Why it's such a good thing that ESL is using Blizzard's Standard Competitive Rules

        

The ruleset that will be used in the ESL Overwatch Atlantic Showdown have been revealed today. If you have followed most of the tournaments in recent weeks, you will notice the ruleset is very different from what these recent tournaments have used.

Different as in, it's designed to mimic the upcoming competitive ladder format. To quote ESL,

"For the qualifiers. we’re planning to base the format on the new Competitive Play mode being added to the game soon. The mode is currently being publically tested—look for an official announcement from Blizzard shortly, but if you want to read up on the latest information from the PTR, check out Blizzard’s recent forum post.

 

We’ll be using the Competitive Play format for all map types, with the exception of the coin flip mechanic mentioned in the post above. To resolve ties, teams will instead go to a single point on a predetermined Control map and decide the winner of the round there.

 

One goal is to see the whole variety of maps and game modes Overwatch has to offer. To make this happen the map pool will consist of a weekly six map rotation featuring at least one of each game mode (Escort, Assault, Hybrid and Control). There will also be no map vetoes - all matches will rather have a predetermined first map and after that it will be the loser’s choice what map is being played next.

It’s important to note that teams will have the freedom to craft team compositions as they like with no hero restrictions or limits. Blizzard and ESL see the option to stack heroes as a core game concept and central to the strategy of Overwatch, as it gives teams the most room to be flexible and adaptable."

 

           This ruleset should look pretty familiar. This tournament will be run like the tournaments that were close to launch and play exactly like the average player's quick play games sans picking the next map. This is a step away from the map ban, one hero limit, and stopwatch rules that have been enforced by more recent tournaments such as the ones run by GosuGamers and Alienware. All things are pointing to all Blizzard supported majors using these rules. Most (but not all) professional players at the moment support the GosuGamers rule set and have been vocal about the rules being used at ESL. Despite this, Blizzard has pushed on with the standard rule set. This decision is a very important one to the young esport of Overwatch, and is crucial in its future success.

 

            Competitive play should first and foremost mirror the experience of the viewer's games.  This insures the viewer relates to the games being played and has a higher investment in watching. If a viewer can relate to what is being done in a match, they are more emotionally tied to the game, have a better understanding of the game they are watching, and even feel like they can learn something that can be used in their games by watching. A good example of how a game deviating too far from the casual experience is the surge of lane swaps in League of Legends several years ago. Lanes swaps are complicated maneuvers and strategic trades that require near perfect execution, teamwork, and communication to even pull off. let alone succeed at. As such, they are NEVER done outside of the pro level. When lane swaps became the norm, many fans reacted with anger, claiming they found professional level games boring and confusing. Stopwatch and one hero limit remove that familiarity, since both are things normal players don't deal with.

 

         The other good thing to come of this is the massive amount of complaints about stopwatch being anticlimactic to watch, as well as the tendancy for teams to call GG early knowing a win is unlikely and ready to move on to the next round. Games with stopwatch makes payload matches anticlimactic, as well as invalidating certain strategies and map movement in favor of speed and rapid snowballing. While a large number of pros and streamers call of stopwatch to be implemented in online standard games, the rest of the playerbase plus Blizzard have been more resistant, citing concerns that players online would give up too early, rage quit, or troll if their team didn't have a good time to beat, or was running out of time. The other concern is that stopwatch invalidates the integral overtime mechanic, and makes games end suddenly defeating the excitement of fighting to the end. This is why Blizzard is hard at work finding a solution and have openly admitted both sudden death and one round KOTH systems they have tried are not what they like, but believe are the best at the moment until a better tiebreaker is found.

 

               One hero limit has been more controversial. But looking back at tournaments play both with and without it, it is definitely a good thing that Blizzard isn't placing a limit on heroes. Not only is it similar to what the average play experiences, tournaments with one hero limit see similar compositions on each map for offense and defense with little variation in drafting strategy. Top teams have shown that even when stacking is allowed, teams without stacked heroes can still be optimal in certain situations, such as Cloud9's Bastion counter comp to double Winstons, which involved no stacks. Tournaments with no limit see compositions evolve and vary wildly, creating a more entertaining experience. Blizzard balances the game around stacks, making certain heroes and tactics much stronger or weaker. Reinhardt and Pharah have proven to be significantly more successful in games with a limit, while Bastion is picked much less. Because cast of characters in Overwatch have well defined specializations and uses, taking the option to stack can weaken a team's ability in some area, allowing an opponent opportunities to punish. Also, the worst offender of stacking at high level, McCree, saw nerfs which make frequent stacking of him unlikely. His versatility made him crowd out every member of his class in all situations, something which is no longer the case. 

