Competitive W:A gaming is dying for sure unless somehow loads of inactive people all of a sudden decide to start playing again, actively. I never thought that I would miss the days when people were spamming for clanners and tus/tel matches in AG... but now, I strangely do.
Anyway, Anubis, what you said is correct but I don't think that the momentum actually comes from bouncing off of the wall as much as it does simply pressing up at the right moment. It's very fickle and often doesn't work, at least in a predictable way as in W:A. The WMD rope(s) are usable enough for basic maneuvering but by W:A standards it's kinda pathetic. Also, hardly anyone in WMD has much skill with the rope anyway, so there's rarely rope-based schemes hosted, and those that do get hosted are typically really dumb schemes with tons of crafting crates.
@HHC - I think my comments are totally fair. I've sunk 700+ hours into WMD. Team17 talked a lot but didn't deliver. I don't think that WMD is a terrible game. It just could have been SO MUCH BETTER if they had:
1. Had a beta with veteran players giving input
2. Continued development of the game as they said they would
3. Hadn't made a roadmap that they didn't stick to whatsoever after 1 month or so, lol
4. Hadn't went completely silent on the Steam forums and elsewhere regarding the state of the game and future updates
5. Hadn't priced the game at $30 USD... so many more people would have bought the game if it were a bit less expensive. It didn't go on sale for quite a while and although the sales did help with the player base a bit, it was too little, too late
6. Hadn't split the player base up between Steam, GOG, PS4, XB1, and now Switch
etc etc.
I just got tired of playing WMD due to the fact that I'd lose games fairly often due to nothing more than sheer luck and/or unpredictability. Crafting ruins the experience, utterly. Also, the max round time in WMD is 30 minutes and there is no control over water rise speed. What this means is that if the game actually goes that long, which it often doesn't due to mobility and crafting stupid weapons, most players cannot reliably make long distance shots or even have good strategies in mind for how to deal with the situation other than: "I will drop a sentry, surround myself with girders, spam magnets, and wait until the last second to win with a cheesy weapon like a homing missile or a training shotgun." For some inexplicable reason, the homing missile in WMD now ignores magnets when the thruster is on. What a dumb decision there...
The base gameplay and strategy in Worms: Clan Wars was much better, even if the game engine itself sucked.