I actually think that a hero limit of 1 is better for the game. With hero limit 1 there's still 45,000 possible team compositions as opposed to 230,000 without limits. The problem with the game we played is that the attackers can pick a cheese strat, the defenders die, lose an objective, change to counter it and the attackers then change to counter the new defense setup (and then win). You basically get a big game of rock paper scissors.

I like the idea that single players in a game can pick heroes to counter other single players. Like if the enemy team is running a WidowMaker, one of your guys can run a genji or something to put pressure on them. These mini-counters are much better for the game than being able to change the entire team comp to counter an entire team comp.

I think that the worst thing the competitive scene can do, is start to do the TF2 option of limiting specific heros to 1, others to 2, others to 3 etc... You either limit all heroes to 1, 2, or just don't limit them at all. Keep the rules consistent, keep the rules simple. I also think that this limit needs to be hard coded into the game by Blizzard so that the competitive game and the public game are consistent. Allow unlimited heroes in Custom games but in publics and ranked games, allow only one of each hero. We would probably find better public play team compositions are formed because of this.

Not if you catch the Mercy in the knockdown ;p

As much as I like the stream shoutout, I think you've put the wrong one in there ;)

I'll be streaming next week though...

Reinhardt ult into Mei ult is really powerful. Anyone he knocks down is basically under crowd control effects for the next 15 seconds. Throw in a Reaper ult at the end and it's 100% death death death.

If the game wants to succeed as an eSports title, the professional scene, competitions and virtually everything else will need to be ready at launch. They can't hire someone to do this job once the game is released as the initial hype plays a massive factor in determining an eSports success. From a business perspective you don't just organise a tournament and throw money at it, there's a tonne of planning and preparation that needs to be done before something like this can function and thrive, especially with the bar being raised to the level that Riot and Valve have set with League of Legends and DoTa respectively.

None of the gameplay issues you've mentioned prevent the game from becoming an eSports title. FoV is a preference and irrelevant bar a few people who want the game to change to be like the other 'reflex' games they are used to, the server tickrate is a non-factor in this objective (yes I know what it does and no it will not effect the game becoming a successful eSport but the netcode could do with being tightened up a little in general). The scoreboard / kill feed are issues that can affect the quality of commentating and the awareness of spectators in what is going on in the game so these are issues that will need to be addressed in one way or another.

For every few hundred gamers who won't play a game because the FoV is too low, the viewmodels can't be removed, or the bright lights get in the way sometimes, there's thousands that will play the game how it is, will form teams and compete in a professional structure if it is enjoyable, well managed and sustainable. If the money is there, Blizzard can make these things happen and hiring someone now to get the ball rolling is a very promising move for the game.

The biggest factor is money. If the business model of the game isn't correct, the eSports potential is massively limited. TF2 gained so much from switching to a free to play model but it was too late for the game title to be relevant. I'm wondering if OverWatch is planning to do something similar, charging people for the game for say, the first year and then switching it out to a free-to-play game down the road depending on how popular the purchasable cosmetics are. They really need to get their strategy right on this one.

Edit also forgot to add... it's not like people qualified for this job grow on trees. Finding someone with extensive experience in a reasonably new industry is incredibly difficult. The next best thing is to find someone with extensive experience in sporting or similar events but they then need to be trained in eSports, game knowledge and much more. They should have started recruiting for this role a while back :).

I wouldn't get too excited. This is more of a stress test than anything else. There's a chance they invite thousands of players only to find the servers have major issues and people can't play at all. I hope for Blizzard's sake that isn't the case or the backlash they are going to receive will be immense.

Let's hope it all goes smoothly and a load more of the TF2 community can get to try out this game first hand.

As I mentioned in my post, I don't think heroes should lose their ults when they die, but I do think Mercy should channel her ult, and if she dies mid cast, the ult doesn't complete.

The other option for her, is that if she dies while channelling, the revived players do not gain full health again but a percentage based on how long she was channelling for.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9herGK5Y3YM
WidowMaker doing WidowMaker things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF0TfpiLAAM
Same thing.

I think Mercy ult should have like, a 5 second cast time and if she's killed while channelling, she doesn't get her ultimate back at 100%. They made an interesting change making is so that the res only occurs at the end of the cast, meaning you can kill her and prevent the resurrect.

Maybe if she started channelling and you had 5 seconds to find and kill her, it would balance out her ult. Just a thought.

D'va is pretty broken at the moment. Her armor is so difficult to get down to do any real damage to her.

