Which pro matches are you referring to?

Hyped for MEGA! Seems like this season is going to be even more exciting. Hoping that more teams will be able to wrestle against FW/Blank.

Welp the downfrags. But I don't fault West. Most / all of the proposed changes are pretty similar to what some people have brought up. However, I feel that the main distinction was I singled out Sound Barrier as one ultimate that would likely need a different treatment, and that part was less touched on. Few have suggested that they would want ult to drain immediately and hasten the cast time, but I see that as a buff to ults like Dragonblade.

My opinion largely isn't unique. I understand where you might be coming from. Although this is an opinionated piece, I didn't really phrase it as if this opinion belongs to just me. The only time where I explicitly wrote it as such was when I brought up Sound Barrier as I felt that was the key difference between this and what most people felt. Overall, it probably might not have felt so much of an opinion as generally people have about the same idea and wasn't as contrasting.

Honestly, I think it might have been better if I also wrote my initial opinion regarding this issue. FWIW, before writing this and seeing it happen in APEX, I was in favour of having ults drain after casting. Yes ya'll read that right. My opinion changed as I weighed the intuitiveness of the game more importantly than other factors when it came to this issue, and it took me some time for me to think of a win-win change where an exception is made for Sound Barrier. That is why ultimately I changed my mind and wrote on this topic.

Hindsight is 20/20, and perhaps writing the flip side of the coin might have made this piece even better. If anyone's interested, I can briefly talk about it as well.

Thanks for the feedback though! Hope the next one will be even better! :)

every matchup is a 4-0 matchup ketchup

has there been any game in this series that isn't a 4-0 yet?

Russia wins because they have special flags imo.

http://imgur.com/a/nv7r4

How farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr can we go

Here's an impromptu inspect element trick for those who want to navigate the maps. Right click the map bar -> Inspect Element.

Under the class .match-switches, add overflow-x: auto;

Should let you scroll through maps.

The real reason why they didn't make it out of group stage.

They are playing on the 1.12 Horizon patch, where McCree Ult is buffed, Reaper gets life steal, and everyone laments about Roadhog.

This Zest... That Zest... hahaha

Trying out Medium for the first time as an avenue for articles that probably don't fit over.gg context that well. https://medium.com/@sandshrewz/overwatch-client-side-prediction-and-improvements-7c2bf2206dc3

Topics I will cover are mostly not directly related to the esports scene, but might still be of interest to some. Please feel free to leave feedback :) Cheers!

We have Korean players on Western teams, and now we have Western players in an Asian team. Sounds hype! Would be interesting to see what kind of impact a mix region roster would have in the OPC.

The sWeedTime roster has been together for a long time, and will probably have to split between the sister teams. It's exciting yet also sad at the same time that we won't be seeing the usual full Thai roster.

Time to win OPC though!

Late to the party but, this is really good news! It's a first for OW SEA, and PYYYOUR would bring in valuable Western experience to the team as well. I don't think OPC teams have scrims with NA teams so far? I might be wrong.

This is exciting news for SEA, even though MEGA would be spending their time again in OPC. Wondering how the other SEA teams would respond.

Will Meza earn a star from :candle:ing teams, or will OWL be finally announced first? Stay tuned to find out.

Those were some insane games, despite the results. AFB has given a really tough fight even though they got 4-0'd.

But most importantly, it's how LH showcased how to properly abuse Sombra to the fullest. It's very likely that Sombra is going to be the D.Va of APEX S1 at this rate.

I think many people want EnVy to win. I personally feel like throughout this season, they still haven't showed us their peak performance tbh, even though they made it to playoffs. They still looked spectacular, but hopefully with this match, they will return to their former glory of how they almost never make any mistakes and extend advantages at every opportunity. That is the EnVyUs I enjoyed watching.

Hoping for some good matches!

@ above, while that is true, it is also likely that great teams who perhaps don't meet the financial requirements are likely to get contracted by other organisations who are able to meet them. This has happened before for Thai team sWeedTime who now play under FireBall. Likely there will be some teams who do the same. Also it mentioned that Blizzard will be choosing the teams from those that apply. That's a really big catch. Even if some teams may not meet the criteria currently, I'm sure they'll find a way somehow.

CyzoneVN hype!

Keep in mind that the stream team, being a stream team in nature, aren't actually playing at their maximum performance. You can't say x is not as good for this team. At most you can say is x could be even better.

I think them as a PUG team making it this far is rather commendable as well. Who knows how much better they could have been if they were playing together as a practiced team.

