Hello!

For those unaware, it has been announced by MonteCristo that Blizzard were in the final steps of releasing the new spectator mode. For reference: https://twitter.com/MonteCristo/status/918935011117502465

A few months ago, I’ve posted a quite large feedback post about how the spectator mode could improve. If you’re interested, it is right here on r/compow: https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/69u97s/a_big_way_to_improve_the_spectator_ui_from_a/

But now, I have this blog, so let’s do something a bit more complete, shall we?

Statistics

This is, by far, the most important feature I’m looking for. Having access to a full scoreboard would help a lot. Here’s what I’m looking for ESPECIALLY:

Damage dealt rankings

Healing done rankings

With these two informations, we can know who’s doing the most in terms of damage and healing, and then start some analysis about that. We could also go deeper on damage and get a check on which abilities/weapons did the most damage (LX rocket and left click).

Currently, with these stats missing, it is hard to tell who’s really doing well. With statistics, we’ll be able to do AMAZING analysis, even post game, which would make the post game discussions even better.

I won’t talk about knowing the current K/D/A of each player, as it is an obvious thing that would help. However, I hope casters won’t make the mistake of using that information too much. Overwatch is a team game, not a frag game.

The second thing I’m looking forward to is a functionality that shows small samples of statistics with a single button. Let me go further: when in someone’s POV, you obviously see the POV, but we can go deeper. By pressing a single button, the game would show a small window that shows kills, deaths, damage dealt, healing done. The stats shown would vary depending of the role of the player (a support hero would not show damage dealt for example, and a tank player would show damage blocked, the difficulty would be to find the proper stats to show for offtank). I already dreamt of me analyzing stuff with that feature… it would look and sound fantastic!

A new UI

Let me say it right now: the current UI is not good nor bad: it is basic. At the top, you see the heroes, their health bar and their current ult percentage.

There are a few things that could be taken from other games that could work in Overwatch. I’ll use Counter Strike: Global Offensive as an example for this part.



Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s spectator UI

The main difference is obviously the fact that the player status is shown on the sides, and not on top. Overwatch’s spectator mode could definitly work with this system.

Same health bar system , maybe with the small squares like in the current healh bars, even thought that could hide the player name.

, maybe with the small squares like in the current healh bars, even thought that could hide the player name. Instead of the weapon, show the ult percentage . Once it’s ready, do like in game: show the ultimate icon .

. Once it’s ready, do like in game: . Instead of the equipment (grenades and stuff), show ability cooldowns. THIS IS A THING WE MISS IN THE CURRENT UI : we cannot know, from a bird view, what the current ability cooldowns of every character are, and this makes play by play harder, as well as post-fight analysis. That could be a big plus.

: we cannot know, from a bird view, what the current ability cooldowns of every character are, and this makes play by play harder, as well as post-fight analysis. That could be a big plus. There is probably some space left to show K/D/A, but once again I don’t think it’s a great idea to show it on the main UI, for the same reasons I explained earlier.

Teamfight recap

I am a big DotA 2 fan: I used to play it competitivly and I still follow the scene. This game has something really good that makes teamfight analysis great: it’s teamfight recap.

DotA 2’s Fight Recap. It’s very complete and informative

There is potential in doing something similar. Show a window that doesn’t take too much space and show the total damage dealt by each team in the fight, the ultimates used, the abilities used (and the amount of times, see how it’s shown for DotA with the xNUMBER) and who died (and how many times because Mercy is a thing).

Aaaand that’s it!

Once again, these are my suggestions and my thoughts. The fact that Blizzard is about done with a new spectator system makes me so happy, and knowing from big personalities that it is looking good makes me hopeful for what’s next. My prediction is that it’s going to be released for World Cup at Blizzcon. One week before my next LAN… one week to learn how to properly use the new UI. I’ll definitly accept the challenge.

Cheers!