In regular Overwatch, the “Role Lock” in the rated game mode has only been around since last night, but in League, they’ve been playing with it for a bit longer. It means that players must play with a “2-2-2” lineup, meaning 2 tanks, 2 healers, and 2 DDs. This guarantees that a few heroes of each type participate in the fight.

The end of GOATS: The Role-Lock completely eliminated the popular “GOATS” strategy in particular. Here, the pros simply played 3 healers and 3 tanks, creating an almost insurmountable wall. Almost every match in the league went similarly and the spectators were extremely bored by it. Nothing exciting happened, there were always the same heroes with always the same situations.

Role-Lock briefly brought redemption: After the roles in the Overwatch League were then fixed, there was a change. Suddenly, heroes that hardly anyone had played reappeared from obscurity. Reaper and Mei in particular experienced a big boost in popularity and were regularly selected again, which initially caused joy among fans, because that was variety. For example, the worst team until then, Washington Justice, managed to defeat the best team of the – Season , Vancouver Titans, in a 4-0 – they had never lost so clearly. That was exciting and interesting, unusual and a blessing for spectators.

Fans want constant action: Overwatch League viewers crave constant action and new, exciting combinations of heroes above all else. And as quickly as Mei and Reaper became popular, the heroes fell out of favor. They’re more likely to want to see a Genji leaping across the map with his sword, shredding enemies as he goes, rather than Mei first slowing enemies with her freezer and then executing them with a simple headshot. Time and time again, you can read “The Mei meta is garbage” or “Please remove Reaper from the game” in the comments on the streams now.

 

But exactly this continuing greed for more and more new action can hardly be
Pros and Overwatch itself can hardly afford. The pros will
will always look for the most effective way to win a match as safely as possible.
win a match as safely as possible.

Are more patches the solution? To satisfy fans and their wishes, Overwatch would actually have to release extensive balance changes every few weeks. This would ensure that the meta changes more frequently as once unloved heroes now become stronger and previous perennial favorites lose power. That would be “healthy” for viewer interest in the Overwatch League, but unhealthy for Overwatch or eSports in general.

After all, sports tend to be characterized by a constant in the task rather than constantly changing conditions. If that goes away, then it’s more and more chance that decides who comes out on top and not constant training or tactics.

Already, for example, ex-Overwatch pro Seagull says that players are barely keeping up and simply copying more and more strategies from other teams. It’s too much change in too short a time – at least from the perspective of the actual players in the league.

At the end, it seems that there is no satisfactory solution
to keep the Overwatch League exciting. Either the fans are getting
fans are bored with a stagnant meta, or the pros have to keep
more and more “guessing” what the best combination is at the moment.

Do you guys see a solution to this dilemma? Does Overwatch need more consistency or more change?

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