 

                         The last, and most important by a long shot, is Blizzard refusing to allow the wishes of the of the professional players to shape the actual rules of the game used in standard professional competition. Professional players and independent broadcasters should never have any say in how the game operates during game play. It sets a dangerous precedent that the rules of the game can be modified on a whim by the players or broadcasters. Note that this does not include things outside the actual video game like tournament brackets, player etiquette or seeding. As Overwatch grows into a esport, it is critical that the stance on how the game is played is firm. What if rules like rushing an opponent with Zerglings, or not allowing Terran players to build medics were introduced into Brood War simply because some pros complained, or if LCS League of Legends games were declared a victory if one team has a 10k gold lead at 20 minutes. If Overwatch for everyone played how pros currently wish it would, in GosuGamers style matches, every game would be stopwatch payload with one hero limit on Kings Row and Hollywood, with the rare tie breaker on Lijiang Tower. That doesn't sound fun at all. And Blizzard knows this. For all these reasons, Blizzard and ESL are completely right to push this ruleset.

 

Overwatch Atlantic Showdown starts June 4th. ESL's twitter can be found here.  For more Overwatch coverage, hit the subscribe button.

 

 

 

 

Stream Feature: Navi

             

                          This month's highlighted streamer is a relatively small time broadcaster who goes by the name of Navi. Navi considers himself one of the best Hanzo one tricks to play the game, and his skill on stream does nothing but back up his claims. Every single minute I tune into this stream I see insane trick shots, multi kills, and a Hanzo play of the game almost every round. Navi does not let Hanzo's status as a weak attacking character dissuade him from picking apart the defending team with inhuman precision.While Navi occasionally busts out other characters, he admits playing Hanzo is where he feels on top of the competition.  If anyone wants to learn the art of archery, say no more, this is the streamer for you. His self stated goal is to create content that is both entertaining and informative. Navi is more than happy to share Hanzo tips and tricks with his audience and interacts with his chat actively.  For viewers that prefer a more calm attitude from the player, he is a excellent fit. It's somehow even more incredible how casual he acts as he moves around destroying entire teams.   Navi also does a good job avoiding the two greatest problems a streamers can have, long, boring silences and cringe moments in attempts to create entertainment. It makes hanging out in the channel for a while into a very genuine experience.

Navi tends to stream around 10:00pm PST.

Navi's Twitch Channel

https://www.twitch.tv/proudfurry

Navi's Youtube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRgx-DhKMfGa-GQwyDNGbjg

Zarya the Russian Powerhouse, why has the pink haired bruiser seen so much success?

           If you have watched a competitive Overwatch match lately,  you have likely seen a Zarya on the victory screen. In fact, it has become increasingly rare that at least one team isn't running the black hole throwing menace. Quite a number of recent matches between the highest caliber teams have been decided by clutch Zarya play. And while Zarya is effective elsewhere and frequently played by the average player, her level of success by the average player doesn't even compare to her outstanding performance in professional play.

           But why is this the case? Unlike Reinhardt and Mercy, who see almost 100 percent playrate in pro leagues, the reasoning behind what advantages Zarya brings is a little more complicated. There are likely several reasons why Zarya excels in a professional team  much more so than the typical pub and casual environment and why she probably won't be disappearing from the professional scene anytime soon, even if she sees nerfs.

               The first reason why Zarya is so effective in competitive play is her ability to completely negate plays by the enemy with her barriers. Because the barrier will prevent damage and disables entirely until it is popped or expires, it can prevent instant death things such as snipers or RIP tires. However because the barriers have a short duration and a long cooldown, it can be quite difficult to effectively deny damage. At the professional level, players have the reflexes to shield teammates as they see projectiles in the air as well as the game knowledge to know when an ally will be focused by the enemy. Professional players also tend to have the communication skills to use the Zarya shield to be aggressive. One example of this is the increasingly popular Lucio/Zarya/Reaper combo, where Lucio speeds up Reaper with Zarya's shield on Reaper to set up the normally risky Death Blossom. The shield also has the ability to protect the ever present Mercy until she gets Resurrect off. A well played Zarya can force the enemy team to resort to Widowmaker sniping or similar unpredictable instant kills to remove the Mercy.
Zarya's self shield also compensates for her lower hp than her counterparts in the tank class.Good timing of her aggression can be nearly impossible to take down. In duels with Zarya, professional players are much less likely to waste her self shield cooldown. Traditionally strong duelists like Genji or Soldier can get completely negated if their burst is caught by the shield, and disablers like Mcree and Roadhog can get their stuns negated with fast reflexes. Where as a less skilled player may get killed after their shield runs out or bursted down before they can even get their self barrier off.

