In this guide, we will talk about two of the most important aspects of team play: ultimate economy and regrouping, which are fully codependent. These tips cover the most usual outcomes to certain scenarios, but there are always exceptions to every situation and you shouldn't take them as the only way to act. Game awareness can help you realize when you shouldn't follow general tips.

Regrouping

Regrouping is an essential task you will have to perform at all times in an Overwatch match. Being a team-oriented game means that the best way to perform is with the whole team present. This may seem obvious but it is a serious problem found in most matches, especially in lower Master and below. Statistics show that the team that draws the first blood wins the fight 77% of the time, according to Winston Lab, and going into a fight with one person down is just like giving the other team the first blood, a recipe for immediate failure.

For most of us, the moments spent while waiting for your teammates seem like an eternity and you can get anxious watching the timer go down, not doing anything to achieve the objective, but it is a necessary investment. The time you will lose by fighting without the whole team is far greater and can eventually lead to up to two-minute-long fights you can't win in which you and your teammates will constantly throw yourselves into an impossible fight. If you are defending a capture point, it is often advisable to sacrifice a little percentage capture in order to re-engage with a better defense. Otherwise, you will die one by one, delaying the capture by just a few seconds, which sometimes works but you shouldn't rely on that unless strictly necessary.

Wasting time is not your only concern. Fighting uphill battles will feed free Ultimate charge to the enemy team, which means that after the fight is done, it will be even more difficult to win. The amount of Ult charge you get will be for sure inferior because you are fighting in worse conditions and you won't be as effective as the opponents.

Winning a teamfight with a three-person deficit is extremely unlikely unless you find the perfect moment for a clutch ultimate. In general, the best option is to stop fighting altogether. You should communicate with your teammates the best option is retreating, regrouping, and trying to escape. If that is not an option, you should suicide by environmental kill in order to not give ultimate charge to the enemy team.

Stepping into the highway is an effective way to get back to spawn

Jumping off of the map is not a possibility in all games, but there are alternative ways to die. If possible, try to die to an enemy Ultimate or to someone with an already charged Ultimate, so you don't feed any additional charge.

When you are waiting for your teammates, you may be drawn to shoot from a long distance in order to harass the enemies. This behavior can be both beneficial and detrimental, depending on the circumstances. Game awareness will prove to be extremely useful in order to realize in which situation you are in.

It is beneficial when you are trying to charge either your Ultimate or your supports' Ults before the next fight, and you are confident the enemies aren't gaining charge by either healing themselves or by returning fire, or at least they aren't doing it as effectively as you. You can accomplish this if you are using a better long-range hero like Soldier 76 or are behind cover using a projectile hero like Junkrat or Pharah.

On the other hand, long-range shooting with close-range heroes or tanks, such as D.Va, can be counterproductive, as you will gain very little from it and you will be an extremely easy target for the enemy team. You should only consider doing this if the objective is feeding Ultimate charge to your supports.





Ultimate Economy

Ultimate economy is essential in order to win an Overwatch match. Don't waste your ult on a won fight unless it is critical to stop the enemy team from delaying a point capture or you can achieve a huge stagger for an enemy, for example. Understand the purpose of your Ultimate and try to combo it with your team in the best possible way.

Tracking enemy ults is a very difficult task, but it can be perfected with practice and this information is invaluable. If you are confident the opponents have considerably more ultimates than you, and you have enough time, consider doing a couple of "Eco" pushes just to gain ultimates and to bait the enemies into using theirs.





Some Tips

Support ultimates are some of the most important abilities in Overwatch. They can shut down entire combos with a single Q press. Mobile heroes like Tracer, Genji, D.Va, Hammond or Sombra have a huge role in the economy game. A good strategy for regular ranked games is to harass the backline. Forcing supports into ult-or-die situations is the key to winning a teamfight. You can safely one-clip Zenyatta with Sombra, which will usually result in him burning his Transcendence just before he dies, giving you an extreme advantage in the following fights.

Surviving during a teamfight is usually the best strategy, but one common mistake is saving your Ultimate and using it with the whole objective of surviving above anything else, ulting exclusively to extend your life. This is a common error with tanks such as D.Va or Winston.

D.va's Self-Destruct is an extremely powerful ability that can change the fate of a match with a single bomb. It is imperative you find a balance between survivability and killing potential. Besides, it is a very effective zoning Ult that can be used to stop harassment in your backline, to stop the enemy team from delaying your capture, or to divide the opponents. Winston's Primal Rage is a very powerful tool too. Good Winstons can achieve multi-kills, but don't hesitate to use it in order to protect your team, rather than using it to survive or kill. Chaos and disruption don't appear in your stats but they are the key for an effective Winston Ult, freeing your team from pressure and letting them taking care of the enemies.

Conclusion

There are infinite possible scenarios and these tips cover just a handful of the most usual ones, but I hope they can be useful in your ranked games.

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