Overview

Marvel Rivals Support Strike, also known as Marvel Rivals Strategist Strike refers to a controversy in the Marvel Rivals hero shooter gaming in which content creators and players who would mainly play as support heroes stopped playing in the role after a series of toxic environment during matches, unfair ranked elos compared to DPs and Tanks, as well as comments shared on TikTok by Rivals' content creator Necros, who called support players "idiots" and "morons." Discussions about the support strike started in mid-April 2025, as soon as the game's second season was released. The controversy also sparked memes and jokes on Twitter / X, TikTok.

Background

On April 11th, 2025, Marvel Rivals: Season 2 released worldwide with various updates,^[1] including balancing heroes' status and adding individual performance during ranked matches to impact the amount of ELO gained or lost. A few days after the update, on April 17th, 2025, TikTok^[2] user @thepicknroll, a grandmaster Rivals gamer and content creator, posted a video regarding how the new ELO update negatively impacted players whose main heroes are supporters, claiming the character's status makes them more susceptible to losing more ELO than DPs and Tank players, while also suggesting "support players" disappeared from ranked matchesdue to the updates (seen below), amassing more than 688,000 plays and 115,000 likes in a week.

Developments

Necros Rant About Support Players

As support players shared their dissatisfaction with the current state of Marvel Rivals: Season 2 updates, a video of streamer and Rivals' player Necros calling people who main support heroes are "morons" and "idiots" gained viral traction on TikTok. The video (seen below) comes from a March 2025 livestream, later shared on YouTube^[3] by Marvel Rivals TV, receiving roughly 245 views in a month.

Online Reactions

In the week following, discussions about several other Marvel Rivals content creators and support players joining the "support strike" gained traction on social media. For example, on April 21st, 2025, TikTok^[4] user @artic.mr posted a video with the text overlay "Me having to put down my Marvel Rivals mains away because we're on support strike." The video (seen below) received more than 855,000 plays and 153,000 likes in two days.

The debate also went viral on Reddit, as redditor^[5] u/lovingpersona posted to the r/marvelrivals subreddit on April 22nd, 2025, an image of Loki, a support hero, alongside the caption "I call in you fellow support mains, to join the Strategist Strike!" The post (seen below) amassed roughly 22 upvotes and 134 comments in a day.

On April 21st, 2025, YouTuber^[6] GreenUltraAcid posted a video explaining the Marvel Rivals support strike, which amassed roughly 2,900 views and 100 likes in two days.

Search Interest

External References