Overwatch: Making a Case for Competitive Play

Overwatch: Making a Case for Competitive Play

 

After months of forcing us to trudge through a mixture of casuals players and try-hards, Blizzard finally launched the Competitive Play mode for the Overwatch closed beta. While it has been a large success in the beta community, it has met some surprising opposition in the competitive scene. Professional players, tournament promoters, and community members are fearful that it will overtake the current StopWatch format and drastically change the professional scene. 

Stopwatch vs. Competitive

It was not long after Blizzard launched the Overwatch closed beta that online tournaments began to surface. With the lack of official tournament structure combined with the limited types of game modes, the tournament community had to publish their own set of rules. This led to the creation of the StopWatch style of play, where teams take turns attacking and defending on the same map. In StopWatch the team that makes it the farthest in progression or completes the map the fastest wins.

However, with the recent introduction of ranked play, Blizzard coined a new format called Competitive Play. In Competitive Play, if a Payload or Assault map is picked, teams take turns attacking and defending on the same map. If both teams win, or lose, the map is declared a tie and a single tiebreaker round is played on a Control map. If a Control map is selected from the start, a team has to win three of the five Control maps to earn the win.

While Blizzard has made no official statement on whether the Competitive Play format will be the tournament standard, the community has already expressed concerns. Professional players and tournament promoters have discussed how they prefer the StopWatch speedrun metagame over the safe and careful team compositions in Competitive Play. While the competitive scene prefers StopWatch over Competitve Play, the disconnect it causes between professionals and casuals may hurt OverWatch’s future as casual players struggle to relate to the professional scene.  

The Professional Disconnect

Part of the appeal of traditional sports is our ability to mimic how professional athletes are playing. For instance, as long as you have a hitting partner you I can go play the game of tennis as Rodger Federer or Novak Djokavic. While you may not be putting on the next Wimbledon thriller, the rules are the same. This novelty is held in esports as well, as spectators of a tournament will want to reenact what they watch. Yet having a tournament scene that drastically differs from what spectators play can damage casual interest in the game.

A good example of a game that has a vastly different tournament scene than what is available to a casual player is Hearthstone. In ranked play, Blizzards collectible card game is played in a best-of-one format with a single deck. However, in tournament play, players use the Conquest format where they assemble three decks and attempt to win with each one. Due to the difference between formats, casual players will never be able to recreate a tournament experience through the regular play.

The difference in format also has a drastic effect on the Hearsthstone metagame. In Conquest, Oil Rouge is a common deck type and high skill-ceiling decks, like Murloc Paladin, are on the rise. Yet according to TempoStorm’s Meta Snapshot both of these are tier three decks and they struggle to climb the ranked ladder. Instead, ranked play is dominated by the same four deck types that were dominating after the launch of the latest expansion as they are the safest decks in best-of-one play.

This difference between tournament play and ranked play can cause a barrier of entry for new esport spectators. New viewers will struggle to understand the rules going into tournament play, as the Conquest format and metagame are vastly different from ranked play. Even if a player watches the tournament and finds a professional player using a unique deck, they may struggle to find success with that deck on ladder. This contributes to the stale metagame that Hearthstone is experiencing right now, which is one of the chief complaints of the community.

Much of the esport success of MOBA styles games comes from the player’s ability to mimic the professional scene. The majority of picks that are strong in casual and ranked play in games like League of Legends carry over from the professional play. It is easy for players to see a fun champions in a professional match and find reasonable success on them in casual or ranked games. This ease of cross play has helped League of Legends grow as spectator esport.  

Conclusion

Overwatch will be competing in an oversaturated market. With shooters such as BattleBorn, Paragon, Paladin, and Law Breakers set to launch in 2016, Overwatch will need every advantage it can take to stay at the top of the scene. Overwatch cannot afford a major disconnect between its professional scene and casual player base, and we as a community have to help it along.

Blizzards lack of announcement on tournament structure shows that they want to see how the community adjusts to Competitive Play. Already the community seems split on how it views the new format in tournament play. Sites like GosuGamers and the Overwatch subreddit continue to debate over Competitive Play, and I am sure that Blizzard is listening. So let’s do our part to make sure Blizzard makes the best decision for the future of Overwatch.

Instead of attempting to change the format that has not scene professional play, we as a community should give Competitive Play a chance in a tournament scene. What better way to build up the hype for Overwatch's launch than to run a few exhibition tournaments? Let the community see how the professional scene adapts to a best-of-three format on Competitive Play. Afterwords we can give our feedback on Competitive Play, help minimize the professional disconnect, and build Overwatch into the next esport giant.