Anran is a new damage Hero in Overwatch. This is a hero that a lot of people were excited to see added to the game once they were introduced as part of Wuyang’s backstory.

As soon as Anran and her fire-based abilities were shown, it was pretty clear that she would likely be added as a playable hero in the future.

Now with the major refresh coming to Overwatch, Anran is being added sooner than many expected, along with four other heroes and a host of changes and improvements.

Having had a chance to play some Anran during the hero trial and the launch of Season 1. I’m sharing my thoughts on her abilities and how she fits into the ever-expanding Overwatch roster.

All weapon and ability graphics from here:

Abilities

Anran’s Inferno Rush, a forward movement ability with two charges feels very similar to Tracer’s blinks. It even has the charges shown on your crosshair. This similarity to an existing hero’s kit made it easier to get used to the ability, s a lot of the muscle memory carries over.

However unlike with Tracer, Inferno rush can be used to dash upwards, gaining height and unlocking new avenues of approach on certain maps. For a flanker type hero like Anran the ability to appear and attack from more angles can be a major advantage.

The Dancing Blaze ability could be overlooked, but I think it will be a very important part of Anran’s kit. Not because of the damage it can deal to grouped enemies, but because it’s another phase type ability. Similar to Reaper’s Wraith Form and Moira’s Fade, the ability to negate any attack that would otherwise hit you is extremely powerful. Particularly when used on damaging single effect ultimates, think Cassidy’s Deadeye or D.va bombs. With good timing a player can avoid being killed by high resource ultimates with just a cooldown ability.

Passives

The fire damage effect from Anran’s attacks is a potentially powerful tool. Since damage over time effects continue dealing some damage even after a fight has concluded, including situations where Anran is dead. Leading to some post death fiery revenge.

Ultimates

One of the more unusual things about Anran is that the hero has more than one ultimate ability.

In the current state of the game the only other hero with multiple ultimate abilities is D.va . And Remech is usually not impactful enough to be considered a real ultimate. In order to see another true dual ultimate we have to go back to the early Overwatch days and support Symmetra. The Symmetra’s Teleporter was an ultimate ability, and you could choose between that and a Shield Generator. Ah memories.

An instant revive can be a powerful thing and help tip the scales on a losing fight back in your favour. But the trade off of losing a powerful damage ability and potential multi kill is a big one. It’ll take some smart tactical thinking and game sense to know which one to use. I’m looking forward to seeing how the pro players handle this.

Unfortunately there’s always the chance that her ultimate will be used by players greedy to grab all the glory for themselves to self revive when waiting to use the offensive ultimate would be a better move for the team overall.

Hope you’re having fun playing Anran and all the other heroes added to Overwatch with Season 1.

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The highly anticipated sequel to Team Cherry’s 2017 indie hit Hollow Knight, Hollow Knight: Silksong is now available.

What made Hollow Knight a standout game is the way it combined the Soulslike and Metroidvania genres in a way that feels like they always belonged together. Take the high stakes risk reward gameplay loop of Dark Souls, and apply it to a 2D platformer world with backtracking and unlockable abilities that open up new areas to explore.

Silksong builds on this relatively simple formula. Adding more game elements commonly found in the Soulslike genre to create a richer experience with more storytelling and varied combat. As these new elements are already familiar to fans of the games that they draw from they feel like natural extensions of the gameplay.

Multiple Weapon Builds

The Elden Ring equipment menu

A central part of any Soulslike game is creating your build. Picking a combination of weapons, armours, modifiers etc. that complement your fighting style. Hollow Knight was relatively light on customisation. Equippable trinkets added modifiers to your character. But that was about as far as it went. In Silksong there are more options to craft a custom fighting style.

Instead of completely different weapons, in Silksong you unlock crests that modify your needle weapon’s attacks. This allows you to adapt your fighting style to suit your own playstyle. Or to switch to a crest that gives you an advantage over a particularly challenging boss.

I’ve only unlocked two crests so far in my playthrough. It will be interesting to see whether there are other crests that more radically alter your weapon’s abilities.

Side quests

One of the Wish Board’s offering optional side quests

Optional side missions provide a way to explore more of a game’s world, take on extra challenges, and gain additional rewards and upgrades. In a game as challenging as Silksong, where any slight advantage can be crucial. Seeking out and completing these quests can make a huge difference in how you progress.

Silksong calls side quests wishes. Some are simple fetch quests with little to no story, and some help to flesh out characters you meet along the way. These can be found by talking to characters you meet on your journey, as well as (in a move completely borrowed from RPG games) bulletin boards in the settlements you encounter.

The quests add new enemies and collectibles to previously explored areas. Giving players more reasons to backtrack and visit those areas. Building on the Metroidvania DNA in the Hollow Knight franchise.

Companions in boss fights

Garmond and Zaza. Who can be summoned to aid you in a difficult early boss fight

Another idea borrowed from the Soulslike genre is summonable NPC characters that aid you in boss fights. These can be an invaluable advantage in difficult encounters. Not just because they also damage the bosses, they also divide the attention of the boss between two targets.

Unlike other Soulslike games there doesn’t seem to be a way to summon other players to assist you, or to join other players games as a cooperator. Perhaps this would have affected the overall vibes of a lonely journey that Team Cherry was trying to achieve. Nothing ruins the melancholy mood like a player named ButtSniffer69 appearing in your game.

So far these cooperators seem pretty rare. I’ve only seen one in the first few hours of playing the game. Hopefully there are more, cos I could really use the help! And also because fighting alongside characters is a great way to show their personality and progress their storylines.

I’ve still got a lot more Silksong to experience. So there may well be more elements of Soulslike and Metroidvania games that I haven’t encountered yet.

Freja is the newest hero announced for the Overwatch roster. A former Overwatch agent turned bounty hunter. She will be the 43rd hero added to the game. As well as the third Damage hero to be added since the launch of Overwatch 2. Freja is Danish, expanding the roster of countries represented in Overwatch still further. Although not the first Scandinavian hero, as Torbjörn and Brigitte are Swedish.

Here are my thoughts on Freja based on her announcement and the trial period.

Character and Lore

Lore wise Freja’s allegiances don’t appear to lie with either of Overwatch’s main factions. We know from her hero trailer that she’s happy to work for Talon without necessarily believing in their goals. But she’s also left Overwatch so it seems she’s not aligned with the good guys either.

I find morally dubious characters can be some of the most fun. We’ll have to see where Freja’s story goes from here, whether she’s forced to pick a side as the overall story progresses.

Gameplay

The way she feels to play is somewhat like Tracer but with greater range and vertical mobility. Highly skilled players with strong aiming are going to be deadly at range while playing Freja.

I see two broad archetypes where Freja can be useful. Firstly as a frontline DPS using her vertical mobility to pop up above enemy shields to target players behind the shield. The relatively short time that Freja spends airborne (compared to a Pharah or an Echo) will make Freja more effective at this manoeuvre, as there’s a greater chance of catching the enemy off guard.

In general I’m looking forward to another airborne hero being added to the game. I’ve found Overwatch to be more tactically engaging and challenging when teams are forced to think in three dimensions. Adding a hero who can pop up in places other heroes can’t will help this to happen more often in the game.

The other way I can see Freja be used is as a flanking assassin type hero. Similar to Sombra but without stealth. Her ability to move fast to close the distance to her target, or to escape after securing a kill will be very useful for this style of play. The reason I think that the devs has this playstyle in mind for Freja is the existence of her Tracking Instinct perk. Which gives Freja the same ability to track critical health targets as Sombra.

Source: Overwatch Wiki

One possible weakness in Freja’s kit is how her aim down sights ability bringing her to a full stop in mid-air. In multiplayer FPS games like Overwatch often movement is life and standing still is death. Having you hero stationary and uncovered like that, even for a brief moment, can be deadly. Particularly at the upper echelons of ranked play and the professional scene.

We will have to see whether this turns out to be a significant downside of playing Freja, or whether will discover techniques or strategies to mitigate the risk.

Freja arrives in Overwatch 2 as part of Season 16 launching on April 22nd.

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Here are my thoughts about the system. What I like about it and the downsides I see.

