Like a lot of people, I participated in the Overwatch beta on May 5th. I enjoyed the game a lot; some people didn't, but my first reactions were pretty positive. I kept thinking on how this game would work as a competitive game and why people would choose this over other titles.

Blizzard had been doing pretty well with developing their more recent titles into solid competitive games. Starcraft 2 might be stagnating, but Hearthstone and HotS are growing steadily across the globe. Overwatch’s price might retain the Asian market for a bit, but the West looks ready and eager to take this game and turn it professional

The current "pro play" works with all the maps and all the heroes enabled. Teams ban maps until 5 or 3 maps are left depending on BO3 or BO5. when they then enter a map, it’s just like casual play -- you can swap out heroes as much as you like and the team with the best time wins the map after playing both attack and defense. In KotH, you just have to win 2 out of 3 rounds. I hope they don’t stick with this format; I think there are better and more fun ways to deal with the game on a competitive level.

Let’s start with the things that definitely do work for me. I’m looking at everything in a pure 6v6 competitive format.

There is a clear strategical element with different team comps, tactics for both attacking and defending, and all heroes should have counterplay. You also have to look at the synergy that heroes bring with their regular abilities, ultimate abilities, guns and even mobility. If you participated in the beta, you must have seen some of that. For example:

          - Mercy and Pharah: Mercy can use Pharah’s flying ability to her advantage so she can also fly around the battlefield and be more mobile.

          - Bastion and Reinhard: Reinhardt can cover for Bastions immobility and set up a hell of a defence or even offence with the payload

          - Widowmaker and Hanzo: Widowmaker’s ultimate gives Hanzo a great oversight of the enemies to set up a sweet twin dragons from unexpected places.

Pharah raining hell on her opponents.

These are some of the most obvious and basic ones; the more people will experiment with heroes and compositions, the more things will be discovered and a "meta" will establish and evolve.

Right now, the compositions are very standard, but with some small tweaks and an actual investment of smart minds on the game, that will surely change.

HotS showed that a Moba with more maps is not a bad thing and even increases competitive difficulty.

CS:GO has a decent map pool as well and there is no reason Overwatch won’t benefit from its multiple maps. King of the Hill on Ilios is a whole different approach than doing it on Hijang towers. The better teams will be able to play both or strategically ban one out before a series.  

On the topic of game modes -- this one is a bit tricky. There isn’t a single competitive game that I know where you have to master different modes to win a series. HotS is the closest to this. At the core, you’re playing a moba, but every map has a different way of destroying the enemy core. Overwatch in it’s core is just one team attacking and the other one defending, but it’s still a bit more complicated. There are 3 modes currently.

Just like maps, I think more modes bring more diversity and complexity to a competitive scene. Most competitive games only use or prioritise one mode. Blizzard will have to decide how they want to handle the modes. Some options might include:     

-Ban all but one mode for each series.         

- Play one map from each mode.

- One mode per tournament and each tournament gives points towards a bigger complete championship.

Maybe it’s better if they focus on one mode, and that should be the attack/defend mode. It seems to be the most tactically diverse mode.

There is more variety in heroes used, easier to balance, easier to spectate and, less luck-based.

I saw a lot of people mention that the game is too easy and mostly a retirement home for pro players from different games. I don’t agree with this at all. The skill ceiling on many heroes is pretty high and the map and mode variety, plus sides, change how you have to play each hero drastically. I’m also expecting a steady stream of new heroes and maps to keep the game fresh and interesting.

Overwatch might not explode from the start, but with Blizzard and enough people both inside and outside the game, I can definitely see this game develop in a competitive sense.

Even if it won’t, we’ll still have another fun game to play.

Connect with the author at @antdrioite.

Image courtesy of DeviantArt user Shin-Scariel.