Mei is pretty funny. I'm not sure why she's placed as a defensive hero though as she's much better in offence. She can create an opaque wall to allow your team to push at an objective and has enough sustain to keep her alive for long periods on an assault.

Genji has a stupidly high skill cap. Honestly if you're looking for that WOW factor, this hero is insane. The only problem I see is that while he will be an awesome pubstar, I can't see him fitting into competitive compositions very often. He's better during chaos.

There's a tonne of skill regarding the ults. Sure, clicking the button and getting kills doesn't always require skill, but it's much more than that.

Firstly, reacting to them is a massive deal. Sometimes you get a fraction of a second to react to an enemy ultimate so that you're not caught by it. You hear a "High Noon" shout, and you have to first identify where it's coming from, and then hide for cover or kill the McCree. The McCree has to decide when to actually fire his ultimate. If he gives too much time then people will get behind cover but if he waits he may be able to take out another person.

Pharah ult is a press Q to deal damage, but where you use that ultimate is incredibly important. A widowmaker can take an ulting pharah out almost instantly meaning the ult does no damage, but we all know how incredibly powerful a well placed Pharah ult can be. I've seen Reaper ults go to complete waste while others decimate an entire team.

Even Widowmaker's ult has an element of skill to it. WidowMaker herself probably benefits the most from having the wallhack on, but maybe you've just spawned and you have to decide if you would rather give your ult to your team. You need to know what they are doing and if it's going to be useful or not. The decision can be game changing.

A Mercy ult, while overpowered is stupidly difficult to time. If you resurrect too early, some more team members may die but if you resurrect late, players may have expired already, not to mention you can die before you res. If the enemy gets a better resurrect than you do, your team is done for.

Knowing exactly when to use your ults separates good players from bad ones and using your ultimate to its maximum effect separates good players from great ones.

The problem is, people think that the greatest skill in a game comes from aiming, which simply isn't what a game should be because in reality, aiming isn't actually very skillful itself. It's a single mechanic that people have refined over the years. This game is very well rounded. You NEED to be able to aim, but you also NEED to have perfect positioning and you NEED to have top cooldown management. Your decision making needs to be flawless and you have to constantly work with your team and be aware of what they are doing.

Honestly, if you're worried about the lack of skill required in this game, then you're only focusing on a single aspect of it. You're not winning this game simply by moving your mouse onto a player slightly better than your opponent does, it doesn't work like that I'm afraid. This is why this game has the potential to become one of the best and challenging games in eSports to date. Be excited.

I'm hoping to fill a WindowMaker / Support hero role in a team but I'm not sure the meta is going to move away from having two dedicated supports anytime soon.

Which means if I want to Widowmaker main, I may need to be the full utility guy in the team, meaning heroes like Widowmaker, Winston, McCree, Soldier76, Tracer, depending on what the team needs at the time. Not sure how I feel about that.

This is how I see the current hero list.

Essential in almost any good composition:
Reinhardt
Pharah
Mercy

Great composition fillers:
McCree
Lucio
Zenyatta
Widowmaker
Junkrat

Situational but still can work well:
Zarya
Tracer
Soldier76
Winston
Hanzo
Roadhog
Reaper
Bastion

Rarely used:
Symmetra
Torbjörn

-Free Spectator Cam (although their player switching transition is sexy as fuck).
-McCree nerf (make long range at least a little inaccurate or something). Keep him mid range poke and close destroy. He shouldn't be better at sniping than snipers are.

• Visual clutter tone down, only a tiny bit is needed, no need to go overboard as some people suggest.
• Lucio HP reduction (maybe only a little bit, but he seems too tanky compared to other supports.
• Widowmaker ult cooldown / build up reduced... it's too frequent.
• Widowmaker notification when enemy has your team marked. I know she shouts, but need to know how long tbh.
• Health turning red when low. Sometimes I don't realise I'm on 25 health. Maybe a colour change when low would help.
• Kill feed as others mentioned.
• Maybe forcing each team to have a max of 1 of each hero might improve the game. Can't see a reason to stack the same heros, but not the end of the world if this is never changed.
• As mentioned above, the skulls aren't clear enough when people are dead. Something a bit more prominent would be nice so that when you tab, you can quickly see how many of your team are down.
• Add 3 seconds to the play of the game clips. They miss so much that happens after the last kill.... like... an additional kill (plus it gives you time to taunt / emote which adds some swag).
• Not sure if Tracer should be able to get her life back when rewinding. It means a good Tracer can sit behind an enemy team for hours using her E as a quick heal. Rewinding should get you out of a tricky position, but people are just using it for the heal purpose.

Arx#2733

:)