The Good

Ability to adapt playstyle mid game

As perks start being unlocked after the first few fights are over, and the player presumably has a better sense of the enemy team’s playstyle and how best to counteract it, perks give players a new tool to lean into a specific play style that may give them an advantage for the rest of the match.

For a useful example of this, consider Orisa’s Level 3 perks. There’s a clear delineation between a more offensive style using the Charged Javelin, and a defensive style using Protective Barrier. At the moment you level up a player can consider whether their team needs more offensive or defensive strength and choose accordingly.

Say that the team has been able to sustain itself well enough in team fights, but missed out on getting the final blows necessary to gain the upper hand. Or on the flipside the team have had short, bloody fights where they get the kills but not without sacrificing too many team members on their own side.

Giving players the flexibility to build a hero better suited to the conditions of the match they are playing, without needing to flex to a new hero, is a great way to make the game both more dynamic and competitive.

Bring back some old favourites

One welcome surprise for long-time Overwatch players are the couple of perks that bring back old hero abilities that were removed from the game years ago.

Orisa’s Shield

Firstly Orisa’s shield perk that we’ve already discussed. From before Orisa was retooled as a more offensive brawling tank for Overwatch 2. Seeing this shield again always gives me flashbacks to the double shield days, and not necessarily in a good way.

Reaper’s Soul Globes.

A relic of the old days where he had to run around picking up items in order to recover health from damaging enemies. Until perks launched they only lived on in this spray, which must have been a mystery to newer players.

Hanzo’s Scatter Arrows

The cause of many a frustrating headshot around a corner back in the early Overwatch 1 days. Scatter arrows make their return with this optional perk. Although I think in a more balanced form.

Bringing these abilities back is certainly a nice piece of nostalgia for those of us who remember them. It’s also encouraging to see the devs are willing to retool and reimagine these abilities for the current game. The optional nature of perks has given the devs a bit more freedom to add some more off-the-wall ideas into the game.

Potential Issues

Clear better options leads to less strategic variety

In the good aspects of perks section I talked about how I liked perks that support focusing on one particular playstyle. Unfortunately that choice matters less in cases where there’s a clear better option.

Take Tracer’s Level 3 perks for example. Based on the discussions and gameplay in the OWCS there seems to be a consensus that the Flashback perk that effectively give Tracer 6 blinks (with a recall in the middle) is the better option every time.

If there’s not a strategic decision to make between the choices, then there isn’t going to be an increase in the variety of playstyles being used. All you’ve done is added a buff to the hero that requires a few button presses to activate.

The devs have said that perks will be looked at and actively buffed/nerfed along with hero stats and abilities. So hopefully they can work towards balancing all heroes perks to be in a state where there are two viable options for each.

Another reason not to switch heroes

One concern that I do have about the perks, is that it is another disincentive for hero switching. Hero swapping and counter swapping mid game is one of the most engaging parts of game strategy in Overwatch in my opinion.

With perks in the game, flexing onto another hero not only reduces your ultimate charge but also you start from nothing on your perk levels. With some of the perks being very impactful and crucial to playing heroes at the highest level. Having to go without a fully perked up hero for a time mid match, when facing a team with all their hero perks, could be a significant disadvantage.

The Devs have made some allowance for this. You gain levels much faster on your new hero, so the time spent without perks is relatively short. However it’s hard to imagine this isn’t a further factor discouraging counter swapping in the game.

Anything that discourages counter swapping in game will end up diluting some of Overwatch’s uniqueness, which is a real shame in my opinion.

Final Thoughts

I’ve always believed that the secret to Overwatch’s success is that it almost perfectly straddles the line between the MOBA and FPS genres. You can do well at the game and have fun whether you focus more on pure aiming skills, or on the counter picking and strategy side.

The addition of perks seems to move Overwatch closer to the MOBA end of this continuum. Whether that’s for better or for worse probably depends on whether you think about the game as primarily a shooter game, or a teamplay and tactics game.

As for why I’m talking about this. I have a degree in Archaeology and Ancient History, and while I (like most people with a humanities degree) don’t work in anything remotely related to that field, I did still learn about that subject.

So in this post I’ll go through some of the other professions/disciplines that are often conflated with archaeology, and explain the differences between them.

And just because I’m a nerd for etymology. I’m also going to include an explanation of the origin and meaning of the professions that archaeology isn’t too.

An archaeologist isn’t a geologist

Geo = Earth

Logos = speech, thought, study

So geology is the science of the earth.

Pretty much as soon as we saw the character design for Venture, the joke that they eat rocks has been a huge part of the community reaction to the new hero.

https://twitter.com/breikka/status/1780385691936997488

And while I wouldn’t want to spoil anyone’s fun (in this specific situation) I feel compelled to point out rocks aren’t the main focus of archaeology. Geologists study rocks, whereas archaeologists are mostly only interested in rocks that tell us something about humans in the past.

For example, these Ice-Age hand axes unearthed in Kent:

Smithsonian Magazine

Making and using tools is one of the things that distinguished early human ancestors from similar apes. Which is the point at which archaeologists get interested. Anything before that we leave for the paleontologists.

Speaking of which…

An archaeologist isn’t a palaeontologist

Thanks to John over at the Journal of Scientific Shitposting Facebook group for this

Palaios = old/ancient

Ontos = being, creature

Logos = speech, thought, study

So palaeontology is the study of very old creatures.

The difference between the two is that archaeologists are looking for stuff related to humans and human civilisation, while palaeontology looks at life more broadly, covering ancient plants and animals.

An archaeologist isn’t a treasure hunter

Ask someone to name a famous archaeologist, and they’ll probably say either Indiana Jones and Lara Croft. And as fun as their adventures may be, they aren’t very good archaeologists. They’re definitely more treasure hunters than they are archaelogists.

Although Indy gets some credit for getting his doctorate and occasionally doing some teaching when he isn’t punching Nazis and dodging boulders

In fact during my degree we had a lecture specifically devoted to explaining all the ways that real archaeology is very much unlike those action movies. As well as comparing it to the delightfully bonkers BBC series Bonekickers, which I love deeply and felt compelled to mention.

From the lore information we’ve got regarding Venture, they definitely seem to be the Indiana Jones type of swashbuckling adventurous archaeologist.

We can only hope that in between raiding tombs and punching Omnics Venture finds the time to write up and publish their observations from their unusual fieldwork… Well in my headcanon they do anyway.

Here's a mockup of what the display would look like:

The idea is to communicate to the player how many of each team are alive and actively engaged in combat. This will help players to understand when their team has a player advantage, and perhaps more importantly when they do not.

What the icons mean

Here's a breakdown of what each graphic means. I hope that they are visually distinct and intuitive, once they are explained at least.

A quick note on how 'in combat' would be determined in my estimation, I'm sure that an actual game dev would be able to come up with something better but here's what I came up with. A player/team is considered to be in combat when any of these are happening:

• They are dealing damage to the enemy, or the damage they are dealing is blocked/absorbed by the enemy

• They are receiving damage or blocking/absorbing damage dealt by the enemy

• They are actively firing/using abilities and an enemy is within their field of view

I believe that this should cover most scenarios that would be considered in combat. I had thought about using distance from the objective as an indicator. However, this wouldn't account for long-range heroes that can engage without being close to the objective. The third point also helps to include those of us who don't always hit what we are aiming for.

Match Combat Indicator

The central icon shows whether combat is actively taking place anywhere on the map. This helps to communicate whether you have more time to regroup, or whether some particularly eager teammates have already started pushing, and you need to hurry up and get back into the fight!

In Combat

The solid colour pill icons indicate a hero on that team and role that is engaged in combat. The roles are displayed on the pill and the icons are arranged from the centre to the outside (so right to left for the player's team and left to right for the enemy) in the order Tank, Damage, Support.

When a player changes state, either by being killed or ceasing combat, their icon would move and change to represent this.

Not in Combat

The outline pill icons indicate heroes that are alive but not actively engaging in combat. They may be returning to the fight or retreating depending on the state of the match. This is the information that isn't shown in the current UI. Whether a player is dead or not matters less than whether they are actively engaging the opposition.

Respawning

The greyed-out icons with the strikethrough indicate players that have been killed and are currently respawning. This info is already visible in the game UI, but you have to tab out to the scoreboard screen to see it, which is not always a good idea in a fast-paced combat game like Overwatch. Bringing this information into the main HUD makes it easier to see without interrupting the flow of the game.