I think it's a good opportunity for us to have some proper cross continental LAN competition going on.

There isn't really much to see of a team that's mixed together that has not previously gelled unless they're making a super team. So for countries whose super teams are already there, why not let it be?

Great chance to pit the regions against each other at their fullest. Would definitely be more interesting to watch than a less coordinated team. Perhaps there will be more stomps in the group stages, but that's probably a worthwhile trade.

Addendum: FWIW, I don't think Vietnam would stand any chance or have any ground if they send any team other than a full CyzoneVN roster, which would also in a sense make it more boring as well. Ultimately, I do think sending the best teams if applicable has the best balance between viewing value and competitiveness.

One trick indeed has the negative connotation of either choosing to play only one hero or being significantly worse on every other hero. You can't use that to classify EFFECT at all lol. Didn't he say he plays Genji on his rank #2 account?

I think it's good for both Lui and NV for this outcome. Lui has kind of proven himself in terms of standard and NV can fully focus on working as a 6 man team without having to worry or slot in time to practice with a 7th.

The current lineup of NV might have been the most flexible one by far and perhaps in the entirety of western teams. Feels like they have a lot of back pocket strategies that they're just withholding until they really need to or want to bring them out so it may seem like they always run the same composition / style even if they are competent in running other things.

Are smorgen ruining the metagame?

This game went as fast as Flash indeed.

Not so much of simply wanting to keep the name of 'RunAway', and players wouldn't be sticking with him if he rejects sponsors with merely such a reason. It's more of wanting to keep the team together and get a viable sponsor that would be willing to keep all the current team members.

Furthermore, they can't simply just accept any sponsor that gives them offer. Runner is bleeding his pocket to keep his team together as a whole, and wants the best he can get for his entire team. Accepting any sponsor or organization haphazardly would potentially do more harm than good even if players are facing financial issues. Besides, I'm pretty sure he's open to players leaving if they really have to or want to. They've been through that phase after the previous season already.

The team is willingly in this together until they can finally find a suitable organization or they disband.

I think Ajax stepped down in a very gentlemanly manner. Props to him for being able to do that.

Typical NV, always warming up first and then the wreckage begins.

Can confirm. This article nearly didn't see the daylights until an appropriate title was born.

Yea I agree that the pessimism and outcry from the cancellation to be unwarranted. Even without the update to the article, it already seemed like a strong hint by Blizzard that they probably had reservations not to approve further Melees due to a clash of interests. But that does not mean if it'll be directly linked to OWL. Likely Blizzard still isn't in a comfortable spot to release more information yet so they never gave a straightforward answer.

Just let Blizzard do their stuff and I think they probably also were actively avoiding to over hype whatever that might come, at least till they've worked out all the details.

Let me entertain. Quotes don't make anything closer to journalism. Anonymous / protected sources are common practice in journalism. Your notepad can be the source and it's perfectly fine as long as it's reasonably backed up. You don't have to disclose your source if your source doesn't want to be known.

I think Harsha has made it very clear in his articles the nature of his sources which he does not directly name.

He's a DPRK Sphee.

It's really not a waste of talent for players to transition into a coach if that's really what they want to do. The scene would also benefit from having more coaches, given that some teams don't have one. There's a lot of value to be had from a coach.

Becoming a coach this early isn't a bad thing either. It'll give him more time to accumulate experience as a coach which will become even more invaluable over time. In general, players who transition to being a coach have the necessary experience of being a player themselves, and as KyKy said, easier to gain respect as well, which is even more important in the western context.

So yea, definitely not a waste of talent. It'll be more of grooming a talent in another area. The only downside is we don't get to see him play in tours anymore.

UE.J for the win imo !

I like how Angelababy has two Lucio / Pharah players. Interesting flexibility.

Good news, Angelababy are able to play again!

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Angelababy is down a player and unable to bring in their substitute. Thus, they forfeited their slot despite winning their previous game and Imaginary Friends will be playing instead.

VOD

Chinese Oasis composition from OWPS throwing its weight by Laser Kittenz. shudders

Zenytta's Transcendence and Mei's Blizzard are both 10m for radius. Sombra's EMP is 15m radius.

As mentioned in article, people being out of town and iddqd and Numlocked both still having cross continental ping. And they also want to practice more.

I don't think this Lucio post is about balancing around lower level play. It's more of the fact that having permanent AOE effects as a core ability makes limits Lucio's game play and makes him feel dull. In terms of what impactful play means, it probably refers to individual play making. For example, Ana has her Sleep Dart and Biotic Grenade that allows her to swing fights, Zenyatta has high damage output and helps to focus fire down targets very quickly, Mercy is ... Mercy, pretty much having less play making opportunities with her kit too.

