Hey everyone, hope you and your loved ones are safe and sound. This is Proilios, and yes, it's been a crazy few weeks with the coronavirus situation getting more and more severe around the world, but I'm optimistic we'll get through it. We have to. At times like these we feel really disconnected with the outside world, but connected at the same time, especially if we're gamers. I think a lot of people underrate how much we can help, support and encourage each other by being connected via video games, which are safe spaces for many of us, and I hope we can use this medium to be there for each other during a time when there's so much pain and suffering throughout the world. I think now more than ever, we need to, in the words of Jeff Kaplan, "Be nice to each other", so let's try and do that, yeah?
Over the past month or so, I've had a new blog post concept in the works, which shaped up to be a 4th section of The Plat Player's Perspective, called 'OverSimplified', and the purpose of this section is to aid all of you in revising the concepts of team compositions, map metas, and counterpicking, to help you navigate the brand new world of Hero Pools.
For whoever hasn't played the game for a while: Every week, 1 tank, 2 DPS, and 1 support are being made unavailable for Competitive Play, and the remaining heroes comprise the 'Hero Pool' for that week. It's important to note that no hero can be banned for two weeks in a row, which helps to keep the meta fresh and improve the competitive experience for everyone. The Overwatch League has also begun using its own implementation of Hero Pools, in which 4 random heroes with a pickrate higher than 10% in a week are banned for the week after. As of right now, the Hero Pools for the League and the live client are different, which is a little absurd, but this post isn't about that. It's about how we can adapt to Hero Pools, and before helping you understand that, let me break down what this section of my blog will bring to the table.
In each part of OverSimplified, I will have separate conversations with two guests, who could be pro players, coaches, analysts, streamers, you get the idea; and I will pose a few game-related scenarios to them. These scenarios will consist of a map, a side if relevant (attack/defence), and a set of banned heroes (in the 1-2-1 format as mentioned earlier). My guests will have to tell me what heroes/comps they'd run if they were actually in that position, giving reasons for the same. For example, I could say that we're playing on Ilios (obviously on attack), and that the banned heroes are Orisa, Widowmaker, Pharah and Lucio. Then my guests would have to tell me what they'd play on Ilios Well, Lighthouse, and Ruins with those Hero Bans. Understandable so far? Good. Both guests (neither will know who the other is) will be posed the exact same scenarios, and after getting both their answers, I will share them with you guys and try to explain the similarities and differences in the logic behind them. I feel like this will help all of us learn how to think in a variety of situations, counterpick efficiently, as well as understand the strengths and weaknesses of different phases of different maps. Ultimately, I hope that the community is educated by these exercises in a fun and unique way, and that we learn, progress, and evolve together as players.
In this first part of OverSimplified, we've got DJDestiny and kcot, who played for Team India in the Overwatch World Cup, 2019.
DJDestiny is an off-tank player who has hit Top 500 on the NA as well as EU servers. A fun-loving, cheerful and positive player, he is now trying to be a content creator on YouTube, and spends a lot of time streaming Overwatch and other games like Diabotical and Warzone, as of late. I'm really glad to have him on The Plat Player's Perspective once again, and yeah, he's awesome. Check out this montage of his if you haven't already.
My second guest for this post is kcot, a DPS player comfortable on both hitscan and projectile heroes. He's hit Top 500 on EU, been hackusated by Kephrii while he was in the States, and has hit Top 16 (out of 60+ teams) in a couple of Open Division tournaments. He's currently LFT for Contenders and also streams on Twitch, so do pay him a visit, tell him Proilios sent you, and I'm sure he'll be willing to answer any questions you type in while he's popping off on one of the bazillion heroes he's good at. Here's kcot's clip section to give you an idea of what this guy is capable of.
For more information on these two hidden gems, do check out this post I wrote about them and the rest of Team India before the OWWC, 2019.
With that out of the way, let's move on to the meat of today's post, and check out the 7 scenarios I posed to DJ and kcot.
