What does being the best in Overwatch mean?
What makes the best Overwatch player? What are the factors for improving yourself? What are professional teams looking for in potential players to pick up? These are the questions answered here today. There are 3 main factors to Overwatch that are the most important and they will be ranked for importance and I will elaborate on why I believe this is true.
There are many factors to Overwatch and the higher in the pro-scene you go as a player or coach the more factors there are. Overwatch is very different from your traditional FPS, with all kinds of elements thrown in there from different game genres to eventually form a fast-paced, teamwork heavy and objective based gameplay. Raw mechanical skill will not get you to the top in Overwatch, if you want to be the best you will have to have a bit more in you then just ''good aim''.
Below I will list the 3 main factors that will lead you to the top of the game and what the best teams are mainly looking for in a player.
Number 3: Raw mechanical skill
This is a very tricky one, raw skill is widely considered the most important trait to have in the game. You see it from your usual ranked games to the highlighted plays in the OWL, raw skill always seems to take the spotlight. Why is this? Well, it is by far the easiest to notice. Carpe clicking heads on Widowmaker is an easy highlight compared to a clutch shot-call in the heat of the moment that makes your team win the fight. It is a culture you see in ranked play as well. If you do not see your snipers in the killfeed all-the-time, they will get called out for it by their team even though they might be performing fine. Why? Because it is the easiest to notice. More importantly, the easiest to notice when things go sideways.
Now, there are always exceptions, players that are so good at the game, ''mechanical gods'' that the ''X-Factor'' they have you just need on your team. These players can change a game or team fight from one moment to another. The flipside is that these players are the first to be called out as well because they are supposed to be the ''hard-carry'' of the team, which is not always fair. You still keep these players on your line-up though because of that potential they have of out of nowhere being able to turn a game around.
Number 2: Teamwork
Teamwork is maybe the most important skill to have as a player/team/coach in this game. Flexibility is only higher because it combines skill and teamwork together. Now Teamwork includes a lot of factors, in-game and outside of the game, especially in OWL. Most important are: communication, synergy, positive mental attitude but also coaching and management. Teamwork goes all the way from shot-calling in fights to setting up strats before fights to the team's coach giving good feedback during scrims as well as being constructive and positive with each other in and out of the game. A good team will always look for players with these traits and as a player, you should always force yourself to put your team first during games.
There are great examples on why teamwork is so important in Overwatch, the ones mentioned below both relate to the Outlaws. Jake got a lot of backlash during the season for his skill on heroes outside of his traditional pool, not only from fans but also from casters, analysts and other figures in the pro-scene. Still, Outlaws kept fielding mainly him, why? because of his teamwork! Jake has outstanding communication, is willing to flex to all heroes that were in need of playing and always put the team first. The Outlaws preferred his teamwork over someone else's raw skill. Was this the right call? We will never actually know because we never saw it but it was very obvious that Jake was key to the Outlaws as a team. The 2nd example is Rawkus being chosen for team USA, a lot of people were surprised by this choice and expected the believed mechanically superior Sleepy to be in the team instead of him. Aero again chooses teamwork over raw skill as Rawkus was chosen for his great target-calling and ult tracking. Now luckily for the USA, we are now in a meta where Ana is very viable again so Rawkus can also shine very much mechanically. Now I do want to say that I do not think that Jake and Rawkus are mechanically bad players, they are at the very top of the pro-scene for a reason. They are in my eyes the best example for Teamwork in Overwatch. There are lots more examples, like the Fuel playing Taimou on main tank, same for Seoul with Ryujehong. Raw mechanics do not win you games at the highest of levels, it helps, but teamwork and flexibility are superior in this ranking.
Number 1: Flexibility
THE most important trait you can have as a player and as a team, flexibility is the key to success. There are many examples of players not being able to widen their hero-pool or teams only being good in 1 meta which then let to their respective downfalls. In the ever-changing metagame that is Overwatch, adaptation and being able to change your comps can completely change the game. This is ranked at number 1 because it incorporates traits of teamwork and raw skill. The hero roster is now at 28, teams have now figured out over 10 different comps they can run with these heroes.
New maps and heroes are added to the game every 3/4 months and with OWL being a seasonal event over a long period of time, the only way you will be the best is being able to flex to almost everything as a player in your respective role and as a team in general. In Season 1, the Spitfire was arguably the most versatile team hence their eventual victory. They also showed us that if you do not adapt quickly it will cost you because they were close to not even making playoffs at one point and almost lost to the Gladiators in those playoffs. But in the end, they proved to be the most adaptive and versatile of them all.
Overwatch is a very difficult game to play or even watch when you're not familiar. A lot of stuff happens at the same time and very fast. Players and Teams should look to these traits to stand out and be the best they can be. there are a lot of mechanical ''gods'' out there on the ladder that want to become pros, but do they know how to play in a competitive team environment? and then do they have the flexibility to stay at the top with your team or as a player. Only time will tell.
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Thanks for reading!
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