In continuing the tradition of ending the year with a list of the best of Overwatch, these are the annual short-and-sweet Harsha awards for 2018!

Best team: New York Excelsior

This is probably the most contentious pick of the lot considering London Spitfire won the Overwatch League, and looking at track record, London’s 1 Stage win and Grand Finals win could outweigh NYXL’s 2 Stage wins. Unfortunately, competitive games that receive routine patches can often have convoluted narratives, but I believe NYXL’s longstanding dominance throughout OWL was more valuable than a peak (though London’s peak was incredible and perhaps higher). To me, the “best team of 2018” came down to which team would you picture as the scariest to face at any given time—most would say NYXL until it became clear that they were ill-prepared for the OWL playoffs, and I think that’s quite meaningful. A more consistent London would take this award.

Best DPS: Carpe

Of all DPS, Carpe had the most consistent peaks and often simply willed Philadelphia Fusion to wins that they would not otherwise achieve. His play throughout the entire season was top tier and his Widowmaker in particular seemed to find opportunities that others could not. Profit probably deserves a mention because he was quietly amazing throughout the entire season and picked up new heroes on the fly; he found a new level, along with a spotlight, during the OWL playoffs and Grand Finals, but I still think Carpe’s impact was higher while playing alongside a weaker team to boot.

Best main tank: Gesture

I feel like this position was an obvious pick, but I know many will expect Fissure take this role. In terms of impact, I think it’s very easy to look at what Fissure did in 2018 and see tangible results from his style of play. His aggression and calling seemed to be key in elevating LAG’s level, but in terms of playstyle, I thought he was rather straightforward and hit a cap that some players like Gesture and Fate surpassed. Gesture in particular pushed the main tank role to new levels in late 2018 and continued to tear teams up alongside Profit despite London’s turbulent season. While his Reinhardt can be criticized, his Winston and Orisa were both at the top of the field, and I felt that London’s Stage 4 issues were deeper than weaknesses on certain heroes. I am certain that you will see an even stronger Gesture across the board come 2019.

Best off-tank: Fury

Fury was probably underrated for almost the entire OWL season, but the narrative changed when numerous highlights came up during the Overwatch League playoffs. Fury was near flawless throughout the whole season and I think that it’s quite telling that most off-tank players in the league would watch him in order to study his game. MekO and Space were certainly stellar players throughout the season, but Fury was consistently amazing in eating key abilities with his Matrix and I think that during 2018, the gap wasn’t particularly close.

Best support: JjoNak

I probably don’t need to even comment on this selection but for the sake of it: JjoNak revolutionized the way flex support was played throughout the year. His game sense and timings are top notch, and his aim was unmatched as well. There were numerous amazing flex supports in professional Overwatch, but JjoNak dominated 2018.

I think there are too many intangibles intrinsic to main support play so I won’t bother picking a best because I can only know how they operate in my own team.

See you next year!