Over the past month or so, I've had a new blog post concept in the works, which shaped up to be a 4th section of The Plat Player's Perspective, called 'OverSimplified', and the purpose of this section is to aid all of you in revising the concepts of team compositions, map metas, and counterpicking, to help you navigate the brand new world of Hero Pools.
For whoever hasn't played the game for a while: Every week, 1 tank, 2 DPS, and 1 support are being made unavailable for Competitive Play, and the remaining heroes comprise the 'Hero Pool' for that week. It's important to note that no hero can be banned for two weeks in a row, which helps to keep the meta fresh and improve the competitive experience for everyone. The Overwatch League has also begun using its own implementation of Hero Pools, in which 4 random heroes with a pickrate higher than 10% in a week are banned for the week after. As of right now, the Hero Pools for the League and the live client are different, which is a little absurd, but this post isn't about that. It's about how we can adapt to Hero Pools, and before helping you understand that, let me break down what this section of my blog will bring to the table.
In each part of OverSimplified, I will have separate conversations with two guests, who could be pro players, coaches, analysts, streamers, you get the idea; and I will pose a few game-related scenarios to them. These scenarios will consist of a map, a side if relevant (attack/defence), and a set of banned heroes (in the 1-2-1 format as mentioned earlier). My guests will have to tell me what heroes/comps they'd run if they were actually in that position, giving reasons for the same. For example, I could say that we're playing on Ilios (obviously on attack), and that the banned heroes are Orisa, Widowmaker, Pharah and Lucio. Then my guests would have to tell me what they'd play on Ilios Well, Lighthouse, and Ruins with those Hero Bans. Understandable so far? Good. Both guests (neither will know who the other is) will be posed the exact same scenarios, and after getting both their answers, I will share them with you guys and try to explain the similarities and differences in the logic behind them. I feel like this will help all of us learn how to think in a variety of situations, counterpick efficiently, as well as understand the strengths and weaknesses of different phases of different maps. Ultimately, I hope that the community is educated by these exercises in a fun and unique way, and that we learn, progress, and evolve together as players.
In this first part of OverSimplified, we've got DJDestiny and kcot, who played for Team India in the Overwatch World Cup, 2019.
DJDestiny is an off-tank player who has hit Top 500 on the NA as well as EU servers. A fun-loving, cheerful and positive player, he is now trying to be a content creator on YouTube, and spends a lot of time streaming Overwatch and other games like Diabotical and Warzone, as of late. I'm really glad to have him on The Plat Player's Perspective once again, and yeah, he's awesome. Check out this montage of his if you haven't already.
My second guest for this post is kcot, a DPS player comfortable on both hitscan and projectile heroes. He's hit Top 500 on EU, been hackusated by Kephrii while he was in the States, and has hit Top 16 (out of 60+ teams) in a couple of Open Division tournaments. He's currently LFT for Contenders and also streams on Twitch, so do pay him a visit, tell him Proilios sent you, and I'm sure he'll be willing to answer any questions you type in while he's popping off on one of the bazillion heroes he's good at. Here's kcot's clip section to give you an idea of what this guy is capable of.
For more information on these two hidden gems, do check out this post I wrote about them and the rest of Team India before the OWWC, 2019.
With that out of the way, let's move on to the meat of today's post, and check out the 7 scenarios I posed to DJ and kcot.
1. Junkertown (Defence) without Zarya, Mei, Symmetra and Baptiste
For the first point, both kcot and DJ suggest running Rein-D.Va as the tank duo, with kcot saying you could sub D.Va out for an Orisa if required. For the supports, they agree on running an Ana-Lucio, to help the Reinhardt reposition with ease. When it comes to the damage dealers though, they have a couple of interesting takes. DJ is of the firm opinion that you should always run a sniper on this point, since it is wide open and has long sightlines, and probably back them up with a short range hero to maintain consistent frontline damage/harass the backline, depending on whom you pick. Here is where kcot partly agrees, saying that Double Sniper can still certainly be viable on this point, but on the current patch, since Rushdown comps are really powerful, you could just have two short/midrange DPS, hide in the house right next to the payload, and rush the enemy team whenever they try to gain progress.
