Sunday has been and gone, and personally I was busy flying back from DreamHack and recovering from a week of intense esports. We've still taken the time to pick over the week though and bring you some awesome content, so get yourself in the Sunday-zone (despite it being mid-week) and read on!

As we're a little late this week, we're picking out content from before the 26th November, and the next episode will take stuff from after then. We're looking outside our own doors, and we’ve picked over all of the week’s content to give you a showcase of the best. This Picked Over feature runs every week and it’s not a comprehensive review by any means - this is just some of our favourite content that we’ve read, watched, or otherwise experienced in Overwatch from the 20th to the 26th of November.

If you've skipped over some of the following pieces or just not happened to see them, we can personally recommend them to you. Make some time in your day for these beauties.

Reflecting: OGN and Rogue vs. EnVyUs (Reinforce)

Very rarely do you get a self-penned insight into a professional player's thoughts and feelings, especially in their loss. This piece by Reinforce explored his and Rogue's feelings coming into the playoffs of APEX, reasons for choosing to go up against EnVyUs, and his thoughts on the patch.

It's all written in an openly candid style, as Reinforce goes through how he felt about each new challenge as it reared its head and explores some of the out-of-game aspects of being a top player.

I’ve often retorted to writing when I’ve felt the urge to get things off my mind, whether it’s voicing an opinion, educating or reflecting, and so I decided to take some time off, the day after our most recent loss to EnVyUs, to reflect on how and why. I don’t feel like I have a responsibility to offer this insight, nor is this blog to defend our poor performance (to some extent) but simply for me, myself, to reflect on what actually happened, and hopefully it will be an interesting read for those who decided to read.

MonteCristo speaks about the present and future of competitive Overwatch (INVEN)

InvenGlobal have been doing a good job of producing interviews out in Korea where few other Anglophone reporters are stationed. This week they took on Kruise and Montecristo and it was the latter's answers that I found most interesting. Monte always directly addresses the crux of an issue, and his clear criticisms carry weight because he understands the issues and is solution-focused.

He spoke about his challenges casting Overwatch and how he imagines the game will move forwards in the future, as well as answering questions on the newest patch and OGN APEX.

How is casting Overwatch going for you so far?

Monte: Well, I'm still learning. I'm still learning how to cast Overwatch. It's a pretty big challenge. I think it's definitely the hardest eSport to cast that is in existence at the moment, so it's been a learning process. DoA and I had to sit down and practice over and over again on our own before we actually stepped up to do APEX. We found that, actually, one of the better ways to cast this game is to cast it more like a fighting game. We took a lot of inspiration from fighting game casters like Street Fighter casters and Smash casters because those are other games with constant action going on. You have to know how to stay calm when a lot of action is going on but not as important so that the viewers don't get exhausted from constant hype.

OGN APEX Semifinals - VOD analysis by flame & Mendokusaii (flame)

flame has been pumping out regular analytical video now for months, all with their own interesting high quality analysis. He's also just been given a great first opportunity to do it live at MLG Vegas, which should provide an interesting new dynamic to the desk.

I wanted to highlight this particular playlist because it's not just insightful flame analysis on the new patch of OGN APEX, with top Korean and European teams, but he's also joined by Mendokusaii who adds a player perspective. It's interesting to see the areas in which they have different opinions, highlight different things from the fights and comps, and their ideas for how teams could improve or what they should experiment with.

New Meta Defense: LW Blue vs. BK Stars Analysis (Faulty Lid Gaming)

Here's another Overwatch YouTuber who is destined to expand if they produce videos of this quality. This video is a different kind of analysis to other content; it zooms in on a very specific strategy on Volskaya Industries and then goes through the minutiae of why it works and what to look out for.

These kind of videos practically beg for a replay system as the clarity would be far improved, but the content remains highly watchable and interesting despite purely being from stream footage. The detail makes it stand out from the competition.

Stay tuned for our next episode on Sunday December 4th. Special thanks to June Cho for designing our series banner!