Overwatch is a 6v6 first-person shooter with a variety of characters you can play as, each with their own unique abilities and characteristics. There are 4 map types you can play, each requiring a team to move, capture or hold an objective to win, with the victors of each fight gaining control over these objectives. Fights can be won in a number of ways: you can slice the enemy up with the cybernetic double-jumping ninja, Genji, electrocute them to death with the jet pack-wielding gorilla, Winston, protect your allies with everyone’s favourite DJ, Lucio, and many other methods that each hero brings to the table.

Genji is a very popular hero with newer players. Who doesn’t want to play as cybernetic ninja screaming phrases no one understands?!

For a long time, so-called “dive” heroes have been incredibly popular in competitive Overwatch. Generally these are heroes that have high-mobility and high-damage thanks to their abilities, and so they’re able to take out a member of the enemy team incredibly quickly when they work together. Teams began asking themselves “how can we stop dive killing the supports we desperately need to stay alive”?

The answer? Protect them. Obviously.

This, amongst a few other reasons, gave rise to a composition known as 3–3. The name refers to 3 tanks and 3 supports. The core ideology of the comp is that the tanks protect the supports who have lower health pools whilst the supports keep the tanks alive. For this comp to work effectively, all 6 members play in very close proximity to one another, enabling them to feed off each other’s strengths. If they can do this for long enough, they can build up their ultimate abilities which have a huge impact in a team fight.

Reinhardt, D.VA and Zarya — the beefy frontline of GOATS

As mentioned earlier, Overwatch is a team game. In reality, fights often play out in a much more chaotic manner than just beginning and ending with one single ultimate. You can combo them together to make it incredibly difficult for the enemy team to respond and in the 3–3 composition, more often than not the use of multiple ults result in one team being wiped out.

In this clip from an Overwatch Contenders Europe match, Reinhardt lands his Earth Shatter onto the enemy team, knocking them down and guaranteeing his team an easy teamfight win

Here’s the fight-winning combo Angry Titans used to wipe out We Have Org. A Graviton Surge pulls We Have Org together and the Self Destruct wipes them clean out. That’s team play!

As well as playing together, one of the biggest weaknesses of a composition like this is its limited range. Zarya is the best ranged damage dealer in the comp with her short-medium range laser and even then, her range is too short to just walk up to an enemy and beam them to death. That’s why Lucio, one of the supports, is such a crucial piece of the composition. One of his abilities enables him to speed up any allies near him, making it easier for 3–3 to engage and kill members of the enemy team at pace. This is also why it’s so important for the composition to play close together. The best way to describe the playstyle in a sentence is “stay together, then engage” — that’s why it’s commonly described as a “ball of death”. 3 big health pools and 3 healing supports (one with a movement speed boost)?

Good luck surviving that!

Overwatch’s resident DJ, Lucio, provides heals and speed boosts to his team. His speed boost is one of the core reasons why GOATS works

So how do teams react to this composition? Well, they can do what’s called a mirror-match where they roll out with the same composition and hope to execute it better. They can play long-range, high-damage compositions that aim to break the shields and get a single kill before engaging onto the weakened enemy team. If they’re really daring, they can try to play dive into 3–3, but most teams have accepted this is almost impossible. Commonly we see teams match the composition and that’s when the support ults come into play.

Zenyatta’s ultimate, Transcendence, provides healing to the tune of 300 health per second to any nearby allies whilst also making him invulnerable. This means his ult is very good for longer, drawn out fights but not so good against things like D.VA’s Self Destruct which deals 1000 damage when it explodes — enough to kill any hero in an instant. Alongside Zenyatta we have Lucio, whose ultimate Sound Barrier gives every ally near him a decaying 750hp shield which can keep some allies alive through things like D.VA’s Self Destruct or provide enough shields to endure the follow up damage from Reinhardt’s Earthshatter. If both teams have these ults online, the winner of a fight is often determined by who uses both support ultimates last, so keep your eyes out for that.

Zenyatta, an orb-wielding Omnic (robot) has become a staple in GOATS in late 2018

The final hero in the composition is Brigitte, the shield-bearing squire to Reinhardt who does a bit of both. She has a burst heal to save any tanks that get dangerously low and provides an area-of-effect heal just by hitting the enemy team. She also has an ability that can set up many combos for her team — Shield Bash. This ability can stun an enemy Reinhardt to temporarily remove his shield so things like Earthshatter and Self-Destruct are more difficult to defend against. If you’re interested in learning more about Brigitte, watch the later levels of this video to understand how important her role is.

A cornerstone of GOATS, Brigitte is what gave rise to its dominance

It’s worth noting that there are some planned changes coming to Overwatch soon which will change how the comp works a little. It’s very likely we’ll see Moira, another support hero, replace Zenyatta in this composition. I’ll touch on this flavour of 3–3 more in a later video, but Moira is capable of area-of-effect healing for her whole team. Not only does this keep her tightly-packed team healthier than a team with Zenyatta, she also has a Fade ability which makes her very hard to kill. You might see players, casters and viewers call this a “deathball” composition as this ability enables her to play aggressively with her team whilst having a get-out-of-jail-free card if she finds herself in danger.

The nefarious scientist Moira was ousted from most GOATS compositions earlier this year, but future changes set her up for a glorious comeback

In summary:

- GOATS, or 3–3, is a tank-heavy composition that uses no DPS heroes

- It relies on the tanks doing damage and protecting the team whilst the supports focus on keeping their tanks alive

- Tank ultimates are used to try and wipe out the enemy team as efficiently as possible whilst support ultimates protect the same thing happening to their team

- The key things to watch out for are which team uses their support ultimates last, and which team uses their tank ultimates most effectively

That’s about it for today. If you’re interested in learning more about GOATS, I’ll be publishing follow up content (maybe a video?) exploring the comp deeper for the casual player, the competitive player and the pros.

Catch you next time!