Whether in the esport scene of Overwatch or in ranked matches, many players were hoping to see changes coming from Blizzard. From the omnipresent GOAT comp to the many problems of the ranked mode, many solutions have been hoped for by the players. On July 18, Blizzard has finally made a decision. It will be a forced 2-2-2 for Stage 4 of the Overwatch League. No more triple-triple, no more 3 DPS, no more quadruple DPS... Everything will change!
It's official, the role lock will be introduced in the Overwatch League! The composition will be as follows: 2 DPS, 2 Tanks and 2 Supports. It will be impossible to change roles during a map even if you will be able to change heroes according to your role. Role changes will be possible between maps. To better represent the composition, the players' seated placements will always be like this:
- The 2 DPS on the left
- The 2 Tanks in the middle
- The 2 Supports on the right
For the moment, we have no information about the ranked, nor the rest of the game. While some teams will greatly take advantage of it, some, such as the winners of the first two camps — Vancouver Titans and San Francisco Shock — may have difficulty adapting to this composition, at least at the beginning.
2-2-2 / Goats
The 2-2-2 is the classic Overwatch composition. It is based on a simple and effective balance: 2 tanks, 2 healers and 2 DPS. In the days of the dive meta, we could have this kind of composition for example:
- Winston / D.Va / Genji / Tracer / Lucio / Zenyatta
According to the information we have, the role lock will be forced into the Overwatch League for Stage 4. It would then totally destroy one of the most powerful compositions of today's competitive scene: GOATS.
GOATS named after the GOATS team - which emerged from the NA contenders - is composed of 3 tanks and 3 supports. Many variants exist, based on Sombra (cyber-goat) or Mei (Snoat) for example. The basis is this:
- Reinhardt / Zarya / D.Va / Brigitte / Moira / Lucio
GOATS' aim: to survive and to control. It is very hard to knock off this very well protected composition. In GOATS vs GOATS, the first to defeat the opposing Reinhardt usually won the team fight.
According to upcomer, 2-2-2 lock would be imposed at the beginning of Stage 4 of the OWL, around July 26. For the moment, we have no information on whether or not it will be present exclusively in the Overwatch League.
The only restriction of this kind is three years old. At the beginning, each team could have as many identical heroes as it wanted. A limit was quickly set, allowing only one hero of each, outside of certain specific modes.
Situation in ranked
For some time now, the game has been stagnating without too many improvements or novelty. In solo queue, we often find ourselves in bad, even toxic situations, where the compositions are unbalanced, without healers or tanks for example. The arrival of 2-2-2 lock could settle down the situation, but would not be a miracle solution.
If the role queue - which would allow you to choose the role you want to play before a game - is not implemented at the same time, the situation could be even more complicated, with players being forced to play a role they don't like or don't know how to play. However, adding the role queue is not THE solution either. In fact, there are many more DPS players which will make the game search take longer.
The team queue - allowing to play in teams of 6 against teams of 6 - requested by a part of the community could also change the situation. However, at this time, Blizzard does not seem convinced or interested in this solution.
The limits of the 2-2-2
Several problems will arise if this composition is effectively imposed.
The versatility
Prohibiting any composition other than the 2-2-2 will make the competition much more rigid and DPS oriented. They will be the ones who, most of the time, will allow their teams to win or lose. A return to dive composition, which has remained the best composition of the game for an extremely long time, is also to be feared.
The "hybrid" heroes
An imposed 2-2-2 would highlight another problem. What to do with hybrid heroes like Brigitte? Between the heal, tank and DPS, however, she does not do enough in any of the three categories to be sufficient as such. Will it be modified to do less heal and more damage? Or the other way around?
As Stage 3 Playoffs have just ended, Blizzard has already announced how season 3 of the Overwatch League will be held in 2020. There will be many homestand matches from all over the world, and the league will be organized in a different way. Here you can find all the information in the article!
