2ARC Overwatch: "As a team we’re active every single day in communication"

Explain how the 2ARC deal came about, what do you feel will be the impact of being sponsored?



Lazer: Short story, I have some friends on the team. Asked them if they were happy with the organization, which they replied with only positive things. Proceeded to find iKhoN in one of the discord channels for Overwatch and began discussions. As far as being sponsored I’m not so focused on the “Goodies” as I am the structure for management and proper resources to help the team get to it’s full potential.

"It all seemed to come together in a perfect way that got us all excited."

APotentBeast: We were discussing as a team what direction we wanted to take our organization as 1SHOT, and kind of came to the conclusion that it required a lot of work that we couldn’t justify doing while also trying to push ourselves as individual players.

Thankfully, Lazer had some connections with the 2ARC organization that allowed us to have an opportunity to talk to them. At the time, 2ARC had already been looking to acquire an Overwatch team and had already picked up two people to begin filling roster spots, Emperic and smG. Coincidentally our team at the time were having issues keeping in touch with two of our members during the beta downtime and those positions were actually perfect fits for the two members already part of 2ARC. It all seemed to come together in a perfect way that got us all excited.

Your team is comprised mainly of former 1SHOT players, how did that roster come about? How do you know each other and when did you decide to form a team?

APotentBeast: The 1SHOT team came together rather quickly from players who were playing together since the start of the beta. We would continue running into each other on the servers and continuously see one another online nearly all day long. A few days before the GosuGamers NA #1 tournament we decided to formally assemble a team to compete, and our synergy was quite strong. Prior to this tournament we never had the ability to have a full team practice except a single match right before the tournament began.

MOARNial : I posted in the Competitive Overwatch “Looking For Team” chat, Lazer contacted me and I played a bit with him and APotentBeast that night. I received a formal offer to join the team the day after, I joined without hesitation. Things really clicked in terms of synergy and expectation for the team.

Are your roles pretty much defined, as far as heroes go, or do you feel you have a lot of flexibility within the roster?

Do you utilize a main caller, if so, who?

smG: Most of the heroes that we desire to play are already very powerful in the current meta, so there is very rarely any reason to deviate from that. If we ever need to, we all have a very wide pool to select from and we are all very comfortable flexing across multiple roles and heroes.

Emperic: Very much agreeing to smG’s point, a lot of the heroes we enjoy are used in competitive play (minus Zenyatta, I am here to change that though). But I also feel pretty comfortable in other roles including Defense and some Offense (love me some 76 + Tracer).



"There are other times when a tank hero serves the shot caller role even better."

APotentBeast: We all have a primary role that we focus on but by no means does that mean we’re restricted strictly to that role. Everyone on the team has put in hundreds of hours into the game and we have all grown fond of heroes in various types of positions. I think the main shotcaller kind of is dependent on the composition you’re running. If we have a Zenyatta on the team he’s better at calling out enemy targets with a Discord orb and instructing the rest of the team to focus fire.

There are other times when a tank hero serves the shot caller role even better. I think when the beta comes back it’s going to be all about trying different things out and seeing what works best for the team.

MOARNial: I main Mercy, but I feel confident playing any supports and can switch between them when it is needed in-game. I also practiced with D.Va and Winston to be comfortable enough to try sketchy strategies where we use few of the same hero to capture or defend a certain point.

Team 1SHOT struggled against False Reality on Numbani when they ran an extremely aggressive Genji/Tracer combination. How do you plan on countering those ultra-aggressive heroes and compositions in the future?

APotentBeast: Yeah, this was one of those team compositions that we didn’t adequately prepare for and it really showed. After running into this composition and having it reveal our weak spot we began practicing against it very aggressively. When we run into such an aggressive spawn harass composition next we will switch our heroes to be more sustainable and allow our entire team to push out of the spawn in a more synchronized way. Unfortunately last time we kept split up and never had team focus on a push. Having heroes that specialize in allowing heroes to go deep, e.g. Zarya / Reaper / Winston, would be a good way to allow the team to get behind the harassers and give the team the ability to focus from all angles rather than just coming straight at them one by one lining up our fate. McCree is usually a great pick to match up against those aggressive heroes such as Tracer and Genji as well. We have learned a lot and we’re waiting for the next time we can redeem ourselves.



