We’re in the final Stage of the Overwatch League, and the meta has seen yet another major change. With the introduction of Brigitte, dive comps are starting to lose their staying power in the pro scene, and teams are being forced to adapt to a new play style. Let’s take a look back at some of the highlights from Stage 4 Week 1.
Brigitte and the Anti-Dive Comps
At the moment, Overwatch League matches are being played on a slightly older patch. This means that Brigitte has yet to be nerfed, and pros are still playing with old Hanzo and the Scatter Arrow instead of the new and slightly overpowered Storm Arrow. Hanzo woes aside, Brigitte actually doesn’t seem as bad as many fans thought she would be.
True, she’s a hard counter to dive comps with Winston and Tracer – especially when you pair her up with DPS heroes like McCree or Junkrat. However, she also provides a lot more variety to the comps we’re seeing in these matches. With King’s Row back in the map rotation, we’re seeing Reinhardt and Zarya get even more playtime, which is always a good thing. Brigitte doesn’t seem that broken either, as teams like the New York Excelsior and the San Francisco Shock have proven that if you can get your coordination down, it becomes much easier to shut down Brigitte and still run dive if you want to.
Boston Downswing
The Boston Uprising didn’t drop a single match in Stage 3, and that perfect record catapulted them all the way to the second place in the Overwatch League standings, effectively dropping the London Spitfire down to third place. However, after losing the playoff finals and ditching their head coach, Boston certainly seems to be entering a slump. The problem is only exacerbated by the fact that they were a very inflexible dive team, and the introduction of Brigitte is going to make things a lot harder for them.
In the past week, they dropped both of their games to the Philadelphia Fusion and the Houston Outlaws. At the moment, they don’t seem to have a good flex DPS player who can provide them with the flexibility they need. We think the Uprising will still make it to the season playoffs, but they’ll need to adapt if they want to survive Stage 4.
Houston Returning to Stage 1 Form
The Houston Outlaws were one of the most dominant teams back in Stage 1 of the Overwatch League. Junkrat was at his prime, which meant that DPS player Jake could spam those grenades and Concussion Mines to his heart’s content. The team made it all the way to the Stage playoffs, but fell short when they got reverse swept in epic fashion by the London Spitfire. Since then, the team has languished due to the lack of a strong Tracer player and their weakness in running dive comps.
However, with Brigitte thrown into the mix, all that is about to change. Houston no longer needs to worry about Tracer as much anymore, and they can play to their anti-dive strengths by running Brigitte and Junkrat. It certainly helps that they have two off-tank players who are very proficient at playing D.Va and Zarya whenever the situation calls for it. The meta is heavily in favor of the Outlaws right now, and we can see them going far this Stage. They’ve already trounced Boston and London, and they could very well go on another hot streak after this.
Our Favorite Play of the Week
We hate to keep giving NYXL all the limelight and glory, but when they keep impressing us with clutch plays, how can we resist? This week, our favorite moment in the Overwatch League came during the match between New York and London on Hanamura. Just as the Spitfire were finally about to capture this first point, and were only dealing with the remaining stragglers, Pine comes rushing in with the emergency Doomfist to completely demolish London’s backline. He took out both Zenyatta and Lucio all by himself, effectively crippling the Spitfire, and paving the way for his team to return to the point and deny the capture.
You're not done with me YET! @tf2pine #OWL2018
Live: https://t.co/U6dIioZfOU pic.twitter.com/Qr04KPBcGD
— Overwatch Esports (@OW_Esports) May 20, 2018
They managed to full hold London on Hanamura, all thanks to that quick swap on Pine’s part.
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