Casual? Competitive? Any consensus on what they mean?

DaniimalsSF

How do you define these terms? They are used all of the time in describing everything PvP related, and seem to represent two of the major groups of people who engage in PvP activities. (Are completionists casuals? Or a distinct 3rd group?) of course not everyone fits neatly into these categories, but that’s just how categories work. I think it would be great if ZOS shared their working definition of these terms, and there PvP related goals for each group. I’ll give my definitions and describe myself. It would be interesting if others did the same.
1. Completionists - only enter PvP to collect things like style pages, quests, daily rewards, or fill their sticker book. Don’t bother with a PvP build, don’t care about the outcome except the specific item or task.
2. Casuals - have a viable PvP build, understand the mechanics, expect to win some and lose some, generally play the objectives but down to get sidetracked for a fight, and just want fun action.
3. Competitive - min maxed meta builds and group comps, fully animation cancelled combos, fully understood and utilized mitigation mechanics (blocking, dodge rolling, LoS), and very focused on playing with and against others with the same goals and skill level.
A. Focused on winning the objective.
B. Focused on balanced/fair fights.

I describe myself as a casual. I’ve played since morrowind and only really engage in non-PvP content to access things useful in PvP. I know the mechanics and usually am about 90% minmaxed. I’m still only casual because I only play a few hours a week and my skill level is not elite. I also dont care much about fair fights and balance, as long as it’s not too crazy out of line. I just want lots of interesting, dynamic fights, with unpredictable outcomes. I’d like to win more than I lose, but sometimes I don’t. I prefer Cyro over BGs, but the lag a downtime keeps me out of Cyro most of the time. I also dislike the PvE element of IC.

What about you?

Soarora

I'd say I'm a casual because I don't overly optimize my builds. I made rallying cry and have a few skills but everything else is just from PvE. I don't play PvP as my main content, mostly just the occasional battleground session.

Rogue_Coyote

I think you pretty much got it right, I would add competitive players also care about their standing on the leaderboard and play towards that end strategically on the map.

kregora

I consider myself a casual completionist, I play battlegrounds for style pages.

So you may get the focus of the completionist wrong. My focus is to get as many style pages in as few matches as possible.
That means that I need to win matches, and need to get a high medal score. That only works with pvp builds.

I do use pvp builds, but I consider my pvp skill level rather mediocre. I prioritize objective play over getting in engagements with opposite players in noman's land. I only engage at objectives, and yes, I am one of those apparently dreadful healer/support/protector players.

Personally the battleground update made all modes less fun, and less approachable than the 4v4v4 matches we had before.

chessalavakia_ESO

I generally use Competitive to refer to individuals that are primarily focused on reaching a specific result (that a decent number of other players are also chasing) and are investing significant effort in that direction.

I generally would use Casual to refer to individuals that are either focused on the journey more than the result or for players that are not significantly investing effort towards a result that a decent number other people are chasing.