“Damn we should've killed that Zenyatta.”

Lazer: From my view it’s not so much how to plan to counter pick a team right this second. It’s more important to learn every single combination of possible powerful picks. Genji in that game gave us the issue because of the Harmony Orb. Since this was something new to us, our main reaction during the game was “OMG we have to kill this Genji”. When you have the time to sit down and really look at the situation, it’s “Damn we should've killed that Zenyatta.”. That would have had the Harmony orb fall off and made taking Genji out significantly easier. We, just like lots of people, need more time in the game to really grasp what's happening in real time.

MOARNial: I think that we failed to identify what was happening and how to beat it on-the-spot. Add to that the fact that we were streamed and facing a stronger team, a lot of stuff was going on in our heads. We faced similar strategies few days after in scrims and we were able to dismantle it, so I’m not worried for the future. This is part of why I like playing competitively in the Beta, people just find weird combos that work so it keeps everybody on their toes.

@Emperic: Zenyatta is in a strange spot in the meta right now, what does he need to be more viable? Is it all about the weakness of his ultimate?

Emperic: I wholeheartedly agree that Zenyatta is in a strange spot in the meta right now, because at the moment, the only real way to play him properly in the competitive scene is: drop your orbs, run and hide. As Zenyatta, you really can’t be shown to enemy players as you would be the main target due to your squishyness. I don’t believe it’s his ultimate that keeps him behind, but more of his health pool or mobility. The fact that his health pool consists of 150hp (100 shield/50health) and that he has no movement abilities like Lucio and Mercy, it really keeps him behind. I do have to give it to Blizzard though, he’s a good pubstomper.

@APotentBeast: You play seemingly ONLY Reinhardt; what are your responsibilities as Main Tank?

APotentBeast: Reinhardt is too integral in the meta at this point not to run him within a team composition. During competitive play I am the one who gets to play the Reinhardt and I do really enjoy his toolkit, but I also play other heroes outside of him. Both Winston and D.Va are some of my favorite heroes to play and I’m looking forward to there being a time where I can play each more competitively as well. My responsibilities as Main Tank are to aggressively contest and push the objective with the team. Reinhardt is one of the best heroes for accomplishing this, given he has a shield that serves the purpose of a moving wall. Allowing my teammates to safely approach the payload and contest is where my responsibilities are primarily focused.

@MOARNial: Blizzard has openly toyed with Mercy’s ultimate ability; what changes do you feel she needs vs what changes do you expect to see?

"[Resurrect] can create the biggest swing in a match by itself."

MOARNial: I think that Mercy's ult in its current state (resurrect all dead teammates within a range to full health, right at the start of the animation) is the ability that can create the biggest swing in a match by itself. I also think that it is the hardest ult to play against, since most of the ults have some kind of possible answers like a D.Va shield right in front of it, while Mercy’s doesn’t.

As for its power level, I believe it is strong, but not game breaking nor frustrating. Don’t forget that Blizzard is working on lots of tweaks right now so the environment we will see in a few weeks when the game comes back up may be totally different from the environment we were playing in 2015.

About possible changes to the ability, I’ve seen few recommendations from the community like resurrecting the players half-heart or make the casting interruptible (like it was before the change), and I think this is not the way to calibrate this. My suggestion would be to tweak the range Resurrect has so it would be more risky to pull out a huge Resurrect mid-fight, since Mercy is one of the squishiest characters.

@Lazer: Your favorite hero is Soldier:76; Is that in part because of your CS background, or does his all-around kit fit your playstyle and your team’s playstyle?

"I like being aggressive, too aggressive (You can quote me on that)."

