I (29m) play a first person shooter with some people online. Almost every night everyone else in the group is playing a ranked competitive mode until they can’t find matches anymore (usually around 10pm). I want to play too but I am not usually asked.
There are daily missions that you can complete that can earn you new characters and weapon skins. There is usually a mission to win a specific type of match 3 or 6 times. Me and the guy I talk to most (Guy A)(36m) have a trick to complete that type of mission quickly. We start a 1 vs 1 match and take turns quitting to give each other the wins. He usually asks me to do this after competitive mode becomes inactive. Since most nights I’m not playing with the others, I have nothing better to do so I finish the missions legitimately before he is ready to do this. He is also doing the daily missions on two accounts so I am helping him more than he is me. Sometimes I feel like I am being used by him to get his missions done so it frees him up to do competitive mode.
A couple weeks ago, I was logged on the game for about an hour and then someone else logged on and he immediately was asked “We have an open spot on our team, do you want to play with us?”. I didn’t mean for the microphone to pick it up but said annoyed under my breath “of course…” Someone asks what’s wrong and I say “nothing”. Guy A asks if I wanted to play competition and I admit that I do. He says I should have said something. I said I didn’t feel right asking and that nobody else has to ask, they are just invited when they log on. I told them I assumed that nobody wanted to play competitive mode with me because I am not as good as the others. They denied that it was a skill difference issue. They said they just thought I was too busy doing the daily missions. I played a couple competitive matches with them that night.
I thought things would start to change after that but I’m still not being asked as often as the others. Yesterday, I logged on and said hi to everybody and they say hi back. They were one person short of a full team and were trying to find someone. They ask Guy A if he knows of anyone that they can invite to competition and he answers ” I have no one”. They sat around in the waiting room for 10 minutes trying to find someone. I almost logged off but stayed and did the missions. As usual when competition dies down guy A came asking for help with the missions which I ended up doing.
I can’t decide if I should say something again. I know that if I asked, they would let me play competition with them but I wouldn’t enjoy it because I would wonder if they just said yes out of obligation. Sometimes I think about quitting the game without saying anything. Since everyone else is busy, I’m only playing to complete the daily missions which are a chore. If I did quit, I’m sure guy A would most likely reach out but I wouldn’t know what to say when he asks why I haven’t been playing.
TLDR: Should I ask again about playing competitive mode with the group?