The Great Irony
This will be more of a blog post, less paper like.
It's finally starting to happen more often, an event that I saw coming for years is now happening in OWL. Teams are beginning to run a scout such as Boston Uprising’s Striker who ran Sombra to scout the enemy team composition and then teleported back to spawn to change their line-up. It seems unremarkable in every way so
One of the inherent advantages the offense has over the defense is that they have the ability to change their hero picks with little to no drawbacks. Spawn is usually closer for the attackers and in most cases, attackers are the one who initiate combat. This means that defense cannot up and leave the point to go to spawn due to threat of an attack at any time. After a death would be the only good time they are able to change heroes. Ideally, the offense should always have an advantage over the defense when it comes to composition. They will always run a “counter” with the spawn advantage and information advantage as we’ve just discussed.
I believe most would agree with these statements, it’s very easy to find out what the defense is running and even easier for the offense to quickly change. I also don’t believe anyone would argue that the defense has the ability to change heroes as easily as the offense.
If we believe the developers are correct, and the competitive community is correct, then changing heroes is a core part of the game. With that said, then the offense should always win, not with skill but with a match-up advantage. Now I know everyone will say that just because you run a counter hero doesn't mean that it doesn't take skill. A True point. My argument against that is that you did nothing to get the advantage over another hero. It's the design of the hero that inherently has an advantage over another, something you as a player have no say in. This is rock-paper-scissors at its core.
If we agree that the offense will always run a match-up advantage over the defense, then the design of Overwatch will push the game into a state where victories are defined by who can play defense better against the heroes that can “counter” them. A Taoist proverb I've said when coaching others is “Stillness in stillness is not true stillness, stillness in motion is true stillness”. Meaning it's easy to win a match-up when you have an inherent advantage. A Pharah that always wins against a Junkrat isn't impressive. Now a Pharah that can win against hit-scans and her “counters” is impressive. Everyone will say “of course!” that's why the professionals are so good. They can play into their counters and still be efficient as a hero.
True, but this is the logic for one tricking as well. It's about mastering your poor match-ups and learning your weaknesses more than your strengths. This is what will allow a hero to be played in any environment, specifically ones where the enemy has picked heroes that have an advantage over you and you did not have the ability to change.
It's finally starting to happen more often, an event that I saw coming for years is now happening in OWL. Teams are beginning to run a scout such as Boston Uprising’s Striker who ran Sombra to scout the enemy team composition and then teleported back to spawn to change their line-up. It seems unremarkable in every way so
What’s the big deal about this?
One of the inherent advantages the offense has over the defense is that they have the ability to change their hero picks with little to no drawbacks. Spawn is usually closer for the attackers and in most cases, attackers are the one who initiate combat. This means that defense cannot up and leave the point to go to spawn due to threat of an attack at any time. After a death would be the only good time they are able to change heroes. Ideally, the offense should always have an advantage over the defense when it comes to composition. They will always run a “counter” with the spawn advantage and information advantage as we’ve just discussed.
I believe most would agree with these statements, it’s very easy to find out what the defense is running and even easier for the offense to quickly change. I also don’t believe anyone would argue that the defense has the ability to change heroes as easily as the offense.
If we believe the developers are correct, and the competitive community is correct, then changing heroes is a core part of the game. With that said, then the offense should always win, not with skill but with a match-up advantage. Now I know everyone will say that just because you run a counter hero doesn't mean that it doesn't take skill. A True point. My argument against that is that you did nothing to get the advantage over another hero. It's the design of the hero that inherently has an advantage over another, something you as a player have no say in. This is rock-paper-scissors at its core.
Now for the ironic part.
If we agree that the offense will always run a match-up advantage over the defense, then the design of Overwatch will push the game into a state where victories are defined by who can play defense better against the heroes that can “counter” them. A Taoist proverb I've said when coaching others is “Stillness in stillness is not true stillness, stillness in motion is true stillness”. Meaning it's easy to win a match-up when you have an inherent advantage. A Pharah that always wins against a Junkrat isn't impressive. Now a Pharah that can win against hit-scans and her “counters” is impressive. Everyone will say “of course!” that's why the professionals are so good. They can play into their counters and still be efficient as a hero.
True, but this is the logic for one tricking as well. It's about mastering your poor match-ups and learning your weaknesses more than your strengths. This is what will allow a hero to be played in any environment, specifically ones where the enemy has picked heroes that have an advantage over you and you did not have the ability to change.
So remember when one tricking that you’re trying to play as the developers intended and how the professionals are going to be playing.
Against your weak match-ups.