Lucio's Amp ability requires his team to utilize it well, making his good Amp timings feel like it pretty much relies on the team input more than his own. His Boop is great for dislodging positions and peeling, but it's limited by the opponents not expecting it to occur and not punishing Lucio going for Boops.

Even if Lucio contributes a lot to the team, it doesn't feel as rewarding playing him compared to Ana / Zenyatta, sometimes even Mercy. From my own perspective, I don't think he's talking about flat out nerfs to Lucio or trying to balance him around lower levels. Rather, they likely want to make him more fun to play with by giving him more individual play making opportunities.

What they mean by making him less essential could be giving him some form of nerf, or it could also be retooling him or off loading the strengths of his kit elsewhere similarly to what they tried to do for Roadhog.

Question is though, they haven't officially formed their full roster yet right? Wondering if they would accept the invite or would it hasten the contracts :thinking:

I sure am interested to see them taking part if that's what they decide to do!

The SEA Esports scene is definitely one of the smallest ones, but for the first time, Blizzard is hosting an online Overwatch SEA tournament for up to 256 teams. Participants must reside in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, or Vietnam. Registration closes on March 15th 2017 at 11.59pm GMT+8, and it's free!

Schedule

• March 15: Registration closes
• March 25-26: Open qualifier
• April 1-23: Group stage
• April 29-30: Knockout stage
• May 6: Finals

The winning team will be awarded $2,500 USD. Do note that the first 32 teams to register with an average Master rank in competitive season 3, based on season highest rank, will proceed directly to the group stage. Visit their rules page for further information.

No they didn't change her heal amount from her rifle.

Too late.

As a player, I enjoy the quick charge rates of ultimates in the game as it brings about a faster paced game and makes players feel rewarded for their damage/heals more often. However, given how fast ultimates charge and the large amount of impact many ultimates have, it does lead to some problems. This was echoed by the 14 Nov, 2016 patch where ultimate costs was globally increased by a flat 25%, with the comment given "Game-changing ultimate abilities were coming up a bit too frequently. This change helps keep them in check while still allowing them to be powerful." It wasn't too descriptive, but this was an opinion shared by some if not many of the professional players as well.

Ultimates at their current state do hurt the spectating aspect of the game to some extent. Given how high value some ultimates are and their relatively short build times, it can get quite repetitive seeing the games dwell around the same few ultimate combos to secure team wipes. Fights can end in as quickly as mere seconds, proceeding to waste about half a minute before action occurs again. Not to mention, some ultimates provide so much visual clutter, especially on maximum graphic settings. It's not uncommon for newer viewers to lose track of what happens around the battle ground when both teams engage on an ultimate-infested fight. Despite the appreciation for the underlying ultimate economy management, the current iteration of ultimates do have quite the drawbacks. There has even been argument for there to be less ultimates in the game so that more emphasis can be placed on flashy individual plays rather than on ultimates themselves. That makes it more fun for some players and for spectators.

Without doubt, there is some valid opinions that ultimates should be toned down even further. The 25% ultimate cost increase barely affected anything since the patch. However, there are two popular ways in which ultimates could be toned down by.

1. Increasing Ultimate Costs Further

The most straightforward option, though probably not the easiest to balance. Ultimate cost could be increased significantly further by 50-75% or even more.

Advantages of Increasing Ultimate Costs

• Reduced messiness that occurs in team fights by reducing the occurrence of ultimates, mostly from visual clutter.
• Team fights more likely to occur as dry fights that do not develop into full on ultimates fest.

Disadvantages of Increasing Ultimate Costs

• Not so much of a disadvantage per se but given a large increase in ultimate costs, ultimates need to be individually retuned or the percentage increase in cost should not be equal for all heroes. For example, Symmetra would probably be useless if she couldn't reliably get her ultimate up quickly or when an early death occurs.
• Increased ultimate cost could ironically place an even larger emphasis on ultimates. Whiffing a single Graviton Surge would be more likely to cost the game. Offensive-defensive ultimate interaction would be further emphasized if players could build strong offensive ultimates such as Dragonblade before a defensive Sound Barrier/Transcendence. By using the offensive ultimate early, a good advantage can be sought by largely increasing the opportunity cost of defensive ultimates if they are used before the offensive ultimate is online again. This could mean that defensive ultimates will either inherently never be built before the offensive ultimate, or increase the level of commitment to use a defensive ultimate in an offensive manner. Ultimate economy would likely be significantly different where we get to see different interactions between ultimates that we currently don't. The above examples are not exhaustive.
• Some maps or game modes could be even harder to break through without the use of ultimates. 2CP is always going to be a bad example. Aside from that, some defense favored maps such as Eichenwalde, Numbani, could be tougher nuts to crack. Ultimate initiations are less likely to be relied on, and slows down the pace of game, especially when defense has the advantage.