I believe it would be technically possible to capture and display this information to players. That adding this tool to the UI will give players that try to think more tactically about their matches more information about the state of the match. This will improve their decision-making, making them more coordinated and helpful players.

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The matches were also the last to be played on the current patch before the qualifying teams move over to the recently leaked patch that the finals will be played on. With nerfs to some of the most played heroes in the current meta and new Support hero Kiriko, the meta going into the Playoffs is likely to look very different.

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Here's a breakdown of the action.

Winners Finals - Toronto Defiant Vs Florida Mayhem

Map 1 - Oasis

Boostio in the Overwatch League?

Out of the gate, Florida Mayhem surprised us by not opting into the current Zarya meta. Showing us main tank Someone's flexibility as he brought out first Winston then Reinhardt. Despite their flexibility, Florida could not find an edge against the standard Genji/Zarya comp from Toronto. Neither round was one-sided, but in the end, Toronto won both to go one map up in the series.

Control maps have a tendency to play out differently from other map types, and this match was no exception. After going 1 map up Florida were able to turn their fortunes around. Delivering three convincing map wins one after another on Eichenwalde, Circuit Royale, and Colosseo.

Map 2 - Eichenwalde

A desperation Grav from Hotba that didn't amount to anything

After the comp shenanigans of Oasis Florida get serious. Opting in for the meta-mirror matchup of Zarya, Genji, Sojourn, Baptiste, and Lucio. In the pre-show, the desk pointed out that the Florida players have been putting up some of the best stats on these meta heroes recently, and it really shows in their gameplay. Florida rarely looked out of control in the match, instead forcing Toronto into risky desperation plays. In the end, Toronto were only able to push the payload halfway to point B, a feat that Florida beat without too much trouble.

Map 3 - Circuit Royal

Toronto needed to throw down both an Amp Matrix and Graviton Surge just to make it out of spawn

The third map went much the same way as the second. Toronto weren't able to push past the second checkpoint. Both teams were able to pull off the aggressive spawn camp that's become popular on Circuit for longer than two minutes. Despite this, superior DPS play won the map for Florida.

Map 4 - Colosseo

Checkmate pulled off three kills in approximately half a second

With Toronto's season hopes on the line, it all came down to Colosseo. With about 20m of progress between them, both teams showed moments of brilliance. Yet again and again the DPS duo of Hydron and Checkmate were able to turn fights in Florida's favour. Looking completely comfortable on the Sojourn and Genji respectively

Result: 3:1 victory for Florida Mayhem

Florida advanced to the Playoffs and Toronto Defiant go down to the Loser's bracket finals with one more chance to make it to the Playoffs.

Losers Final: Toronto Defiant vs Boston Uprising

During the pre-show the whole desk predicted Toronto to win. Given that they made it to the winner's final and won a map against Florida, arguably the best team in the Play Ins, it's easy to see why.

Map 1 - Ilios

Punk milliseconds away from contesting on Ruins

Both teams brought out the meta Zarya comp for this map, no messing around on Winston when your tournament life is on the line. Toronto were able to pull off a convincing win. Helped by huge plays from Finale on Genji and the ever-reliable support lineup of Twilight and Chorong. However, Boston were not without signs of life. Punk's Zarya was unsurprisingly a standout.

Map 2 - Eichenwalde.

Winning a map with a team kill, stylish!

Toronto continued their dominant run in this match into the second map. Holding Boston just before the end of the second point, and then barnstorming through to beat the Uprising's progress with a whopping four minutes to spare. Both Defiant DPS players turned up huge on this map. Heesu repeatedly getting the better of Seeker, his opposite number on the Sojourn.

Map 3 - Circuit Royal

Doomfist and Tracer???

At this point in the match, Toronto are facing one of the hardest mental challenges in esports. With their chance to continue in the tournament on the line, they need to turn their fortunes around and win three consecutive maps. If they succeed it will be a huge upset and lead to many people to reconsider their ranking of the team, but lose one more map and you're all going home until next year.

Despite a strong start pushing through the spawn camp, Defiant managed to snarl up Uprising's push at the end of the second point. Echoes of their Eichenwalde attacking round. Both teams got huge fight wins this round but it didn't translate into a map completion for Toronto.

Toronto were able to take care of the attempted spawn camp in a similar fashion. A sign of these teams' preference for attack rather than defence perhaps. A stronger defence on point A from Boston gets overwhelmed by some hero plays from Heesu to take the Defiant into Point B. The Defiant looked unstoppable on their Point B push. As the kills roll in the Uprising scramble to get back to the payload, bringing out the desperation Doomfist and Tracer but it just wasn't enough.

With a commanding 3-0 victory Toronto Defiant become the eighth and final team to secure their place in the 2022 Overwatch League Playoffs.

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Hearthstone Battlegrounds and pay-to-win accusations

The value proposition of Hearthstone's battle pass (called the Tavern Pass) used to be pretty good. With some planning, you could acquire enough of the new expansion's cards to make multiple viable decks, as well as pick up two additional premium content packs.

These were the Battlegrounds Perks, which gave you extra hero choices in the Battlegrounds auto-battler mode, along with in-game emotes and post-match stats. Secondly, you could also afford the expansion's mini set, a set of specific cards from the expansion unlockable in one bundle. In a game characterised by random drops from loot box-style card packs, the guarantee that you will get a specific card, particularly the epic and legendary rarity cards that decks are built around, is extremely valuable.

While it's still going to be possible to pick up the mini sets with in-game gold, the option to purchase the Battleground Perks (now part of the expanded Battlegrounds Pass) without spending money upfront has been removed.

This has been the most controversial of the changes, with many in the community saying this makes Battlegrounds a pay-to-win mode now.

Here's what that means in practice. At first glance, it wouldn't seem to be possible to pay to win. All players are pulling from the same pool of cards each game, unlike traditional Hearthstone where you can pay for more card packs for the chance to get better cards and more options. The issue comes with the choice of heroes.

Players without the perks get a choice of two of the Battlegrounds heroes, with the perks you get a choice of four. The Heartstone devs have made it clear their intention is to balance the game so that all heroes are equally competitively viable. Quote:

"We’re committed to maintaining hero and gameplay balance so that regardless of which heroes you choose from, you know your chance for the crown is based primarily on player skill"

However, right now the reality is that some heroes have much stronger abilities. Take a look at this tier list for some idea of the range of hero abilities and their usefulness. Two additional hero choices per game mean two extra chances to get one of the stronger heroes in the meta. This was less of a problem when the perks could be bought with in-game currency. Dedicated players could collect enough free rewards to get the perks each Battlegrounds season. Now the only way to gain this competitive advantage is to pay for it.

Alongside the monetisation changes, Blizzard are also introducing a new quests mechanic for Battlegrounds. Completing in-game challenges will reward players with powerful permanent upgrades. We will see how this change affects balance and gameplay once the new patch goes live. Hopefully, they've learned some lessons from the Battlegrounds Buddy system; which was quietly abandoned after playing havoc with the balance of the game mode.

Premium Currency Confusion

The second controversial new change, which will have a wider effect because it affects traditional Hearthstone players as well as Battlegrounds players, is the new premium currency. Many in-game items that could previously be bought directly with money can now only be bought with this currency, which can only be acquired in fixed bundles for real-world money. Other mobile-centric games such as Brawl Stars include some premium currency on their battle pass reward track, but not Hearthstone.

Hearthstone Features Lead Chadd Nervig tried to reassure players in this tweet thread. Their main points were that the upfront cost of the in-game items isn't changing, as well as the bundles are set to the cost of popular items, such as the Battlegrounds Pass, to minimise excess currency. Well if their intention was to reduce the amount of leftover currency you had left, you would have just made everything purchasable with money too!

There has to be some other reason at play here, and sadly it's probably the same reason that many mobile games have a premium currency. The bundles you buy the premium currency in are larger than the cost of a small in-game item, meaning you have to spend more than the value of the item in order to acquire it. For players making multiple purchases, this may not be an issue. However if you ever end up with leftover currency after buying everything you want, all you've done is turn that amount of money into something that can only be spent on future Hearthstone items (if it is spent at all). Blizzard pockets the money whether you are able to actually spend it or not.

