Talkin’ Strategy: How DPS Meta can change the Overwatch League

For casual fans of the Overwatch League, it might be difficult figuring out just why and how some of the best players in the world end up using the team compositions they do in order to succeed. In recent months, the ever popular ‘GOATS’ team composition has made its way into the professional scene, as various Overwatch Contenders teams and OW World Cup teams used this strategy to their advantage on more than one occasion.

With the start of the 2019 Overwatch Contenders: Korea and Latin American scenes already taking place, a few teams from both regions have been developing necessary counterplay to put down one of the most annoying team compositions ever introduced into Overwatch pro play. How feasible is the quad DPS meta in the Overwatch League? Are more teams stacking DPS players in order to pull off these compositions and become the best team in their region?

In this feature we will attempt to break down the most important aspects of team play in the Overwatch League as it relates to the game today, and figure just how viable a new quadruple DPS meta will be in the Overwatch League.

Goats will be Goats

For the better part of six months, the GOATS meta in the Overwatch League and other surrounding leagues have made the game of Overwatch a lot less fun to play at the highest levels. Basically, the composition revolves around using three tanks (D.Va, Zarya, Reinhardt) and three healers (Moira, Lucio, Brigitte) and utilizing your entire team composition as a giant ‘deathball’ that can single out any player from the enemy team.

This strategy has come under fire quite a bit in recent weeks as it has skewed the great divide amongst good teams and bad teams that know how to utilize the composition effectively. Fans of high octane Overwatch action that enjoy ultimate combinations followed by positional play have grown disenchanted with the GOATS meta as of late. The lack of damage and overt tankiness from these compositions have made many DPS players fall out of favor, and some compositions have forgone placing DPS players in their lineup at all.

Countering the meta

For fans of a more high paced Overwatch League game, they can rest assured that the brilliant tactical minds at work will have something up their sleeves to counter the cheesiness of GOATS in time for the 2019 season. In the Korean scene, the quad DPS meta has been used to great effect since the most recent patch kicked in, tampering down some of the power of heroes like Brigitte and Reinhardt.

The only caveat to the quad DPS meta is that it only really works depending on the map you’re competing on. For open maps like Route 66 and Eichenwalde, utilizing Pharah/Mercy as you have Genji, Tracer and Sombra and one main tank running around distracting enemies has been a very useful strategy to break up the grouping aspect that makes GOATS so powerful.

On top of that, there are variations of the GOATS meta that have also made waves in the competitive scene that are just as potent as the original. At this time, it seems like Overwatch is suffering from the limited amount of heroes they have to offer and often times the ‘most optimal’ way to play the game for a less skilled team is to take the skill out of the game and win on the basis of teamwork and synergy.

Teams like San Francisco Shock and Philadelphia Fusion have a lot of upside if the meta decides to turn away from heavy tank usage and opt for more one shot ability DPS carries. San Francisco currently have five of the best DPS mains in the entire league on their roster, and if the quad DPS meta does start to bear fruit, SF Shock could make a run for more than just a playoff spot once their team cohesion gets underway.