Introduction
Startwatch is analysis I do every week/bi-weekly, breaking down strategies, tactics, and concepts used by professional players to better their opponents. I hope break into their logic and thoughts, and bring them to aspiring competitors or current competitive players.
I want to improve this series through-out the summer and beyond. I really enjoy analyzing and breaking down competitive play. If you have feedback about the ideas or logic within any of the episodes, or thoughts on content in general, please let me know.
List of Episodes
Stratwatch 1: Protect the President
Stratwatch 2: Goggles and Glasses
Stratwatch 3: Hollywood Defense
Stratwatch 4: Importance of Individual plays in Strategies
Stratwatch 5: C9's Gibraltar Defense
Stratwatch 6: Shutting out the Offense (GFE's Hold against TL at Agents Rising
Stratwatch 7: King of the Hill in 1 Hero Limit
Stratwatch 8: How to improve Individually: Part One
Stratwatch 9: Kings Row: Defending Point A and Streets Phase
Stratwatch 10: Gibraltar Offense: Breakdown of OGInvitational and Alienware Monthly
Stratwatch 11: How to Improve Individually (Part 2: Positioning)
Summary: This episode will continue the series Improving Individually and look at the core mechanics of First Person Shooters that you will need to work on mastering to improve your game. This episode in the series will focus on positioning, what is it? What is good positioning versus bad? What does having good positioning do for you? And how do you improve your positioning? The series of How to improve Individually will continue alone with other episodes of Stratwatch, and I will be covering Tempo next.
Stratwatch 12: Numbani Analysis
Summary: This episode is the first one to look at Numbani. The focus of this episode is on the current comps most commonly seen on Numbani, how to defend on Numbani, and how to break Point A. This episode is a bit more informal, and a lot of the ideas and concepts covered in this episode can be applied to other maps!.
Stratwatch 13: How to Improve Individually (Part Three: Situational Awareness)
Summary: In part 3 of the self-improvement series we take a loot at the idea of situational awareness. What is it? What does good situational awareness provide to a player? and how can one improve their situational awareness? This episode aims to answer these questions and provide insight about game sense/situational awareness.
Stratwatch 14: 2CP (Assault) Map Analysis - Temple of Anubis
Summary: We finally take a look at 2CP maps (assault game type) in Stratwatch. These maps have been a contentious subject in the community due to the quick swings of tempo. But with the addition of the time-bank setup, teams have started to pick them more in competitive events. I hope this episode helps shed some light on the theories of the map, the compositions reunited to defend and attack, as well as why these maps can feel imbalanced.
Stratwatch 15: Ana in the Current Meta: 3 Support Composition
Summary: In a recent match from the recording Evoks ran a pocket Ana strategy that I wanted to look at through the lens of the current meta. In this episode I hope to cover the idea of why the 2/2/2 meta is so galvanized, where Ana could fit in the current meta, and analyze a high skill competitive match that used Ana. I hope this episode helps shed some light on these topics as the format this time around was a bit more informal.
Stratwatch 16: Mei on Kings Row: Analysis of Team Liquid and OhNo from the Atlantic Showdown
Summary: In the NA Regionals of the Atlantic Showdown there was plenty of different heroes picks seen. There was a revival of the Pharamercy combo, there was play of Junkrat and - most importantly for this episode - Mei was a seen in multiple games on Kings Row. In this episode I hope to breakdown what makes Mei a good pick on Kings Row point A, how to effectively use her, what it looks like in contrast to the standard defense, and how to deal with Mei.
Stratwatch 17: Ultimate Management
Summary: In this Stratwatch I tried to tackle the concept of Ultimate Management. There are many layers to this, and the goal was to at least cover the following parts of it: What are the categories of Ultimates, what is good Ultimate Management, how does this effect the individual, how does this effect the team, and how is Ultimate Management different for the offense and defense (with the latter logic sometimes applying to King of the Hill). I hope this episode helps drive more discussion and analysis into Ultimate Management as I strong feel this is a core layer to strong Overwatch play!
Stratwatch 19: Forced and Unforced Errors
Summary: This episode looks at errors and what types of errors exist. Specifically focusing on the difference between forced and unforced errors, this episode follows Dallas Fuel through their match vs LA Valiant and evaluates what kind of mistakes were made. This episode will answer what Forced and Unforced errors look like, how to identify them, and how to avoid them in your own individual play or teamplay.
Discord