This is clearly an anti-consumer move on Blizzard's part, as it adds new inefficiencies to the buying process that only seem to benefit Blizzard at the expense of the players. It remains to be seen if Blizzard will make any changes to this system to limit its adverse effects. Making any amount of Runestones refundable for their real-world value would go a long way towards this, but as this would be an unprecedented move in the world of premium currencies, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

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Remember that one section in Dishonored towards the end of the game, where you're sneaking through the sewers and have to throw corpses to distract hordes of rats so you can safely cross a room? Of course you do, that game rules! Now imagine if someone, Asobo Studios actually, took that idea and built a whole game around it. Throw in the sibling dynamic and puzzle solving of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons and you have a recipe for something special.

I picked up A Plague Tale: Innocence on Game Pass, and played through the first couple of chapters. With the upcoming release of A Plague Tale: Requiem, launching day one on Game Pass, I wanted to check out the first game to see if it would be worth picking up the sequel as soon as it is available.

From what I've seen of the game, I think I may be doing just that.

The anti-power fantasy in games

In a world of games where the objective is as grand as saving the world or defeating demons and gods, it can be refreshing to find an experience where the stakes are more grounded and human, as well as the tools available to you. Survival is almost the only goal for Amicia and Hugo, and the focus on that helps to heighten the fear and tension.

The lethal threats both human and rat that you encounter, and your relative weakness against them further enhance the fear you feel while playing. Most of the items that you can use are only intended for distraction. You can kill some of the enemies as a last resort, but you get the sense that the game is leading you towards avoiding risky combat wherever possible. This helps the role-playing aspect of the game, playing the part of a frightened child who hates killing and will only do it when there is no other option.

A little too much game in my interactive movie

One criticism I have is that I'm not sure that a narrative-focused game like this really needed resource collecting and crafting mechanics. It felt capital VG Video Gamey in a bad way. It certainly broke the immersion somewhat to stop in the middle of running for your life to sit down and craft a new pouch to hold more rope.

Thankfully the number of times you stop to craft is limited, and the upgrades are relatively minor. Many of the online guides will direct you to every hidden resource throughout the game’s levels, but I've had no issue progressing in the game with the upgrades I was able to collect from my limited searching. As the story progresses you get more use for the resources you collect, which helps to justify it somewhat. I would have preferred any upgrades to be acquired through the story, however.

Children or ninjas?

I did find the stealth elements to be very forgiving at times. Provided a soldier has his back turned and you are crouching, then you can be within touching distance and not be overheard. Which broke the immersion a little whenever it happens. However the paths the game lays out for you mean that this isn't too noticeable.

A spooky, gross, good time all around

Asobo has done a fantastic job crafting an experience where you feel the life or death stakes more strongly than in most games. Both when avoiding death, and dealing it out in desperation. A few minor gameplay concerns aren't enough to stop this from being strongly recommended, especially for Xbox Game Pass subscribers who can get the game for no extra cost.

Playing Innocence has made me more excited for its sequel, Requiem, which will be released in October.

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I attended the final day of the British Esports Schools Championships, taking the opportunity to experience a live esports event, a first for me. The event was taking place at the Confetti Institute, a subdivision of Nottingham Trent University focused on creative subjects, including a specialist course in Esports Production.

The matches were held in their purpose-built Esports arena, Confetti X. Tucked away down the road from the rest of the event, the arena is packed with all the technology needed to amp up the excitement for an event and then broadcast it to the world. A very impressive achievement given the somewhat limited space that it occupies.

I had some time before the Overwatch finals, the matches I had come to see, so watched a few of the preceding events too. Caught the end of a decidedly one-sided Valorant Invitational final between NSCGTigers and CSGG. A game that I occasionally enjoy playing, but don’t understand at a high enough level to appreciate the detail of a competitive match.

After that in a change to the schedule, they played the delayed FIFA 22 XBOX finals.

It was fantastic to see two of the young players getting the chance to cast this match, alongside pro caster WaXeN was the winner of the PlayStation final for FIFA, Lunatic, offering up some insights from a champion alongside Rocket League champion Beno_29.

”So what made you decide to use Liverpool instead of PSG?”

“Cos they’re me team aren’t they, up the Reds!”

Match winner Ethan from Evo academy

Overwatch Match Report

Eventually, it was time for the main event (for my purposes at least). First up was the Division 2 Overwatch finals between Farnborough 6th Form’s Nightjars and AGSB Esports. From the difference in volume, it seemed as though most of the crowd was cheering for AGSB Esports. Although that may have had something to do with the loudest person in the room sitting right next to me! All in all the crowd was good-natured, and impressive plays from both sides were met with appreciation all around.

Map 1 - Busan

The opening map was Busan. Despite some back and forth the map still comfortably went the way of AGSB. Their disciplined and well-drilled engagements with a Winston Reaper dive composition helped to win out against the Sigma brawl style favoured by F6th Esports.  A closer Meka Base round went all the way to 99:99, marked by some huge earthshatter plays from Ashwindu. In the end, AGSB held strong on the point and outlast F6th to claim the map win.

Map 2 - Hollywood

Both teams showcased their ability to switch compositions on the fly for map two. After being routed from Point A convincingly, AGSB switched from double shield to a Wrecking Ball and Pharah comp, making use of the high ground to set up their dive attempts. F6th sticking with a rush style were able to complete their attack. Thanks to a stellar Point A defence with a Sigma poke comp F6th were set up for success on this map, halting AGSB's attack midway through B. Toby's Roadhog was almost unkillable playing off on the flank, causing a major headache for AGSB.

Map 3 - Gibraltar

We didn't get to see all that much of Gibraltar this game, thanks to the Nightjars full holding AGSB. the difference makers were Absentinia outplaying Hyper on Tracer, and Hazza's anti-nades repeatedly opening fights by hitting multiple members of AGSB.

Map 4 - Temple of Anubis

AGSB take Anubis in a decisive fashion, bringing out the Winston dive they had so much success with on Busan. A cheesy map-specific adaptation, the Torbjörn turret placed on a high ledge proved to be the Nightjars’ undoing. They failed to react to it and its persistent damage wore down their health slowly but surely.

Map 5 - Oasis

The final score of 3:2, with the final map being won 2:1 with the final round going to 99:99 is as mathematically close as is possible for an Overwatch match. A sign of two teams giving it their all with only split-second decisions in fights being the difference-maker. Farnborough 6th Nightjars were the winner by a hair in the end.

Faced with a choice between staying to watch more amazing Overwatch, or catching a train home and sleeping in my own bed, I sadly had to go for the latter. The experience of being in a room full of people cheering really helped to amp up the excitement of the matches. It’s also much less frowned upon to whoop and yell there than sitting at home on your own, the way I’ve been used to watching esports.

I greatly enjoyed my short time at the championships, and it’s certainly whetted my appetite for future live esports matches.

Thanks for reading The Scrapyard Esports and Gaming Blog! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

This makes now a good time to take a look at how the teams stack up against each other. Which teams have exceeded our expectations, and which have fallen short.

Here are the season standings for the western region

Standings correct as of 31/05/2022, source: overwatchleague.com

What we expected

Shock still good, Titans still bad

Standing tall atop the leaderboard are the San Francisco Shock. As the only two time winners of the Overwatch League, this is arguably to be expected. What makes the Shock's continued dominance more impressive however is that their 2022 roster only has one returning player, Minki "Viol2t" Park. The rest of the squad are OWL rookies, drawn from the ranks of Contenders teams, particular O2 Blast, who the Shock has brought into their organisation as their academy team.

Special credit must be given to rookie tank player Colin "Coluge" Arai for stepping in to the roster last minute following the shock (pun fully intended) -ing retirement of former main tank Matthew "super" DeLisi, and still playing up to an Overwatch League level.

At the other end of the spectrum, and the standings, are the poor Vancouver Titans. Their western rosters don't look anywhere near as good as the Runaway roster that took them all the way to the 2019 Grand Final. They finish this tournament as one of only two winless teams, alongside Paris.