2. Decreasing the Strength of Ultimates

This is completely arbitrary and ultimates could be reduced in effectiveness by say 50% or some other value. The manner in which this could be done can include, reducing attributes such as damage, range, duration, or reworking some ultimates that don't fit into such categories.

Advantages of Decreasing the Strength of Ultimates

• Ultimates essentially become 'super skills', where they supposedly have less potential to influence the outcome of the entire team fight, but instead used to influence a specific individual fight. For example, if Dragonblade was reduced to last only 3s, you can realistically kill up to two 200HP heroes with it, at max 3. This means that ultimates are more likely to be used as a throwaway to guarantee kills as if it were a normal ability with a larger albeit variable cool down.
• Depending on how ultimates are weakened, it could still be possible to coordinate a team wipe with more precise execution. For example, if Earth Shatter's stun duration was reduced, the window for follow up is smaller, but still possible if team is quick on the execution and focus fire for a wipe or more accurately time some ultimates. It's still possible for flashy ultimate plays to still exist.

Disadvantages of Decreasing the Strength of Ultimates

• Frequency of ultimates do not decrease. It could still be equally visually disorienting for newer viewers.
• Ultimate oriented fights could still be a large part of the game, just made harder. (Could be a good thing too?)
• Likely to have the same problem with the first option where it doesn't suit well with some map and mode design, though probably to a smaller degree.

Both options have their up and downsides, but do not be fooled by the unequal length in description. I simply decided to elaborate more on some points that I found to be less straightforward.

Would like to hear as to what you think is the better option, whether it is necessary at all, or if you have any other suggestions.

Didn't quite expect this to happen but I hope that nV picks up from this and come back even stronger.

Feels like nV isn't quite confident with Volskaya B in general. I think they probably would have been better off if they stacked and waited to get all 6 ults for a huge push rather than try to win with each half push. nV's playstyle was also quite well exploited by Meta imo. A ton of good and simple boops that have huge impact on the fights, and capitalizing on how nV's method of aggression and stalling, i.e. punishing cocco whenever Mickie D.Va is off to zone. chipsajen is a god tier defensive style Ana that supports the solo-tankish style that nV relies a lot on. It's quite rare for any team to be capable of pressuring the cocco chips that quickly and that much that nV probably got driven out of their comfort zone by a fair bit.

I think as long as nV gets quicker to rotate back and take a defensive stance when necessary, they should be fine and back to their usual performance once they iron those issues out. It's definitely interesting though to see a team actually being able to capitalize on nV's weakness. Aside from that, nV should also probably take the safe route sometimes when it comes to pushing with disadvantages, though they're a strong team that can and does still win fights despite large disadvantages. Play safe until they're back in the comfort zone then do whatever they want.

It was a good (more than good?) showing by Meta for sure.

If anyone wants judgement as to how nV did in the previous game, have a look at Taimou's VOD review of their game and decide for yourselves. Do note though that it's only semi-serious from stream and most likely left out some further explanation that he could have done, but should still provide sufficient context. It's not their top performance but I wouldn't say they did that badly. Anyway let's not derail this any further since this is for the upcoming match, not the previous game.

I don't think anyone can say for certain that nV would have difficulty in this match purely based on just the previous one. Would also like to comment that most spectators wouldn't be able to tell what underlying coordination and individual decision making goes on in games, especially by nV for several reasons, so don't get too quick to judge base on face value.

Anyway, hope it'll be another exciting game to watch :)

Heya a reply!

There has always been a fetishisation of mechanical skill in FPS because it is so immediate and visceral. Every other attribute that makes a great player has often just been lumped under the term "game sense". I think Overwatch really puts an emphasis on these game sense attributes more than any other FPS that has gone before.

Really agree with this. It has such a huge emphasis on team play and individual game sense/decision making but it also doesn't compromise on the fancy mechanical aspects entirely. However, flashy plays aren't that commonly seen though since they often entail higher risks but are definitely great to watch.