On the second point, DJ still likes the idea of running the same comp he suggested before, since snipers can get a ton of space on the high ground and take multiple angles of fire while the rest of their team is keeping the enemy frontline busy. In contrast, kcot actually likes the idea of running Dive here. He says that with Mei out of the picture, running something like a Sombra-Genji Dive would be quite powerful because of the amount of high ground available to the defending team.
On third, kcot would prefer sticking to Dive, whereas DJ would like to run a Deathball instead. Since Dive is a pretty good attack strat on this point of Junkertown, DJ says running snipers could be quite hard, which is why the DPS could go for shorter range picks and form a Deathball with their teammates.
Based on what my guests told me (and based on personal experience as well), the first point of Junkertown is very sniper-friendly, the second point is quite good to abuse mobility and the high ground on, and the third point is very Dive-friendly and deterring to snipers if adopted. These answers seem pretty straightforward, but Mei's absence played a big part in shaping them, since she's arguably the strongest DPS in the game right now. Her removal from the Hero Pool permits Dive to be played on some of the points of this map, otherwise you'd probably just see Mei mirrors at all times. During our talk, kcot said, "Banning Mei breaks almost every comp that is meta right now", and he couldn't be more correct.
2. Anubis (Defence) without Orisa, Tracer, Ashe and Lucio
With 3 out of the 4 banned heroes not being 'meta', kcot wasn't inclined to change the go-to Rein-D.Va comp more than he needed to. This time, on Point A, he would play Rein-D.Va-Mei as usual, and go either Widow or McCree on the hitscan slot. His supports would be Ana-Baptiste. DJ, on the other hand, was determined to instalock the Widow once again, and surprisingly enough, run a second hitscan, McCree, along with her. He finds this point really good for Widowmaker because she has two high ground locations to grapple between, which gives her multiple sight lines and escape opportunities. He also said that if you were to go for Mei, Hanzo would be great to pair with her. On support, DJ would be happy to have Ana-Zen, since it gives you a good amount of healing as well as a defensive ultimate.
Moving on, Point B is a little more enclosed, which is why DJ would definitely like to pull out Mei here. Her walls can cut enemies off no matter which path they're taking to the point, and that can lead to some very easy team fight wins. A fitting pairing for Mei would be Hanzo or Reaper. For the best support(s), DJ thinks Zen is pretty good because he can stay way behind his team and spam the enemy, and if he's getting dove, he can swap to Moira. Kcot has some similar ideas here, since he likes the idea of playing Mei on Anubis B as well, but he would pair her with McCree, because without a Lucio, you cannot exactly rush down the enemy, and have to play the poke game instead. Also, McCree is just really good overall. That said, kcot also likes the idea of running Doom-Reaper here, since they're very powerful on this point. As for the supports, he would either continue the Ana-Bap or go for Ana-Moira if Baptiste doesn't work out.
My guests were quite in-sync when they said that Point A of Anubis is very open and Point B isn't, which shaped their answers in a rather similar fashion. We should all remember that Point A being open means that Widow can reign supreme if given enough space, and that Point B's choke-y nature is fantastic to play close-quarters heroes like Mei, Reaper and Doomfist on, especially given the absence of Lucio, who enables the harder-to-counter Rushdown Comps. The big ban here really is Lucio, since the rest of the banned heroes aren't as versatile or powerful as he is in the current meta.
Moving on, Point B is a little more enclosed, which is why DJ would definitely like to pull out Mei here. Her walls can cut enemies off no matter which path they're taking to the point, and that can lead to some very easy team fight wins. A fitting pairing for Mei would be Hanzo or Reaper. For the best support(s), DJ thinks Zen is pretty good because he can stay way behind his team and spam the enemy, and if he's getting dove, he can swap to Moira. Kcot has some similar ideas here, since he likes the idea of playing Mei on Anubis B as well, but he would pair her with McCree, because without a Lucio, you cannot exactly rush down the enemy, and have to play the poke game instead. Also, McCree is just really good overall. That said, kcot also likes the idea of running Doom-Reaper here, since they're very powerful on this point. As for the supports, he would either continue the Ana-Bap or go for Ana-Moira if Baptiste doesn't work out.