While it's undeniable that there is talent on this team, DPS players Niclas "sHockWave" Jensen and Maximilian "Seicoe" Otter have both had huge individual plays this year. Vancouver main support Petja "Masaa" Kantanen made it to the Grand Finals with Atlanta Reign last year. Something must be seriously wrong at a coaching/organisational level for this to keep on happening.

Not to speak too badly about the Titans as an organisation. But when I went to check their page on overwatchleague.com, I saw that their roster details have still not been added: https://titans.overwatchleague.com/en-us/roster. It's not a great look when volunteer run Liquipedia is more up to date than your official page.

[Update: The Titans have announced that Seicoe is being dropped from their squad]

Better than expected: London Spitfire

Despite their middle of the pack placement in the standings, the London Spitfire have outperformed many fans' and analysts' expectations. While this is not surprising given their almost totally winless season last year, Overwatch 2 is a whole new game. Going into the tournament tied at the bottom of many power rankings, and going on to barely not qualify for the Kickoff Clash is a huge achievement for the Spitfire.

What's even more surprising is that they've been able to find success going against the meta. Focusing almost entirely on the Reinhardt/Mei brawl comps, and being pretty damn good at it!

Looking forward to the Kickoff Clash

Source: Overwatch League on Twitter

The 8 teams with the best match record so far will be going head to head in a double elimination bracket to decide the winner of the Kickoff Clash. The undefeated San Francisco Shock have to be the favourite going in. We haven't seen how they match up against two of the top four teams, Dallas Fuel and Florida Mayhem, and the fourth was LA Gladiators who took the Shock to five maps.

Has a relatively easy strength of schedule that included both New York Excelsior and Vancouver Titans given us unreasonably high opinion of this rookie squad? We'll have to see once the Kickoff Clash kicks off on June 2nd.

Last Friday members of the Overwatch 2 dev team sat down with Overwatch League host Soe to chat about the development of the game and the upcoming Alpha and Beta tests. Here’s some of what we learned from that discussion.

The decision to separate the PVP and PVE elements of Overwatch was made to get new content to the PVP players

It’s no secret that the development process for Overwatch 2 hasn’t gone as planned. More than two years from the initial announcement of an Overwatch sequel with almost nothing to show for it. Game Director Aaron Keller explained that releasing the multiplayer side of Overwatch 2 would give the development team more time to work on the story elements without leaving the PVP scene with no new content.

What was implied but left unspoken was that without new content the player base of the game may well have withered away to nothing before the combined Overwatch 2 experience was ready for them. Pushing out the PVP side of the game out to players sooner rather than later is an attempt to keep players engaged with the game long enough for the devs to finish working on the rest of Overwatch 2.

It remains to be seen how this splitting of the two sides of the game will affect the pricing for Overwatch 2. Will we see a free update for the PVP side, followed by a full Triple-A cost for the story mode? Or perhaps each side will be a paid release at a lower price point.

Doomfist is being reworked as a tank hero

We haven’t seen an existing hero move to a new role since the Major Symmetra rework in June 2018, so this is going to be a major change. We’ll see whether after the changes to the hero he still feels like Doomfist. Lead Designer Geoff Goodman confirmed that, as a tank, Doomfist’s health will be higher, and damage output lower. So it looks likely that a lot of Doomfist’s one-shot kill potential is going away with Overwatch 2.

I believe the fact that Doomfist, even with a serious rework, could be considered a tank tells us a lot about what the tank role is going to be like in Overwatch 2. Thinking of tanks like a wall to stay behind and shoot is largely going to be a thing of the past. Overwatch 2 tanks are initiator heroes that create space through movement and aggression, the tip of the spear rather than the shield.

The new ping system is contextual and customisable

The biggest surprise of the developer update that preceded the Livestream, apart from the fact that Overwatch 2 was still a real thing, was the first official mention that a ping communication system was coming to Overwatch 2.

This is something that many players, myself included, have been calling for for a long time. Voice comms for solo queue players can be unreliable at best, and unsafe for many groups at worst. So a real alternative that allows players to coordinate without voice comms would be a huge benefit to a team-based game like Overwatch 2.

As part of the Livestream, we got some more details about how the ping system will work. Firstly, there will be a generic ‘ping’ command that will change based on what is selected. I took this to mean that targeting a hero would send a command like ‘focus on their Mercy’, whereas selecting a health pack might ping ‘use that health pack if you need to’. Other contexts might be that an enemy hero is low on health, or weakened by status effects.

Secondly, we learned that there will be a wheel of ping commands, similar to the existing communication wheel and that these will be customisable, much like the current voice wheel is. With the added HUD feedback of a ping system, hopefully, this new communication system will be more widely used (and followed) than the current comms wheel.

To see more of what was discussed, watch the recording of the developer Livestream here:

It began, as many foolish plans do, with a tweet. An announcement from the Hangzhou Spark Overwatch League team. Detailing an exclusive collaboration with one of my favourite anime, A Certain Scientific Railgun. It would be difficult to imagine a piece of merchandise more suited to my interests.

They gave the show’s protagonist, Misaka Mikoto an official team jersey number. As well as creating some exclusive merchandise.

The collaboration is not as surprising as it appears. The Spark’s owners, Chinese video-sharing site Bilibili, get their name from a Railgun reference. Bilibili is a nickname given to the protagonist Misaka. It is a Japanese onomatopoeia for the sound of electricity, like “buzz buzz” in English. It is translated as either “Sparky” (in the manga) or “Zapper” (in the anime). The name of their Overwatch League team, the “Spark” is also a reference to this. There was even a rumour their team name would be the Hangzhou Railgun.

All this meant that this was some merchandise I was very keen to get my hands on. There was only one slight issue… The merch was only available on Bilibili’s store, which is a Chinese language only site that only ships within China.

But that was not enough to deter me. A quick Google search introduced me to the idea of package forwarding services. These companies provide shoppers with a local address they can use when ordering. Their purchases are sent to a warehouse, where they can then be shipped anywhere in the world.

They mostly advertise themselves as allowing you to find cheap items on Amazon like mega-retailers like Taobao. They work just as well for exclusive niche merchandise though.

This seemed like the perfect solution. I quickly signed myself up for an account (which is usually free) and headed to the website to find what I was looking for. While I could find the store pages for the item thanks to Google Translate. I could not figure out how to actually pay for the items. Either the translation missed something, or I do not have access to a Chinese only payment method, I never figured out.

Luckily for me the parcel forwarding service I was planning to use also offered an assisted purchase service. All you have to do is provide a link to the store page. Then one of their agents, who can read the language, makes the order on your behalf. Through this service, I was able to get my items as far as a warehouse in Shenzhen.

The most nerve-wracking part of this process is the feeling of not being in control of your purchases. You have paid for and bought your items, and yet it’s still sitting in a warehouse on the other side of the world, which makes any small issue seem much larger.

One concern that I had was after my items were received at the warehouse. This was one of the pictures they took of the items. I was worried because to me it looked like some sort of canned soda had been included in the bundle. This was a problem because shipping food and drink items internationally is a whole lot harder and more expensive than other items.

Thankfully after a few anxious communications with their customer support, my worries turned out to be unfounded. I was able to confirm that the can was only the canister that the shirt was shipped in. With that, the last major hurdle to getting the merchandise shipped to me was dealt with.

The shipping options to me in the UK ranged from the too cheap to be true, to the exorbitantly expensive. I chose one somewhere between, and with that my items were on their way to me. After so much waiting the last few weeks they were in transit felt like no time at all.

It took way longer and required much more work on my part than any normal online shopping experience. Having gone through all that, I now own something that very few in my country, or even continent, have.

In summary, package forwarding can be a great way to get your hands-on items you would never be able to otherwise. Provided you’re okay with jumping through a few extra hoops and paying more than you would expect. Suffice it to say that I spent more on shipping and other fees than on the merch itself!).

Would I go through all the hassle and waiting again? For the right items, absolutely!

Whenever the creators of League of Legends announce a new game, it is always going to make a big splash. Moving into the field of collectible card games is a bold move for Riot Games, as it’s a field already dominated by successful games.

What has Legends of Runeterra done to help it stand out from the crowd?

To explore this I’ve chosen to compare the game against the two most popular CCG games right now, Hearthstone and Magic the Gathering Arena (the latest video game version of the hugely popular physical TCG).