It's been interesting to see how heroes that were assumed to be simplistic had hidden depths, like when Miro was schooling everyone at the World Cup with his Winston jump pack management and use of bubble to block healing. Or even the rise of Mei back in September.

Also special mention to having deep map knowledge to be able to exploit a seemingly straightforward hero into something we've never seen before.

I don't agree with making heroes easier to play to increase individual player's hero pools. The compromise between being a generalist or a specialist with the backdrop of regular balance changes is a big part of the team building process and what keeps competitive Overwatch dynamic. Watching an amazing Genji or McCree is awesome, but so is seeing a team change composition to totally shut them down :D

Not entirely sure if I'm reading your first sentence right. From my perspective I see it being unfeasible to have every single hero being hard to play. Pardon me, I don't know if you mean 'we shouldn't dumb down heroes so that they become easier to play' or 'increasing hero pools isn't the objective of having easier heroes'. The first I agree with of course, and I don't think they have changed a hero that way before. The second one, probably a matter of feasibility and increasing hero pools being a side (positive) effect rather than an objective of its own. Also related was EnVyUs vs BK Stars today which basically showed the importance of flexibility in players, which also made the game exciting to watch. Anyway, back to something else you mentioned,

Unfortunately for many people those non-mechanical aspects don't make for good viewing compared to frags.

I think viewer experience is also an important part of hero design. If we have too many less mechanically intensive heroes flooding tournament matches (i.e. tank meta :c ), it could get really boring to watch and in turn hurt its own eSports scene. It would be in the game's interest if they try to maintain a good mix of viability between mechanical and less mechanical heroes, both for player and viewer experience too.

Roadhog Hook CD increase is a good incremental change. The spread and distance change is weird; I wished devs commented more on the intention behind those changes or we won't really know what it does without experimenting damage numbers and what not. Saying the gun is more effective without hook doesn't mean much.

There hasn't been much discussion going around here and I thought might as well post some here since I'm interested in having discussions around here. So here we go ~

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Not all heroes are made equally hard to play with; some are very mechanically inclined and would take countless hours to be able to exploit the hero's strengths to the fullest or to an acceptable level. Other heroes have simpler kits to be effective with. Mechanical skills can range from movement, aim, precise combos, etc. While some may argue that all heroes should be mechanically difficult to play, I think it's beneficial for the game to have a mix of heroes with different amount of mechanical skill requirement, and generally different difficulty levels in being effective to the same extent.

Having less demanding heroes isn't just to cater for the casual players, though it rightfully does make the game more enjoyable to those players. Easier heroes are also a boon to the professional scene. There already is a split between professional projectile and hitscan players. Very few can actually play both projectile and hitscan at an equal an acceptable level in the pro scene. Most teams also limit themselves to two DPS slots, some are double hitscan inclined, some go for one hitscan, one projectile. However, the ideal case is for both DPS players to be adept at both projectiles and hitscan. Most pro players are inflexible in hero picks to some degree; hardly any can truly flex among all the DPS heroes. With the limitation of players, they already directly influence the DPS meta in the pro scene. This already is a limiting factor to the number of strategies teams can employ and how well they can switch heroes. Teams can counter team by exploiting the weakness in flexibility of team composition. There's been times where projectile players found themselves switching to play hitscan, trying and failing to counter a Pharah, while their hitscan player was stuck on a utility pick like Mei with an ultimate an unable to switch off and better counter the Pharah. The reverse happens too.

Projectile / hitscan aside, given that players are already often limited by their own skill and preferences, it wouldn't be good if all heroes were made to be mechanically intensive. You'd end up with players not having a wide enough hero pool, causing further rigidity in their team compositions. Having easier to pick up heroes means there would be a wider pool of heroes for all players to be sufficiently effective with an increases chances of such heroes being picked to properly meet the situation rather than feeling forced into the heroes they're better at even if the situation is disadvantageous to stay on them. Overall, easier heroes increase diversity in the pro play; players are bound by time, often spent in scrims, practicing, and it would be too time intensive to pick up that many different heroes if they were all too demanding to play effectively. Ideally players should have a much wider comfortable hero pool than we see now but it would take more time for players to practice and get used to increasing the variety of picks. This would also widen the meta seen in pro levels.

Having easier heroes isn't a bad thing. Problem only arises when the less demanding heroes end up becoming less risky and yet mostly equally or even more effective to play with than the mechanically intensive heroes.

A pretty loose example where Seagull talks about NRG's composition in MLG Vegas (at 2:51).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-r5NrjHKYY&t=2m51s

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Would like to hear thoughts and comments! :)