My guests were quite in-sync when they said that Point A of Anubis is very open and Point B isn't, which shaped their answers in a rather similar fashion. We should all remember that Point A being open means that Widow can reign supreme if given enough space, and that Point B's choke-y nature is fantastic to play close-quarters heroes like Mei, Reaper and Doomfist on, especially given the absence of Lucio, who enables the harder-to-counter Rushdown Comps. The big ban here really is Lucio, since the rest of the banned heroes aren't as versatile or powerful as he is in the current meta.
3. Dorado (Attack) without Reinhardt, Soldier:76, Tracer and Mercy
"I see what you did there", laughed DJ as he found out that I've banned Rein and Mercy at the same time. He was going to go for Pharah, but since he had no Mercy to pocket her, he said he'd opt into hard-Dive, with the traditional Zen-Lucio backline. The tanks would be either Winston-D.Va or Winston-Hammond, since Winston's bubble is fairly durable now, and the DPS would be something like Doomfist-Genji, both of whom are great on Dorado attack. DJ said you could also switch up the Zen to an Ana, which makes sense, since it gives you more healing as well as the Nano-Winston and Nanoblade win conditions. The beauty of this comp is that it can be played successfully on all 3 points of Dorado while attacking, which means you can minimise your swaps and save ultimate charge.
Kcot was also a bit frazzled upon hearing about the Rein-Mercy ban, and responded with a simple "Oof". With the given options, he said he'd go for a Double Barrier comp with Mei-Reaper and Ana/Moira-Lucio on the first and third points. You could also run this comp on the second point, but you've got an alternate option here according to kcot. This one took me by surprise, since he proposed running Winston-D.Va-Pharah-Genji-Ana-Brig. Running Ana and Brig means you can still heal the Pharah, and most of your team can contest the high ground. Kcot also mentioned that this comp gives you multiple win conditions instead of just the Nanoblade, which is the win condition for a lot of Dive comps. If you're uncomfortable playing Pharah here, you could sub her out for Sombra, and also switch out Brig for a Lucio.
This scenario was particularly interesting for me, since DJ and kcot came up with pretty different but innovative answers to the same problem. DJ opted into Dive, and kcot chose to go Double Barrier, and both of these comps make sense if you think closely. Every single point of Dorado has a ton of high ground, which means Dive can definitely work wonders. As for Double Barrier, well, if you don't want to contest the high ground, you can pull your enemies off of it with Orisa's Halt, and also deny them damage with Sigma's Experimental Barrier. If you simply survive and push the payload far enough, it will force the enemy team to contest you on even ground anyway, which means all you have to do is stay alive and manage your cooldowns better. That was a fun one, but I'm not even halfway done yet.
4. Dorado (Attack) without Zarya, Ashe, McCree and Moira
After I pitched the same situation to my guests a second time, but with four completely different bans, I got some more 'ideal' answers out of them. DJ was happy to have his Mercy finally uncaged, as he instantly told me he'd run a Pharmercy along with Rein-D.Va-Hanzo-Ana. The goal of this comp would be to take up multiple angles of fire, split the enemy's attention, and spam them down, all while Rein pushes the cart along with Ana. Pharah and Hanzo can break barriers quite easily, which puts the enemy team in a high-pressure situation right from the get-go. This is a very interesting strategy, and DJ said he'd definitely run it for the first two points. On the third point, even though this comp can work, he'd probably swap the Pharmercy to Mei-Lucio instead, running something closer to the meta.
Kcot is someone to play by the book a little more, and he said he'd run the standard Rein-D.Va-Mei-Ana-Lucio, along with either Widow or Reaper as the second DPS, depending on the situation. He says this comp can be run on every point, which is, once again, quite optimal.