Legends of Runeterra (LoR) can be seen as a hybrid of the two games, borrowing some of the best ideas from both to create a distinct experience.

Here are some of the aspects in which this games are similar and different.

Mana

The mana system in LoR is almost identical to the system in Hearthstone. Each player has a set amount of mana that increases, one per turn, up to a maximum of ten. This ensures that the increase in mana is steady and consistent in each game. There is no coloured mana, or land cards that have to be drawn to increase your mana pool, as in Magic.

LoR does have one additional feature that allows players to use their mana more efficiently. Excess mana from a turn (up to a maximum of three) is retained in a separate mana pool that can only be spent on spells. This mechanic means that there is less pressure to use all of your mana in one turn in order to play efficiently, as it can be beneficial to save mana in order to cast powerful spells earlier

Limited number of minions

LoR, just like Hearthstone, has a limit on the number of minions that can be played at any one time, 6 in LoR vs 7 in Hearthstone. This means that it can be a good strategy to sacrifice your minions in losing attacks to make space for more powerful ones.

Another reason for this limit is making the games mobile friendly. Hearthstone is available on iOS and Android devices, and LoR has announced that it will be coming to both these platforms. Both games are designed to work well with the smaller screen size and touch controls, and keeping number of minions in play low helps to simplify the experience for a better mobile gaming experience.

Magic has no such limit. Games can involve 20 plus minions with attached equipment, as well as Planeswalker characters and active spell effect cards also in play at the same time. As it was originally created as a physical card game, there was no consideration for how the game could be played on a smartphone, mostly because smartphones did not exist in 1993. It is probably for this reason that there is not yet a mobile version of Magic, despite the game being out for PC for over a year. The experience is not one that can be easily adapted to mobile.

Attacking and defending

The process of attacking your opponent in LoR plays like a streamlined version of Magic’s attacks. In both you attack by declaring your attacking cards. It is then up to your opponent to decide whether to block each attacker, or allow the attack to pass and reduce their life points directly.

The key difference is that in LoR only one minion can block each attacker. In Magic you can block with multiple minions and combine their attack power to overwhelm an attacker. In LoR if you do not have a minion with enough attack power, then you will not be able to kill the attacker this turn without additional spells or effect.

In contrast in Hearthstone each minion (or a hero with attack power) can direct their attack at any enemy minion or the enemy hero. The only way the opponent can control who blocks is by playing minions with the Taunt keyword, that prevents any other target being attacked until all Taunt minions are killed first. There is no equivalent keyword in Magic or LoR, because most minions can be used to block attacks.

Minion health

The way Legends of Runeterra handles minion’s health along with the attacking system, is where the hybrid nature of the game is most clearly seen. As we have seen attacking is done similarly to Magic, however unlike Magic, and more like Hearthstone, damage done to minions is permanent.

At the end of each turn in Magic, minions that were damaged but not killed fully recover. In order to kill a minion you have to inflict a lethal amount of damage in one turn.

Whereas in LoR you can block with one minion one turn, weaken the enemy minion, and then block again in order to kill them. Or damage the minion enough that it can’t be used to block without dying. There is a lot of strategic potential in choosing when and how to inflict damage that is not present in Magic, which is an interesting new aspect of LoR.

Classes

In all the games we are looking at, cards are divided into classes that contain cards that synergise well together and enable specific strategies.

The classes in Legends of Runeterra (called Regions) work similarly to Colors in Magic, in that you can combine multiple classes (limited to 2 in LoR)in your decks. Hearthstone decks are limited to one class per deck.

This means there are a total of 21 possible broad deck types that can be made just by combining the 6 regions in LoR (including single region decks). In comparison, there are nine class type decks in Hearthstone, although there are many more in Magic, because in Magic it is possible to create decks using three or even four different colors.

Turn order and counter play

This is the one aspect in which Legends of Runeterra really distinguishes itself from the competition. Its approach to when and how you can counter your opponent’s moves is truly unique.

The game is broken down into short turns in which each player can play a card and/or declare and attack. Turns are grouped into rounds, and actions that would normally take place each turn, drawing a card and refreshing and increasing your mana pool, only happen at the end of a round. One player attacks and one defends each round alternately.

What this means is that almost every time you make a move, your opponent has the opportunity to counter it. Compare this with Magic, where only Instant cards can be played outside your turn, and Hearthstone where Secrets are your only means of countering on your opponent’s turn. This creates the feel of a game which is a constant push and pull, play and counter play, where the aim is not just to execute your strategy, but to act at the right moment so as not to be countered.

This results in a game where strategy and how you play is equally important, or even more so, than the cards you choose or how large your collection is. Being pay to win is a criticism that has been levelled at Hearthstone before, it is refreshing to see a CCG whereyou are not so disadvantaged by not being willing to spend money on a free game.

Familiar but its own beast

While Legends of Runeterra is clearly inspired by the games that came before it, and borrows many of their key mechanics, Hearthstone’s simplified mana pool and Magic’s attack model, it goes beyond these. Modifying and building on the existing ideas of what a CCG should be in order to create an experience that is familiar, but distinct enough in key areas to feel like a new and intriguing experience. Players of both Hearthstone and Magic, and likely other similar games, will find a lot they recognise in this new game, but hopefully also enough that feels new and different too.

Blizzard has announced that starting this year that all their esports competitions, the Overwatch League, and the new Call of Duty League, will be broadcast via Youtube Gaming instead of Twitch. Twitch has been the streaming partner for the last two seasons of OWL, so this has come has a big surprise to the community. The partnership runs deeper than just streaming rights, with Google Cloud providing the game hosting infrastructure as well.

Here are some of the factors that may have led to this new partnership.

Why YouTube wants Overwatch League

Money and market share

Esports and video game streaming is big business right now, with 2019 revenue expected to be higher than $1 billion. For years Twitch has been the dominant streaming platform for both, but now other major players are looking to get a piece of that pie. Popular Twitch streamers are being offered lucrative deals to switch to competing platforms, including Ninja, one of the biggest names in streaming who now streams exclusively on Microsoft owned Mixer.

Youtube is making a similar play by purchasing exclusive rights to the Overwatch League, hoping to bring across viewers from Twitch, and to further establish themselves as a player in the Esports streaming world.

It is not known how much Youtube paid Blizzard for the streaming rights, but it was reported that the initial deal with Twitch was for $90 million for two seasons, so the price for streaming a league with a proven record and established fanbase must be significantly higher.

Why Overwatch League wants Youtube

Name recognition and wider access

Youtube is simply bigger and more well known that Twitch. Alexa.com ranks Youtube as the second most visited site on the web in February 2020, behind only Google (both owned by parent company Alphabet). For comparison Twitch is 35th on that list.

Twitch is more specifically geared towards gaming and esports, and holds a special status in the gaming community as a result. Which is why it is the natural fit for a league that’s trying to appeal to gamers.

However if Overwatch League wants to broaden it’s appeal and bring in more casual fans, including those that don’t also watch streamers via Twitch, then Youtube is a better platform to do this, as these fans are more likely to have heard of Youtube than Twitch. It is a platform that a significant percentage of people use everyday, for news and political content, makeup tutorials, recipe videos. New fans will find it easier to watch via a platform they know and recognise.

Another important factor to consider is availability of the platform. Putting Overwatch League onto Youtube gives it an automatic boost in the number of people that can access it. YouTube is available on all major games consoles, Smart TVs, streaming media devices, and even some cable and satellite providers. If it exists, and you can plug it into a TV, then chances are you can play YouTube through it.

Twitch is available on some, but not all of these devices. Being on YouTube will help Overwatch League to reach new viewers that were not aware of, or unable to easily access the league via Twitch.

Taking the Overwatch League off of Twitch could be seen by some as a snub to the gaming community, which is used to watching Esports competitions on Twitch. In looking to broaden the appeal Blizzard will have to be careful not to alienate their most dedicated fans.

What’s missing

When OWL 2020 begins, it will launch (at least initially) without several major interactivity and monetisation features that were part of the viewing experience in 2019, including the All-Access Pass viewer, Twitch cheer emotes and integrated loot drops.

The All Access Pass was a paid service that provided access to multiple viewing angles for the matches, as well as additional Q and A streams and exclusive in game content. There has been no indication that anything like this will be available via the Youtube platform.