Lazer: Well I think for play 76 is 100% my favorite because he to me is a Jack Of All Trades. I like being aggressive, too aggressive (You can quote me on that). With his "unlimited sprint it allows me to apply pressure, get kills and get to the spawn points quickly to keep the pressure on. The Pulse Rifle is a nice amount of DMG and the NoobToob (Helix rocket launcher) is a great way to finish off targets. Most of all the heal is my favorite. It allows me to not have to run back or rely on a support or for that matter make a healer break off another person on my team to take care of me. I can be aggressive, keep myself topped off, and apply pressure from lots of angles. If I do group up with the team at any point the AOE healing is also a nice factor for the team, allowing a 2nd support to not have to be a healing support. Opens up a spot for Symmetra if need be.

@Bandit: We’ve seen compositions with Genji completely wreck, and we’ve seen Genjis get completely shut down; what does Genji need, in terms of team compositions (both your own and your opponent’s) to be at his most effective?

"Well at the current state, Genji is a pubstar."

Bandit: Well at the current state, Genji is a pubstar. As you stated he can be ran in a certain team composition that totally allow him to play extremely aggressive without much negative on him. He, in my opinion, requires a team to build around him in competitive play. He needs the heals that Zenyatta gives because it allows him to not worry so much about his health bar. Zarya combined with him is also amazing as it gives both of them benefits. She gets more damage and he can have some [damage] negated. Most importantly he needs the team around him. It requires the team to have a set plan and execute it. If the Genji gets shut down, essentially the team gets shut down.

@sMG: You mention you practice your aim on TF2 DM servers, yet you play off-tank. Does that training translate into better tracking with heroes like Zarya? What do you think is the biggest benefit from DM practice?

smG: Me and our manager Lucid grew up in the competitive scene playing a lot of TF2, particularly a mod called MGE which separates an iconic section of popular maps and turns it into a 1 versus 1 gamemode. This has sharpened my mechanics which lends itself directly to the tank role, and has helped a lot with the tracking in Zarya’s kit but also to her charge attack. It has above all else helped me recognise how significant small edges can become, such as positional advantage and ammunition management. The fact that this gamemode forces you to fight has also taken the option of flight out of the question for me, which is an obstacle I will have to overcome.

What would you say is your strongest map, why?

Bandit: Well as a team of 6 we have not yet all played together so it is really hard to say what “our” strongest map is.



Lazer: I wouldn’t say i have one yet, to be honest. I want to find every route I can with every hero I play to truly understand the movement potential. Once I master all of that, then I’ll get back to you.



Top down map view courtestof overking.com

APotentBeast: Numbani would be my personal favorite map. I believe this map gives plenty of opportunities for teams to setup and put up some really great fights and not necessarily an easy map just to cruise through. It’s large enough where you have to be constantly concerned about aerial attacks as well as ground forces. There are also plenty of rooms alongside the main street that provide cover and I believe this allows for more creative pushes for teams to assemble.

Who is your favorite OW player not on the 2ARC roster?

Bandit: My favorite would have to be Coolmatt69. The dude is a human aimbot! I also try to learn from his play as much as possible. Plus, he is probably a Cool guy...

Emperic: Favorite player for sure is KabaL, that guy has a rich, deep history and his support plays (alongside Baud) are really sweet. I honestly strive to be as good as him.



Lazer: I really do not have one, but if i had to pick one: Clockwork, cause I love me some Dota 2.

MOARNial: I would go with Seagull, just because of his TF2 bragging rights and his stream is always enjoyable to watch.

APotentBeast: Kudochop is exciting to watch. One of the best Hanzo players I’ve seen on stream or in the game.

Right now at the top of the NA Scene, it is Hubris, NotEnigma, and then everyone else. Any ideas on how to take down the top teams?

It won’t be easy playing against any top competing teams.

smG: It won’t be easy playing against any top competing teams. They all have very strong rosters of very experienced and talented players, and some already have a properly established synergy between the members. What it takes is willpower, practice, and to really sit down and be able to take this game seriously without the confines of external obligations these other players have for the games they come from. More than any other single thing, what will allow us to beat these teams is experience and familiarity with them by scrimming whenever we get the chance, then throwing a curveball when it really matters.