I think so far, we've seen some great answers, and they back up a lot of stuff we've already observed since the launch of Hero Pools. For instance, the meta is pretty much centred around Reinhardt and Mei as of now, and their absence from the Hero Pool pretty much breaks the meta and opens up a ton of different comps and playstyles to us.
5. Lijiang Tower without D.Va, Reaper, Pharah and Baptiste
Still staying as in-sync with the rule book as possible, kcot's comp on all three points of Lijiang would be Rein-Orisa-Mei-Lucio, along with either a Sym or a McCree as the second DPS, and either an Ana or a Moira as the second support. He believes this comp is not easy to Dive against, and can do well on every single point.
Don't look now, but DJ is here with a slightly different take. He's inclined to running Dive on Gardens, specifically Hammond-Winston-Sombra-Genji-Ana-Lucio (you can sub out Ana for Moira or Zen if you wish). He believes Sombra is quite strong on this map, since she can easily get hacks off and farm EMP, and due to the mobile nature of her team, they can all collapse on a single target when a hack is called out and finish them off. Will this comp find it difficult to beat kcot's though? Well, we'll have to try it and find out, but let's move on to DJ's answers for the remaining two parts of Lijiang. On Control Centre, he'd opt into a Rushdown comp, specifically Rein-Zarya-Mei-Hanzo-Ana-Lucio. High damage output is what DJ is going for here, and since it's a narrow map, these characters can certainly meet that condition. On Night Market, DJ would run the same comp, since Mei walls can get a ton of value at any of its chokes. He also said you can consider switching your hitscan to Widowmaker, since she can pick off enemies who are fighting on the point, but it entirely depends on what you're comfortable with.
The bottom line is, Night Market and Control Centre are both great for high-damage, low-to-midrange comps, since they're very narrow in nature. As for Lijiang Gardens, you can play what you're comfortable with, since it's more open, and can permit Dive to get some value. However, if you're good at Rein-Orisa, you can certainly stick to them as well.
6. Hanamura (Defence) without Sigma, Sombra, Widowmaker and Ana
"Rein-D.Va-Mei-Reaper-Lucio-Moira" answered kcot for Point A of Hanamura. This one is pretty straightforward, as I'm sure you guys can tell by now, so let's move on to Point B, where you have some fun options. Firstly, kcot likes the idea of continuing to play Reaper here, but if he's not getting much value, you could swap him out for Soldier. Why Soldier? Well, he can occupy the balcony (right side of the point, near the mega health pack), and run across it, even getting to the high ground overlooking the point. That way, he can get off-angles onto the enemy team, and build his ultimate really quickly. His teammates can kite in the meantime ('kiting' is the act of constantly repositioning so that you maintain a safe distance from the enemy team, but are still able to deal damage yourself), buying him time to apply pressure and build up his Visor. It's a situational pick, since Soldier can find it hard to get valuable Visors and even to get healed up since there's no Ana, so if you want a more direct solution, you could always go McCree instead. Also, this is a good point for Baptiste according to kcot, so you could sub out your Moira for him if needed. I'm assuming this has something to do with the abundant high ground perches Bap can occupy while his team is brawling on the point.
This time as well, DJ has a slightly different approach. On defence, he'd run pretty much the same comp as kcot, but with a Zarya instead of D.Va, and maybe Hanzo instead of Reaper, depending on the situation. His explanation for running Zarya over D.Va is that it's very difficult for attackers to get the high ground on this point, which means you may not even have to contest it, and are better off running Zarya instead for her core synergy with Reinhardt. Also, Mei is a beast at defending the main choke, which is very difficult to break unless you're running hard-Dive with something like Sombra-Genji, and since there's no Sombra, you can eliminate that possibility, which means your comp is very hard to counter. On the second point, there are certainly more caveats involved, since there are multiple approach routes available to the attackers, but DJ thinks you can still make this comp work well on it. No arguments there; this comp does come with a lot of sustain and horizontal mobility.