Similarly in game loot drops for watching streams are an integral part of the Twitch experience, used by streamers and esports competitions alike. Viewers could link their Battle.net accounts to Twitch and receive in game rewards (tokens that be redeemed for OWL specific skins). Youtube does not have this functionality right now, but we know that OWL is at least looking into how to offer something similar this year.

In many ways it is remarkable that these issues have not been resolved sooner. Removing some of their monetisation streams is a real step backwards for OWL as a business. It is extra surprising when you consider that one of the key ways to encourage OWL skin sales (token drops) has been stopped, just as the league is introducing updated skins for several teams that have changed their colours for this season.

Blizzard also uses Twitch’s loot drop functionality in some of it’s limited time events, offering exclusive in-game sprays as a reward for watching Twitch streamers. It is possible that future events may also include Youtube streams in these promotions.

It remains to be seen when and how these features are integrated into Youtube for the Overwatch League. I believe that it is important that they are reintroduced on the new platform. If it turns out that the league has changed to a new platform that is in some ways a worse viewing experience because of a large payment from Youtube, then that will look like naked profiteering from Blizzard at the expense of the fans and the sport.

However if they can solve these issues this could be a great opportunity to reach a wider audience and improve awareness of understanding of esports overall. It will be up to them to prove to us that Youtube can be an equally good, or even a better, home for the Overwatch League than Twitch.

The Rumour

Jeff Kaplan has now confirmed that the dev team are not planning on adding hero bans at this time, so this article will remain theoretical for the foreseeable future

A few days ago popular Overwatch streamer Emongg made some cryptic remarks on his stream, suggesting that a major change was coming to Overwatch in the next few weeks. Following that known Overwatch leaker Metro (who leaked Overwatch 2 news before the official announcement) suggested that the change may be hero bans, a feature common in MOBA games but that has never been tried in Overwatch.

We also know that there will be a developer update coming next week, confirmed by game director Jeff Kaplan in a forum post. The coincidence of a new developer update coming soon after the leaks, led to suspicions that hero bans were coming for Overwatch.

Although this has now been denied. It is interesting to think about how a hero ban system could work in Overwatch, and the effect that could have on the game.

What would hero bans even look like

To understand how bans could work in Overwatch, it would be useful to see how they function in a similar competitive multiplayer game. Let’s take League of Legends as an example, Overwatch is often considered a hybrid of a MOBA (such as LOL) and an FPS game.

In Draft Pick in LOL champions are banned in the lobby, prior to champion selection. Each player individually chooses a champion to ban for the entire lobby. Each team’s bans are hidden from the other, and both teams can ban the same champion (reducing the number of banned champions).

Additionally in the LCS esports league bans are done alternately, in a complicated order explained here.

However there are some possible changes to how this works in LOL that could make hero bans fit better in Overwatch.

How many bans?

There is a vast difference between the number of playable characters in Overwatch compared to League of Legends, 31 to 148 at time of writing. This means an individual hero ban would be much more impactful in Overwatch, as each hero represents a greater percentage of the total number of options.

LOL’s 10 hero bans lock off around 7% of the possible playable champions, the equivalent to this in Overwatch would be 2 bans, one per team.

Who chooses which hero to ban?

This is not an issue for LOL, as each player gets to choose on hero to ban. With the reduced number of bans another approach would be needed.

Many different solutions have been proposed in the last few days. The possibility of team’s voting has been raised, but this is not a very viable option. It would take too long, needing some kind of ranked choice system to prevent ties, and would disrupt the flow of preparing for the game. Given that reducing wait times in the game, the devs are unlikely to implement a feature that adds more waiting.

Other ideas include letting the team member with the highest level, SR, or endorsement rank choose, or even a randomly assigned player.

None of these represent an ideal solution, and it is probably impossible to find a method of deciding who to ban that satisfied everyone.

A special problem for popular players

Another concern which only affects popular players and streamers, is players using the ban system to prevent individual players from playing the hero that they are best at.

If a ban system were implemented, and in that system it is possible to see the enemies battletags before each team votes to ban, then it would be possible to identify popular player’s and streamers, preventing them from playing the game how the would like to.

As unfortunate as it is for the individuals in questions, Blizzard can’t cater to the needs of a small, albeit vocal, part of their community. This would not be an issue for the overwhelming majority of the millions who play Overwatch, so I definitely wouldn’t see it as a reason not to implement a feature like this.

This would also be present in organised competitions, including Overwatch League, where players and teams are known in advance. However in this case preparing for opposing team’s preferred heroes and trying to force them out of their comfort zone through bans would be part of team strategy, and not something to be avoided.

N.B. The following only apply to organised competitive matches

Cumulative bans

Another question to consider is whether, when multiple matches are played successively, a different hero is banned in each match, or one additional hero is banned per match.

Having this rule would allow teams to progressively execute a strategy to upset their opponent’s plans,

The problem is how many heroes can be banned for each role before the game becomes unplayable. If each team were able to ban one extra hero each match, then by the end of a full 5 match Overwatch League match then 10 heroes would be banned, nearly a third of the full roster.

Overwatch was released with 21 original heroes, and was playable with that many, so in theory ten heroes could be removed without breaking the game, however which heroes are banned could have a huge impact.

There may need to be limits on how many heroes per role to prevent, for instance, a team banning five of the seven support heroes, and leaving the opposition with no choice for that role.

It may turn out that focusing all your bans on one role is a sub optimal strategy that allows the enemy team to gain an advantage with better targeted bans however.

The addition of new viable heroes, particularly in the tank and support roles, will go a long way to mitigating these concerns. Although we may end up waiting till the release of Overwatch 2 for that to happen.

When will bans be set?

Team’s often have players who specialise on one or two heroes. The decision on whether to field these players is dependent on whether they will be allowed to play the heroes that they specialise in.

If information on planned hero bans was not given in advance, at least before selecting players for the match/given the opportunity to substitute, then it would be a huge risk to field those players. Specialist players who are not able to adapt may not be able to continue to play in the League under those conditions.

The Effect

The intention of a ban system, would be to prevent one composition or strategy from becoming dominant. This has been a longstanding problem for Overwatch, with the game transitioning from dive dominance, to GOATs, to the double shield meta with only brief periods of flux in between. These comps are built around one or two linchpin heroes, Brigitte for GOATs, Sigma/Orisa for double shield, that are crucial to the strategy.

For example, a team facing a team that prefers double shield compositions could disrupt that by banning Orisa, forcing them to either try a sub-optimal variant of double shield (Reinhardt +Sigma anyone?) or alternatively switch strategies entirely.

Once a compositions starts to emerge as dominant, teams would react by banning the key heroes, leading to either a constantly changing meta or multiple viable options determined by what your opponents bans.

This sounds very much like the meta state that the game developers are aiming for.

The Verdict

There remain many unanswered questions about how hero bans would actually work in Overwatch. Crafting a rule set that meets the differing needs of casual, serious amateur, and professional players would be no easy feat.

That being said, a well thought out and well executed hero ban system could go a long way to improving the gameplay experience for all Overwatch players.

When we look at the league as a whole it does not matter who wins and loses, it can simply be recorded as an upset result. However looking at the data by team introduces two new categories for us to consider, upset wins and upset losses. This can also be applied to our upset factor calculation, giving each team both an upset win and upset loss factor.

Results

The number of matches played varies quite a bit between teams. Washington, Florida, and Paris only played 28, whereas San Francisco who played in every Stage Final and all the way to the Grand Finals played 41. For this reason all the results are expressed per match played so that no team has a higher result just because they played more matches.

Which team had the most upsets

The award (if it is something to be proud of) for the most upset matches goes to Chengdu Hunters and Houston Outlaws, with 41% of their matches going against expectations. London Spitfire are just one percentage point behind Houston and Chengdu, with all three rounding to 4 in 10.

However looking at the data further will show that this result means very different things for these teams.

Which team had the highest number of unexpected wins

The Chengdu Hunters (tied with the LA Valiant) score highest for number of upset wins, beating the odds in almost a third of their matches (28%). An honourable mention for the Guangzhou Charge, viewed throughout the season as something of a Chengdu-lite in terms of their play style, and they certainly showed that in their tendency to beat the odds.

