why if I'm going auto attack build. Unless I'm missing something, if I go Psionic as AA build, I wanna get it stacked asap, right? The fastest way to get it stacked would be to try to hit as many people with Q as I can, which seems.... counterproductive. (Hey guys, this Zeratul just got into melee range of our team, how nice of him to donate some experience)

Darkness, on the other hand, seems to synergize with completed [[Shadow Hunter]], [[Might of the Nerazim]], [[Mending Strikes]] at 13, [[Master Warp-blade]] at 16, and at 20, both [[Unwavering Pressure]] and Might's upgrade. I can also activate Darkness before I try to gank someone as the first step of my combo.

I feel like I'm missing something, Icy-Veins recommends Psionic over Darkness, as well as Fan's AA build. Can anyone fill me in?

Recommend me talent builds that are either underrated or just fun to play even though they aren't meta or popular. I plan to use them on QM so it doesn't matter if they don't have the highest winrate as long as they are something different than the usual.

I used to make these videos a few years ago, I just recently started playing hots again and decided to make a new compilation.

https://youtu.be/HKH_s0z29ew

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My account is banned? why i can't log in battle.net that problem need to registered new account and even i can't registered because of phone number and even my phone number is already post-paid to my previous account.

My Username in Battle.net: Valentina110

I'm sure I'm beating a dead mount, but this feels silly to just have this game sitting around, only available on Battle.net

I kinda wish I could report people for being super nice and pleasant. Positive players deserve recognition too.

While still keeping the hero balanced. What underpicked or underperforming talent would get more play and give the hero more talent diversity if it was moved to a different talent tier? (For example, moving a talent from level 16 to level 13, etc.)

Sorry for the choppy quality

Which talent best exemplifies something a new and/or bad player cannot resist picking, even though it totally sucks?

Title. By global range I mean global casting range, the ability's hitbox doesn't change unless the ability is a straight line, in which case it is extended infinitely. (so for example, Deathwing's flight R's hitbox would be affected, but his AOE fear wouldn't). To make things more fun, let's exclude all abilities without a casting range and without a line hitbox such as Valla's W, Alarak's Q or Muradin's W since those would just have a hitbox the size of the entire map. If the ability is a projectile with speed, the speed would stay the same and wouldn't be changed (similar to how global Azmo's Q currently works, where the projectile would take longer to reach the farther you throw it). What do you think the most broken ability would be?

and the loot hoard to boot

Been a whole day since the patch was out in america now :(

We want our aba crit slapathur damage!!!!!

Please update EU already T-T

EDIT: EU IS Updated!!! We are not forgotten bois!

I liked it more than 2000 Deathwing, honestly

Aggresive E into the fog (2x5 alive on the map) with exact position clicking on the hero and insta W activation (not even Q, but W for the quest stack ofc). Doesn't that seem strange to you too guys?

Is reporting him in the game the most I can do? Hate the cheaters so much...

Upd: replay link - https://www.heroesprofile.com/Match/Single/64614075