            Zarya's methods of damaging the enemy set her apart from the other members of her class. Her secondary fire is a lobbed projectile, making her the only tank with a source of long ranged damage.. Zarya has incredibly safe poke that is relatively easy to land, as well as shoot over obstacles and hit multiple targets. Because of the lobbing nature of the projectile, combined with Zarya's regenerating shield and barrier, it is impossible to stop Zarya from poking with anything short of concentrated fire from a Bastion. What really sets a skilled Zarya apart from the rest is the player's ability to track targets with her primary fire, a laser stream that fires at the cursor. This beam is very narrow, and keeping it on a fast moving target at close range can be difficult. The maximum range is also visually deceptive, which means part of mastering its use means learning how much space between Zarya and the target that this attack is still effective. Yet even though these weapons are strong on their own, the energy mechanic attached to them is what allows Zarya to do offense class levels of damage. Energy increases damage by 1 percent per point of energy, up two 100 percent extra damage at maximum charge. The explosion radius of her lobbing attack is also increased. Energy gained by using her barriers to their maximum effectiveness that is typical of professional players can cause Zarya to hover at high energy for unusually long periods of time. This makes her extremely dangerous, as the small amount of poke turns into Junkrat-like bombs that take of a third of a characters health and turn her laser that normally takes a few seconds to kill Genji into a death ray that can melt a Roadhog in frightening speed. Like the defensive and play enabling properties of good barrier use, the ability to maintain high energy makes Zarya much more dangerous in the professional environment.

          Another difference between the average Zarya and the pro scene is use of  Zarya's ultimate. Zarya is similar to Reinhardt in that her ultimate must be supported by her teammates to get the maximum effectiveness. Unlike the disorganization that casual or even weaker teams in the scene have, proper followup damage to the Gravition Surge almost always results in a victorious fight. Luminosity for example almost always capitalize properly on this ability by quickly positioning their players to fire into the clumped up enemies provided by this ultimate. This is accomplished tactics like saving their other ultimates to use at the same time or by getting angles to fire behind a shielding Reinhardt caught in the surge. Another tactic used by highly skilled teams that is almost never used elsewhere is timing the Gravition Surge duration and using Reinhardt's Earthshatter as the pulling effect ends, creating an even longer disable that ensures no retaliation from the opposing team. Zarya's ultimate has one more difference that makes pros many times more effective on this character. Because Graviton Surge has a longer cooldown that most other ultimates, pro level matches see many more surges than games most players in casual games do. This happens because pros can play much more aggressive and know how to avoid getting punished while doing so. Combined with their superior aim, causes the surge to charge much more quickly. Average first ult timings on Zarya in pro matches are getting more and more impressive, sometimes seeing the Gravition Surge ready during  the first couple of minutes, with the next charge in a fight soon after the first use.


       Finally, all of these traits come together to complete a very versatile character. Unlike most of Overwatch's lineup, Zarya doesn't specialize in anything. She has some of the team defending abilities of a support, some of health and durability of a tank, a portion of the poke and choke point control of a defense, and a small portion of the ability to rush forward and do a lot of damage like an offense class. This makes her fit in any lineup, as she has no glaring weaknesses. While she doesn't function well as a main tank, source of damage, area denial, or mobile damage, the fact that she has a little of everything allows her supplement a team that likely already has filled all of those roles nicely. Combine that with her incredibly powerful yet team coordination dependent ultimate make the reasons behind her competitive success more clear. All characters are obviously much better in the hands of a pro. However, the difference of Zarya's impact in casual to competitive situation is much more drastic than perhaps the entire rest of the cast. Even if she were to ever receive nerfs at some point, as long as the mechanics of her abilities remain the same expect Zarya to remain a mainstay of tournament play.