For Chengdu I suspect it was their general unpredictability throughout the season as a whole, which allowed them to beat some of the best teams (Shock in Stage 3 and NYXL in Stage 4) on their best days.

For Los Angeles the reason behind this was their rocky (to put it mildly) start to the season leading on to a more respectable last few stages. By starting at a low seed and improving it meant that they were constantly beating the expectations of their seeding, giving them the upset wins.

While the Hunters and the Valiant were equal in number of upset wins, the Valiant scored the highest in terms of their upset win factor, an indicator of the magnitude of their unexpected wins.

This means while both teams achieved an equal number of surprise wins, LA’s victories were against relatively higher ranked teams, and so were that much more remarkable.

Which team had the highest number of unexpected losses

as we saw previously Spitfire and the Outlaws both ranked highly in terms of overall upset results but average in terms of upset wins. This unfortunately means that they both ranked ranked highly in terms of their unexpected losses.

Spitfire ranked the highest with 25% upset losses, with Houston and the Boston Uprising both recorded 24%, barely behind. Which means a quarter of these teams matches were losses that they would have been expected to win on paper.

Of these teams the Outlaws had the highest upset loss factor, the second highest of the season overall at 1.52, second only to Atlanta Reign at 1.72.

Atlanta’s story is unique in the league. over performing in stages 1 and 4 and under performing in the middle of the season. Coming into Stage 2 as as 5th seed and then losing to the 17th and 20th seed (Guangzhou and Los Angeles Valiant) helped to cement their place at the top of this metric.

Summary

Looking at this kind of data is a great way to identify and measure some of the the most interesting stories that develop across a season. Following the rise and fall of upstart teams beating the odds, or showing which teams failed to deliver on their high expectations.

To determine whether a result is an upset or not, I considered whether the winner was a higher seed than the loser, based on the result of the previous stage. This is why I haven’t drawn any conclusions from stage 1, as there was no previous stage to use to determine the seeding.

I could have done something based on the previous season, but as this wouldn’t have given us any data for expansion teams it seemed better to not attempt this rather than to have incomplete data.

Another area of my analysis that warrants explanation is what I’ve called the ‘upset factor’. The upset factor is my attempt to determine mathematically how big an upset is. This is achieved by calculating the difference between the seeding of the teams. For example the San Francisco Shock (seeded 6th in stage 1) beating the Vancouver Titans (seeded 1st) in the Stage 2 final would have an upset factor of 5, because they beat a team that was 5 seeds higher according to our best estimates.

I’ve also tried to estimate whether an upset is a major or a minor upset. The criteria for determining this was whether that gap between the seeds was greater than the average for upset matches plus 20% and rounded up for ease of understanding.

if you would like to know more about the methodology behind the analysis, click here

Results

Of the 239 matches played between stage 2 and the Grand Finals, 82 were upset matches, around 34% of matches. Of these 25 were classed as major upsets, i.e. where the gap between the teams was seven places or higher, with 58 minor upsets. Overall approximately 10% of matches were major upsets.

Major and minor upsets per stage

The results differ slightly in different stages. As you can see the likelihood of upset results (both major and minor) increased throughout the regular season, with a corresponding slight reduction in the number of expected results.

The increase in upset matches in stages 3 and 4 can be partly explained by the upsets to the meta during those stages. Stage 1 and 2 had a fairly stable triple-tank triple support (3:3 or GOATs) meta, which meant that teams that did well in Stage 1 were likely to repeat the performance in Stage 2. Perhaps the best example of this was the two stage finals both being between the same teams, Vancouver Titans and San Francisco Shock.

Whereas Stage 3 was a very transitional stage. In anticipation of the introduction of role lock teams introduced more DPS heroes, leading to a loose 3:2:1 Sombra meta developing. Then Stage 4, played with 2:2:2 role lock saw the almost complete dominance of the Orisa Sigma double shield meta. These changes gave different teams the opportunity to shine. In partiuclar Shanghai Dragons winning Stage 3, and previously middle of the pack Atlanta Reign achieving a perfect 7–0 Stage 4.

Upsets are much more likely when the meta is in flux like this. The definition of an upset is based on the assumption that the games are played under the same conditions. When those conditions change it will benefit some and disadvantage others in ways we could not predict.

Regular stage vs stage playoffs

There was almost no difference in the overall likelihood of upset matches in stage playoffs when compared to regular season matches, across both major and minor upsets. This is reflected in the experience of watching the playoffs, where most matches were as competitive as the regular season.

However there was an appreciable difference when considering the upset factor (i.e. the seed difference between upset winner and loser)

The average upset factor per match (including non upset matches) is 30% higher for the regular season matches compared to the stage playoffs.

There is a simple explanation for this. Higher seeded teams are more likely to make it into the playoffs. This means the range of seeds in playoff matches is smaller than for regular matches. Since there are fewer lower seed teams the likelihood of a significantly lower seeded team beating a higher team is reduced.

Keep an eye out for part 2 where we break down the data by teams to show which teams were the best at pulling off surprise victories, and unexpected losses…

What is needed is a total restructuring of the YouTube business model, both for individual creators and the platform as a whole.

it is highly unlikely that YouTube itself will take a lead on this. YouTube is owned by Google, and targeted advertising is Google’s core business model across the majority of their services. Instead it will be up to creators and their viewers to work towards creating a platform where enjoyable and popular content can be rewarded without the need for targeted advertising.

Unfortunately in order to do this viewers must be willing to pay more to directly support the content and creators they enjoy.

Here is the current situation. Instead of paying upfront for the content with money, we pay ( often without realising it) by handing over our personal data to YouTube. What this means is that the perceived value you of the content we consume is much less than it should be. The targeted advertising model allows for videos that require one or more people working full time to produce to be viewed and enjoyed by us at no upfront cost.

We need to actively unlearn this ingrained belief, as it will be the biggest thing holding us back from the radical change needed to resolve these issues.

There are multiple different ways that viewers could more directly support the content they care about, most of which already exist in some form. YouTube already has the channel membership feature, and there is also Patreon, which many creators both on YouTube and other sites us to support their income. Patreon is particularly useful for creators that do not produce content to a regular schedule, as it can be set to charge patrons per video instead of monthly. There is also YouTube Premium, the platform’s ad free subscription that includes access to exclusive videos. Instead of sharing ad revenue, YouTube shares some of the revenue from the YouTube subscription fees with creators.

The other more direct way to support creators without targeted advertising, is by paying for other things creators offer. These can be services, like coaching sessions or VOD reviews from expert gamers, or physical items such as clothing and other merchandise.

Here is the ideal outcome of following this approach as I see it. Once YouTube creators begin to see a majority of their income coming from sources outside of advertising, then there will be less need for them to run advertisements on all their videos. Once YouTube sees their revenue from advertisements dropping, and revenue from other sources (channel memberships, premium subscriptions etc…) increasing, it will take away the incentive for the same level of data collection. The content that will be promoted is that which fans are most willing to pay for, which will be better for viewers as this is content they have consciously chosen to promote, instead of subconsciously through algorithmic recommendations. This should lead to a system that values content that viewers actually care about, and be less open to exploitation than the current system.

Of course this is definitely an idealistic idea of how it could play out. There are certainly major challenges to this kind of systemic change. The default cost for channel memberships, $4.99 per month in the US and £4.99 in the UK, are too high for many YouTube viewers who may keep up with 10 or more creators. YouTube Premium seems more reasonable ($11.99 US and £11.99 UK), although the revenue cannot be so clearly directed towards your favourite creators. If YouTube was thought about more like Netflix, as a paid subscription service rather than the free ad supported model, then this option might seem more palatable to users. Some channel memberships for those channels that the viewer cares about the most, in addition to a Premium subscription, would seem to be the best model based on what exists currently.

YouTube is a massive multinational corporation that is dependent on a business model that has been shown to be harmful to the YouTube community and society at large. However ‘money talks’ as they say. If enough people were willing to change their perspective and value the content they received highly enough to make the other methods of supporting creators more profitable than targeted advertising, then we could start to see the beginning of positive change in how this company operates. It won’t be easy, as it requires us to take something we’re given for free, and to pay money for it, but it might be the best way to ensure the long term survival of the platform and the community, that despite all the problems it has, we care about very much.