Hellllllo guys, my name's Proilios, and today, I'm bringing you the second part of OverSimplified, courtesy of educational streamer and YouTuber, SVB. A grandmaster-level main tank player, co-host of the 'Group Up!' podcast, and a well-reputed gentleman, SVB is easy to come to admire once you check out the vast array of well-constructed, relatable, and appropriately-granular content he puts out on his YouTube channel. He's devoted to educating the community about Overwatch, and once you step into his world, your perspective of the game changes forever. If you pay enough attention, you start thinking like SVB, start playing like SVB, and maybe start your intros like SVB too, I don't know (*breaks eye contact*).
Alright, a brief introduction to OverSimplified as well, for those who are new here. 'OverSimplified' is the educational section of 'The Plat Player's Perspective', with special guests taking centre stage in each episode, and sharing their thoughts on a lot of different things I ask them about, via some constructive exercises. This time round, I sought SVB's aid in helping the community understand how to think, problem-solve, and adapt their playstyle in solo queue games, which are the most frustrating way to play ranked for team-oriented folks like him and me.
There's not a lot of communication, which leads to a lot of wacky team comps, a lot of tilted players, and an unnecessarily-flustering experience for everyone involved. To help players understand how to make the most of situations like these, I posed SVB 3 different scenarios. In each scenario, assuming him to be a solo player in a ranked game, I told him what map and side he'd be playing on, what heroes he and his teammates could play, and whether or not they were in voice chat and/or comming. Given these variables, SVB told me how he'd approach each of these scenarios, which heroes he'd ask his teammates to play if they were open to suggestion, and what his playstyle would be like. I've tried to explain his points in my own words to the best of my ability.
We made a few assumptions before getting into the exercise, which are:
-It's a fair matchup. There are no cheaters, smurfs, boosted players, or throwers involved in the game.
-Everyone on the team is in voice chat but is not comming unless specifically mentioned. The only exception is you; you're always in voice chat and are always comming, because that's the ideal way to play Overwatch.
-There are no Hero Pool restrictions.
Sound good? Here we go!
 |
SCENARIO 1
Map: Nepal (All phases)
Tank 1 (YOU): Winston, Wrecking Ball, Reinhardt
Tank 2: Reinhardt, Roadhog
DPS 1: McCree, Hanzo, Ashe
DPS 2: Reaper
Support 1: Mercy, Brigitte
Support 2: Baptiste (Not in voice)
With a Reaper one-trick on the team, SVB would ideally go with a brawl comp, and considering his team's hero pools, he'd go with a Rein-Hog tank line, ask Support 1 to go Brig, and let DPS 1 play anything they like, since they can always counterpick later depending on what the enemy team is running. Reinhardt is great at fighting at close range, and having a Brig alongside him enables him to do that even more. Now let's talk about our comp with respect to the different phases of Nepal.
On Village, you'd be best off brawling on the objective as much as possible, and as the Rein, who's the anchor of your team, ask everyone to stay on point.
 |
| For early point presence, you'll want to go through the lower choke |
You could run this comp even on Sanctum, especially since Roadhog would be able to Hook enemies into the pit, while the rest of your team is focused on brawling. Now, we know that Sanctum is a great point for environmental kills, and as a main tank player who can go Ball, you can use that to your advantage. SVB said that sometimes it's better to get value on your own in solo queue, rather than rely on your team to make plays, and a Ball-Hog comp would help you achieve that on this point, since both tanks can keep dropping enemies into the pit. Trading out a Reinhardt for a Wrecking Ball means you don't have a frontline anymore, and that means you'd much rather have Support 1 on Mercy than Brigitte. Your team would still get sufficient healing since Mercy can dance between her tanks and her DPS with Guardian Angel.
Finally, Shrine is a point that's pretty good for brawling, so you could run the initial Rein-Hog-Brig comp. However, in case you're up against a good sniper, you could always swap to Ball-Mercy and go for those dives.
SCENARIO 2
Map: Hollywood (Defence)
Tank 1: Zarya, Sigma
Tank 2: Reinhardt, Zarya, Roadhog (Has a mic)
DPS 1: Hanzo, Soldier:76
DPS 2: Mei, Echo, Bastion
Support 1 (YOU): Lucio
Support 2: Brigitte, Ana, Moira
SVB really likes the idea of running Rein-Zarya-Mei-Hanzo-Lucio-Ana on Point A for defence. You could swap out Ana for Moira, depending on Support 2's skill level and preferences with respect to those heroes, but going Lucio-Brig is a big no-no. Although that support line provides good AoE healing and utility, it requires a lot of coordination and precision to get value from, which is why you should avoid running it in solo queue. That said, the great thing about this scenario is that you're a Lucio with a Reinhardt who has a mic, which means you can push/engage your opponents together. As Lucio, you have to be the one controlling the pace of each engagement. You need to call out your Speed Boosts, and push in along with your Reinhardt for maximum value. You also have a Mei-Hanzo DPS line, which gives you two possible openings for extra-aggressive engages: the first is if your Mei manages to cut part of the enemy team off with her wall, and the second is if your Hanzo gets a pick. Since you'd be fighting a 6v5 or better in those cases, it would get you free team fight wins.