I think the general consensus here is to play Rein-Mei comps as the meta dictates, with possibility for variation depending on the situation. Pretty straightforward. Alright, let's move on to the 7th and final scenario.
7. Oasis without Roadhog, Sombra, Widowmaker, Baptiste
DJ is inclined to play Deathball comps on almost all points on Oasis. I think I should clarify what we're referring to by 'Deathball', and in this case it is Rein-Lucio-Mei, along with 3 heroes whose use depends on your comfort picks and the situation. On off-tank, you could have either Zarya or D.Va; it makes sense to have Zarya if you've got a Hanzo, for instance, since you get the Grav-Dragon combo, but otherwise, you could always sub her out for D.Va. On the hitscan slot, you can run something like a McCree or Hanzo, and for the flex support, you can go Ana if you're not getting dove, and Moira if you are. On Oasis specifically, Deathball is good for multiple reasons. On Gardens, it's vital to have your McCree or Hanzo on the high ground, and if you maintain that position, DJ thinks you can win every single fight. On University, you can use Mei's walls to cut people off when they approach the point and win fights that way. On City Centre, you can use the central structure to your advantage, especially if you've got control of the point. DJ recalled a time when he was playing ranked, and his Lucio kept calling speed boosts so that they could run around that round structure to get away from enemy ultimates, and avoid dying through simple communication and kiting. It's a great point to stall, especially if you're comming like that. If you don't want to run a Deathball here though, DJ thinks Dive can work well too, since there's a ton of high ground that you can abuse overlooking the objective.
This time, kcot was unknowingly in agreement with DJ for the most part. He too, believes that Deathball would be great to run on every single point, and you know he's referring to the traditional Mei-McCree comp here. However he added that you could replace D.Va or Zarya with Orisa if you wanted, since she works well in Deathballs now as well. If you don't want to run Deathball, you can go Dive on City Centre as well as Gardens. On Gardens, kcot suggested an interesting composition, which is Winston-D.Va-Tracer-Pharah-Mercy-Lucio. It's a little low on healing for the tanks, but we've seen Dive with Mercy-Lucio being successful, so it's not too big of a deal. Also, kcot would've really liked to run Sombra here, but due to her unavailability, he'd resort to running Tracer instead. This composition would vary slightly on City Centre, as kcot would prefer running Ana instead of Lucio due to the long sightlines she'd get to heal her team. Again, both Dive and Deathball can work here, so pick what your team's comfortable with and go for it!
The bottom line is, the Rein-Mei-Lucio combination is super strong right now, and you can run it almost any time on maps with not much high ground, or even those with it on occasion. For Oasis specifically, this Deathball comp will work well on all 3 points, with there being room for Dive on Gardens as well as City Centre.
Well that was a ride, wasn't it? It's really something to be able to narrow down what's really good on which map and avoid that extra bit of cognitive dissonance you experience 10 seconds before the spawn doors open. In today's post, we went through 7 different scenarios, some similar to others, and the remaining, not so much, and I'm sure that helped all of us get a better grasp on why certain points of certain maps are so good, and how they can be exploited by certain heroes. I don't really know what the bans are going to be like in the near future, since the devs haven't been following the '1 tank, 2 DPS, 1 support' ban pattern on ladder these past couple weeks. From what I can tell though, most of the player base thinks banning more than 1 tank or support limits comp choices a lot, so Blizzard will probably stick to banning 2 DPS, and not 2 tanks or supports in the future.
That said, thanks to all of you for reading this article, it was truly a blast to work on. A big thank-you to DJDestiny and kcot as well for joining me in creating this educational piece, I urge you guys to check their streams and socials out; they're really awesome and can reach some great heights with your encouragement. If you liked this part of 'OverSimplified', do share it around to educate your friends and teammates, and also subscribe to my blog to be alerted whenever I post something new. I also write about game balance, the Overwatch League, and interviews I've had with Overwatch personalities, so I'm sure there's something for all of you to read.
That's it from me for now, so take care, stay safe, and have a good weekend!
GO GOATSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
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