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.
No comments:
Post a Comment