 |
| Lucio has fantastic synergy with Reinhardt, so exploit that advantage and lead your team |
This comp would work well even on the streets phase, as long as the enemy team isn't controlling the high ground and beating you based off of that positional advantage. If that's the case, you could ask DPS 2 to swap from Mei to Echo, and contest the high ground with Hanzo while you fight the ground battle.
There's no unique thought process for the third phase; you can continue running whatever has been working out best for you. In this scenario, SVB set up a very powerful comp, consisting of heroes that work well together, and say what you will, but that makes life a lot easier in any ranked game.
SCENARIO 3
Map: Havana (Defence)
Tank 1: Reinhardt
Tank 2: Sigma
DPS 1 (YOU): Soldier:76
DPS 2: Torbjorn
Support 1: Brigitte
Support 2: Ana
For a team full of one-tricks, SVB doesn't think the composition he's got is all too bad. What evidently stands out about the heroes in play is the Double Barrier setup with Rein and Sigma, which provides Soldier and Torb tons of cover to stand behind and fire. The main weakness of this comp is the lack of a Lucio, which forces Reinhardt to play more passively than usual, and this could be a problem if the enemy team adopts an aggressive playstyle.
Narrowing down his focus and talking about his role and positioning as Soldier, SVB explained that positioning on any kind of high ground would be ideal for him as long as there's no sniper on the enemy team. This naturally takes into account Soldier's falloff range, meaning, for example, that you shouldn't position on the main high ground on Havana A if your team is holding at spawn, and should play closer to your team instead. There's a decent bit of high ground on Havana A and B for you to exploit as Soldier if you're not under major threat of being picked off.
 |
| This is a fantastic spot for Soldier if the enemy has no pick-oriented heroes |
Another thing you could do is try to flank the enemy team and annoy them with your sustained damage; again, you need to make sure you're not putting yourself at too much of a risk while doing this. You've also got the Nano-Visor combo, but since there are many ways to play around it, you need to assess the situation carefully before committing to it. All-in-all, Soldier's job is not to pick people off, especially in this context; it's to pressure the enemy team and deter them from being aggressive.
The 3 scenarios above showcased just a small set of challenges and limitations you can face in solo queue because of yourself and your team, and SVB walked us through the ideal ways to deal with each of them. We went over all 3 roles, managed (fictional) teammates with hero pools small and large, and saw how our thought process can and should change based on our flexibility as well as the map geometry. Also, I don't know if you guys noticed, but the scenarios I posed SVB encouraged the formation of Reinhardt-centric comps, and there are multiple reasons for that. Firstly, Rein is the strongest and most popular main tank in the entire game, and I feel everyone should know what kind of resources the German goliath demands, and how you should play around him. Secondly, I wanted to showcase Reinhardt's limitations, as well as highlight how he needs to adapt based on his team composition. The final reason is that SVB is a fantastic Rein player, and knows the nuances of the character better than the vast majority of us.
Anyway, I hope you guys found this post educational and enjoyable. One of Overwatch's biggest demands is adaptability, and after 4 years of the game being out, I think it's time we focused on honing that skill. A big thank-you to SVB for taking the time to talk to me; he's super nice and accommodating, and I couldn't have asked for a better person to do this style of OverSimplified with. I've plugged his socials down below, and I highly encourage you to check out his content.
If you liked this post, do share it around with other Overwatch players, and subscribe to my blog to be alerted whenever I write a new piece!
Before signing off, I'd also like to share a short montage of mine with you guys; it's been made by i7Player1, who's an amazing video editor and digital artist. Do check his work out and give him a follow; his details will be in the video's description!
That's it from me for now! Thanks a lot for reading this post, and I hope you guys subscribe to the blog; it'll be greatly appreciated. Stay indoors, and stay safe everyone! Proilios out!
SVB's Socials:
First part of OverSimplified: https://proilios3p.blogspot.com/2020/03/oversimplified-part-1-ft-djdestiny-and.html
Nicely written!!
ReplyDeleteThank you very much! I appreciate it! Do subscribe for more posts like this!
Delete