Project V/Junkrat



Junkrat (Overwatch) ""It's a perfect day for some mayhem."

Junkrat is one of the twenty-two selectable fighters in Project V, representing the Overwatch franchise. He had been selected due to his charismatic personality and his unique moveset, which earned him a slot on Project V's roster. Junkrat relies on a unique camping game that centers around his defensive usage of explosives, which he can use to control the stage for himself and overwhelm opponents. He also utilizes moves like his Steel Trap to trap opponents and his Concussion Mine to recover back to the stage. While he is slow and has difficulty fighting mobile opponents, he has great damage output and puts up strong fights in even team battles. Junkrat has the unique distinction of leaving behind explosives upon death, which damage opponents close by and deal high knockback.

Junkrat ranks at 15th on the tier list, putting him at the bottom of the C tier and making him the lowest ranked non-low tier character. Junkrat boasts high power in his explosive weapons and has the potential to control the entire stage with his traps, which can cause lots of trouble for slower characters like Ganondorf or Bonkers that take constant beatings from trap set-ups. He also has rather high damage output for a camper character, which benefits his already great stage control potential. Junkrat suffers a number of glaring issues, however. He is rather slow even though his Concussion Mine tries to make up for it, and his large hurtbox makes him easy to hit atop his low speed. His recovery -- which is already mediocre -- can also be destroyed, leaving him helpless. He also lacks combo potential and has a surprising lack of KO options.

Attributes
Junkrat is fairly heavy and has a tall body frame, and appears to sort of "bend" when moving around on his legs, which shortens his body frame and helps lessen the chances of getting hit with attacks. Junkrat has below average walking speed, a poor dashing speed, decent aerial speed, fast falling speed, and decent jumps, which grant him below average mobility overall. His playstyle is all about trapping and annoying his opponents, sticking explosives to surfaces and praying an opponent touches one. If the player can predict correctly where their foe will land, they can use this to their advantage to directly force foes into their traps. Junkrat also has a multifacet recovery that he can use to smash down opponents or make it back to the stage and also eliminate platforms with his strong attacks, which can drastically alter the battle and the match itself. With Junkrat's high power output, he can easily take out foes with well-timed moves.

These attributes can backfire on Junkrat, however. Junkrat has great endurance, but his explosions can hurt him and potential partners and launch him away from the stage, which is dangerous due to his recovery being easy to intercept. Poor mobility means that he can be hurt by other camping characters and lose control over the stage. Junkrat has among the worst frame data too, with a lot of his moves coming out late or possessing high end lag, which can prove troublesome against more mobile oppoents like Silver and Spyro who can hit him easily because of this. Despite his weaknesses, he has decent tournament representation and his strengths have kept him alive and viable in competitive play. His tier list position is debatable; some players argue he should be ranked higher, others saying lower.

Moveset
Junkrat is a camper type of character, able to distance himself from opponents with his explosions and trapping moves. His moves generally consist of explosive punches and him dunking his weapons into his foes. A lot of his moves feature disjointed range, which makes it easier for him to hit opponents out of shield, and all of his smash attacks can apply pressure on shields. He typically has high damaging power and high knockback growth in several attacks, but lots of cooldown time in same moves, which means that he needs to play his game carefully or he will receive punishments. Players who usually use Junkrat will have to play patiently or they will be hit hard.
 * Neutral Special: RIP-Tire.  Junkrat activates his RIP-tire weapon, sending it forward at high speed, watching it move over walls and underneath the stage.  By pressing the green button again, it will explode, dealing high damage and knockback.  It will explode automatically within ten seconds.  Junkrat is defenseless during the move, so if he's attacked, the RIP-Tire will be disrupted and not explode.  If charged, the RIP-Tire will move much faster and explode whenever it detects an opponent within its radius, which makes escapes much harder.
 * Forward Special: Frag Launcher.  With this weapon, Junkrat fires grenades in an arc, with them exploding after a few hops and a bit of time.  These are launched fairly quickly and don't explode when they hit an enemy.  If the attack is charged up, it will go a longer distance. Each shot explodes after a short amount of time.  When the move is charged to be a stronger special attack, a bunch of grenades will come out at once and explode at the same time, which can help take out a full row of opponents or destroy a bunch of obstacles right in front of Junkrat.
 * Recovery Special: Concussion Mine.  Junkrat will place down a mine, having it explode and launch Junkrat a reasonable distance into the air.  Opponents caught below the explosion will be sent straight down.  As Junkrat rises up into the air, he is helpless and vulnerable to enemy attacks, which can make the attack easy to intercept.  If charged, the move will launch Junkrat a further distance into the air and result in a larger explosion that attacks more nearby enemies.
 * Crouch Special: Steel Trap. Junkrat can place down up to three Steel Traps, which just hang around on the battlefield.  After a third has been tossed out, he can't toss any more until at least one of them has been cleared out.  These traps will activate if an opponent steps near them, resulting in them triggering and closing to trap nearby opponents, allowing Junkrat to finish them off.  Closed traps can be picked up and used by items by any fighter, although their duration of stasnding is short.  Shall the move be charged, the next steel trap will be bigger and trap more than just one opponent for a longer period of time, allowing Junkrat to lay down a very strong finisher.

In competitive play
Due to time constraints, this is incomplete.