Bandit: Yeah, putting it simply, practice, playing together and building team synergy. This is a TEAM-based FPS.

Emperic: To take down the ‘top dogs’ we really have to just focus on working together as a team. As Bandit blatantly put it, this is a team based FPS, and having a team that can work together is essential to being good.

Lazer: Practice.

APotentBeast: As others have mentioned it comes down to a few things but it can all be summed up by “practice”. Practicing will give us the team synergy that other high level teams have been forming for years. An important part to practice is going to be scrimming all of the high level teams we possibly can and make that a regular and routine part of our practices.

MOARNial: Watch and analyze all their games, and practice more than them.

Any out of the box, new meta strategies you’re toying with? Are you theory crafting during the beta hiatus? What are you doing to prepare while Overwatch is offline, individually, and as a team?

Bandit: Honestly I have been thinking of lots of things over the hiatus but in all reality I’m not sure how much it will help because this is still the beta and lots of things WILL change. I have been playing alot of FPS games and making sure to keep my game face on.



Lazer: For me it all about positions and mobility. I look at maps and think of cool ways to execute attacks or pressure from anyway that seems out of the box.

APotentBeast: As a team we’re active every single day in communication whether it be from talking Overwatch strategies or hero strength/weaknesses. Keeping Overwatch in mind and theorycrafting for us is important whether it’s for map approaches or hero compositions. There have been particular hero compositions we’ve been talking about but with the unknown of what Blizzard may change it keeps us all in speculation and just at a fun theorycraft level. Individually we each have our go to FPS games that we enjoy playing to keep our skills sharp.

MOARNial: I’m working on some content creation; I started working on map callouts documents and I’m currently remixing the Overwatch Victory Theme into an electro-house song. As a team, right now we’re focusing on knowing each other and learning to work together.

What can we expect from 2ARC this coming Overwatch season?

"As 2ARC OW, we want to be top contenders, and we’re here to do just that."

Bandit: I think you can expect a team that is here to compete at a high level and willing to do whatever it takes to make it to the top. Whether we get there or not, we will be trying our best!

Emperic: As 2ARC OW, we want to be top contenders, and we’re here to do just that.



Lazer: Striving to make 2ARC a team dedicated to not only each other, but the game and its community. Hopefully bringing entertaining matches along with it.

APotentBeast: You can expect a team that is ready to be dedicated to the scene looking to make our name one that comes to mind for everyone who thinks about competitive Overwatch.

MOARNial: We are all committed to get to the top, so you can expect us to give everything we’ve got right from day 1 when the game gets back up

Any last shout outs?

smG: Big thanks of course to all of our sponsors, Somar and BlitZ for all the graphics work they have done for me, FireWater and Taylor for the support, and to everybody I played with during beta.

Bandit: I love my fans! (I don't really have any, just always wanted to say that).

Emperic: One for the guys at 2ARC for giving us this opportunity, another one for the people who have supported me, and a last one for all of the people who have doubted me, without all of you I wouldn’t be here right now.

Lazer: Shoutouts to my team, all of our sponsors, anyone who watched me try to do e-sports for a long time now. Hi Mom, Happy Birthday!!!

APotentBeast: A big shout out to all of our sponsors, also to 2ARC for giving us this great opportunity to prove ourselves and try to establish the competitive Overwatch scene early. Also Jeff Kaplan, of course.

MOARNial: Jeff-norD that got me invited in the Beta. Also my mom. Hi mom!

Follow @GosuOverwatch for more GosuGamers Overwatch.

You can follow the members of 2ARC OW on Twitter.

Emperic: http://twitter.com/2ARCemperic

smG: http://twitter.com/smg_ow

Bandit: http://twitter.com/mrbanditgaming

APotentBeast: http://twitter.com/apotentbeast

MOARNial: http://twitter.com/MOARNial

Lazer: http://twitter.com/ItzLazer