Is a “No Damage Rocket Raccoon” Considered Throwing?

There's quite a hot topic going around right now that players can't quite seem to agree about: Is playing Rocket Raccoon, but dealing no damage throughout the entire match, considered throwing? Obviously players who lose a match always want someone to blame, so does this claim hold up. In this article, I'm going to break down my thoughts on the subject by analyzing the definition of throwing, what you are expected to do every match, and an overview of Rocket himself. By the end, we should have a pretty good answer to this controversial question.

My Credentials

I am a Celestial rank player who mains Invisible Woman, Peni Parker, and The Punisher. I also have a good bit of experience playing Rocket when his team-up works better than my main healer. The regular teammate I play with in ranked is also a Rocket main, so between the both of us, we have a lot of hands on experience with the character in high ranking gameplay.

What Is Throwing?

When most players think of throwing a match, they describe a player intentionally sabotaging their match. This could mean picking a notably bad character (like Black Widow), or refusing to swap because they want to play their favorite character. While this isn't an incorrect definition, throwing doesn't mean the player is intentionally throwing. Let me explain:

Hero shooters like Marvel Rivals are not just about being good at your character. It's also about knowing when to swap characters or roles, who to swap to, and what counters what. For example: If you are playing Black Panther (a dive character) and your opponents are playing Namor and Peni Parker (anti-dive characters), you are playing with a handicap. That's not to say you can't do well against them, but it obviously makes it harder. If you see that anti-dive counter is making you ineffective, you should swap to a different character or role that isn't susceptible to that anti-dive strategy.

Now how does this relate to throwing? Using the last example, if you refuse to swap off Black Panther because "he's your main" or "they got lucky"... well... you're throwing. You aren't intending to throw of course; you are trying your hardest to win! Unfortunately though, you can be counter-picked. Refusing to adapt to that change puts your team at a huge disadvantage. It's an active choice you are making not to try something else, making it the definition of throwing.

Should a Strategist Only Heal?

Now in order to talk about if only healing as Rocket is throwing, we need to talk about what the role of a Strategist is. The responsibility of the class is obviously to heal the team first and foremost, it's why you pick the class. But there is a reason the class is called "Strategist" and not "healer". Each of the characters have weapons, abilities, and ultimates that do more than just heal. Picking what tools you need is part of the strategy, hence the name. If this concept isn't clear enough, here's a few examples:

• Luna Snow's ultimate can swap between a damage boost and healing boost
• Rocket has a revive station
• Invisible Woman has force push/pull
• Cloak & Dagger has half of the character dedicated to dealing damage
• Mantis becomes more effective when you land headshots

As you can see, these characters are more in depth than just healing.

Now if you take these characters and completely ignore an ability, is that throwing? It absolutely is. Imagine Cloak never using her healing wall or healing dome. Imagine a Rocket that never places a revive station. Or what about a Adam Warlock that doesn't use his team revive? Seems like a ridiculous idea because nobody does that, right? But if they did, you would consider it throwing.

That isn't to say that players can't use unique strategies that break the traditional use of their character. Take "DPS Jeff" for example. A good Jeff the Land Shark player can effectively use Jeff as a DPS character, especially with the Luna Team-Up. If they Jeff this way, he probably will rarely be healing the team. So is he throwing? It depends on the context of the match.

If the team is struggling and you could be helping them by healing, yes it's throwing. If the team is doing fine, and you are off 0/6, it's still throwing. You don't have to be losing to be throwing. Now if your team is fine, and you are doing well as DPS Jeff, you aren't throwing.

Let's talk about Rocket

When you look at Rocket's kit, he has great healing capabilities, a handy revive station, and an ultimate that boosts the team's damage. So overall, a fairly well rounded character that gives utility in different departments than just healing.

I want to highlight his weapon's capabilities. It's a rapid fire weapon with 45 bullets, each dealing 16 damage per shot at 10 meters or closer. With a fire rate of about 12 rounds per second, that means he can deal about 192 damage per second, and 720 damage total with the entire magazine. Now let's compare this to The Punisher's main weapon, a DPS character:

His weapon has 30 shots, each dealing 18 damage per shot at 20 meters or closer. It has a fire rate of about 10 bullets per second, which means he can deal 180 damage per second, and 540 for a full magazine.

What I'm trying to highlight here is that Rocket's weapon is factually better than The Punisher's weapon at close range. At medium and long range, Punisher is obviously better, but it's important to note how strong Rocket can actually be in a fight.

When playing any healer, including Rocket, sometimes it's more effective to kill an enemy than to heal an ally. It depends on how close to death the enemy is, knowing your character's time to kill potential, and what they are capable of if they stay alive. Let's try an example:

If Thor is rushing a wounded ally, do you heal them or kill the Thor? Let's assume you are playing Rocket. Thor has a base of 525 HP, with some potential bonus HP with his abilities. Rocket can effectively kill Thor in 3 seconds without landing any critical hits at close range. There's no possible way you are fully healing your ally in 3 seconds with Thor beating them down, so why not join the fight and help them defeat Thor? Between the both of you, there's a good chance you can help take him down or make him retreat, giving you a chance to heal your team afterwards.

To be clear, I'm not suggesting you stop healing completely and just run around with your gun. Ideally you are on the backline and away from danger. But if the fight moves closer to you, sometimes it's better to join the fight than to be passively healing. If your teammate dies despite your healing, when you could have helped win that fight, your choice has impacted the match.

So Is It Throwing?

As a quick recap, throwing is when you are putting your team at a disadvantage because of ongoing choices, no matter if it is intentional or not. When you pick a character and class, you are signing yourself up to use your abilities to their fullest extent to help your team. By choosing to ignore aspects of a character, you are basically tying one arm behind your back and acting like it's not a problem.

Rocket can only deal direct damage with his weapon, and the stats show it's clearly a strong asset. By refusing to use it, you are actively choosing to ignore a major part of his kit, thus tying one hand behind your back. By making an ongoing choice to refuse using your full capabilities, it fits the definition of throwing. If Rocket only used his gun and never healed, players would immediately call out that he's throwing (unless he was doing exceptionally well of course).

I'm not saying that a no damage Rocket will be throwing 100% of the time. Sometimes the team can be completely fine without his damage. Case and point, there is a twitch streamer literally named NoDamageRocket who, believe it or not, only plays Rocket and does no damage. He has reached Eternity doing this, so it clearly can work. The key here is when a player refuses to switch when this playstyle doesn't work.

So to directly answer the question "Is playing No Damage Rocket considered throwing?": I think it clearly can be considered throwing. It obviously won't be throwing every single time someone does it, but it's definitely a handicap to the Rocket player by refusing to use an asset he has available. A handicap to a player means a handicap to the team, and one they didn't sign up for.

This is my opinion, but I would love to know yours! Is No Damage Rocket throwing? Let me know what you think down in the comments.