Twitch streamer dinglederg may well be the biggest Rocket Raccoon fan in the Marvel Rivals community. While focusing entirely on the furry hero's healing and supportive abilities, and without dealing a single point of damage, they managed to hit Grandmaster rank in the hotly competitive shooter. In the middle of an interview with GamesRadar+ earlier today, January 21, dinglederg – or NoDamageRocket on Twitter – hit Grandmaster 2.
In a post to the Marvel Rivals subreddit on January 19, dinglederg shared the stats behind their pacifist rank climb. Trace sessions with other heroes aside, they hit Grandmaster 3 after 18.6 hours of Rocket support, which consisted of 108 matches, 71 wins, over 2.9 million points of healing, and zero damage dealt. Zip. Nada. No KOs, no critical hits, just pure healing. And yes, their tracked account stats do match up.
If you're wondering why they still have an accuracy rating, that's because "I still need to shoot ankhs, Loki clones and enemy Rocket beacons," as dinglederg explained in a Reddit reply. "They don't count as damage though." And if you're asking, as I was, why their total account record shows 32 damage dealt with Rocket, dinglederg says "that was a casual game. An enemy was getting revived by the beacon and it counted into damage! In Competitive I still do 0 damage though!" Here again, the stats don't lie.
Two big questions come up whenever players create their own mountains just so they can have the privilege of climbing them: how and why? The how is actually fairly simple here. Rocket Raccoon's kit is almost entirely support-based. In fact, he's arguably the only Marvel Rivals hero who could pull off a no-damage run without throwing matches straight off a cliff.
That said, dinglederg's limited play style has still sparked understandable discussions about getting carried by teammates, which is inevitable to some degree when you're actively avoiding dealing damage. Supports are great, but they need someone to support. Someone has to hit back. The best support players across virtually all games can keep their team alive while squeezing in whatever damage they can, after all, so playing this defensively isn't generally recommendable. But in Marvel Rivals, there's also no denying the impact of a good Strategist who knows how to stay alive. If you can do that, personal damage or no, you're probably doing better than a lot of people in Comp.
Even while ignoring Rocket's bombard mode projectiles – which can deal relevant damage at close range – dinglederg can still lob consistent heals, dish out damage boosts, and both revive and armor teammates, and these are all much more valuable to the team than Rocket's damage. That said, dinglederg mostly chose Rocket because they like the character – "plus I get to say flark which I think is funny," they add – which gets us into the why.
"I didn't really practice it, except for maybe just playing [quickplay] for fun and learning the ropes of Rocket!" dinglederg tells me. "To be honest I didn't set out to do this as some kind of challenge or anything, it honestly just kinda happened."
In a Reddit response, they added: "I think of my 100 games, I had a handful complaining about me playing Rocket, but it's usually at the beginning. I just ignore all the toxic nonsense and say 'Rocket's got yer flarkin back >:D.'"
Apart from a "handful of games" pre-Platinum, dinglederg says they've played entirely solo. I originally thought this might be an experienced player experimenting with a gimmick alt, but dinglederg says this is their only Marvel Rivals account. Dinglederg did have some Overwatch experience going, but says "I was never good at that game."
In case their Reddit reception and branded Twitter didn't give it away, the pacifist Rocket persona has really caught on. (Their username, NoDmgRocket, was actually going to be PacifistRocket, but that was taken.) "People generally are very charmed and amused about the thing cuz I like to roleplay as Rocket to add some positivity and humor into an already intensive game! Saying things like 'Flark yeah!' or 'Rocket's got yer back!' or 'We flarkin' got this!' It makes people laugh and it puts them in a good mood! Which I feel helps a lot."
With Grandmaster summited, dinglederg does "wanna see how far I can go." They're now GM2 and still going. "Here's hoping I reach Celestial," they said. Godspeed, you pacifist raccoon.
Marvel Rivals still can't escape the Overwatch comparisons as it introduces a very familiar limited-time mode for its Spring Festival event: "Can't believe we're getting Lúcioball again."
