The GOATS team composition

In the past months, a new strategy appeared in the competitive scene: GOATS.

I decided to explain it in detail because the heroes played in this formation are among the most popular ones at GrandMaster, and many low/average ranked players are still confused about this term when it is used in their games.

The name GOATS comes from a North American team that first played this composition. The original lineup consists of 3 tanks (Reinhardt, Zarya, D.VA) and 3 supports (Brigitte, Moira, Lucio), and they exploited it in the Overwatch Contenders Trials.

Pros

High tankiness and AoE healing.

Several defensive tools.

Massive brawling power.

Cons

Very short fighting range.

Low damage potential.

It is easy to feed ultimate charge.

When talking about GOATS, we refer to the six original heroes: Reinhardt, Zarya, D.Va, Brigitte, Moira, and Lucio. Any 3-3 lineup with three tanks and three supports won’t work, but some variations are possible: for example, Winston could be played in place of D.Va, and Ana may replace Moira. You might consider GOATS also a sort of quad tank composition due to Brigitte’s hybrid role and skillset.

Why GOATS doesn’t work at low ranks

This tactic is mostly used at higher ranks for several reasons:

Low ranked players have issues accepting any formation that isn’t based on a 2-2-2 split.

There are always players who want to play as a DPS, and they are not willing to try something new.

GOATS requires coordination, so it is often fated to fail up to Platinum because in solo queue everyone tends to play on their own.

Dive vs. GOATS

The GOATS playstyle has some similarities with Dive, but the team has no vertical power. We could define it a sort of horizontal Dive.

It is a lot easier to execute. It doesn’t require as much coordination as Dive, and the roles and the goals of the team are fairly simple and standard. The squad plays as a whole: they move together, focus the same target, and try to score a kill as soon as possible to secure a numerical advantage; afterwards they jump on another enemy.

GOATS can be devastating against unprepared teams because most players are used to slow prolonged fights that start from a choke and end around the point; instead, this strategy relies on a quick approach based on the massive health pool and regeneration of the lineup.

When GOATS fails

In pubs, more often than not, GOATS fails due to the disorganization of the team.

We have already talked about the heroes required and the basic tactic, and while they are rather simple to execute, many players from Silver to Platinum are just not used to it.

They stick together with the team up to the choke, but then they split, facing multiple targets simultaneously and killing none. Sometimes, the whole team has no idea what’s going on, so some players actually engage the opponents while the others wait at the choke, attacking from long range with no real long-range DPS.

If it takes too long to get kills, eventually the healers or Reinhardt will die, or D.Va may lose her mech because she decided to dive solo and attack a target on her own.

Long-range is the main weakness of the GOATS comp: the enemies can bait them, attack from multiple high ground positions, delay the teamfights for as long as possible, and meanwhile build up their ultimates.

GOATS is amazing for short to average duration fights, but it becomes pointless in prolonged ones:

The team is composed of tanks, so naturally they can’t deal as much damage as DPS heroes.

The entire tactic is very dependent on cooldowns. Abilities such as D.Va’s Defense Matrix, Lucio’s Amp It Up, and Zarya’s Barriers are marvelous to block or mitigate damage, but they won’t work during a long fight without breaks.

The enemies can charge their ultimates quickly because they can attack three big targets with almost unlimited health points.

The highlight below shows how the limited attack range of the GOATS composition can be exploited by the enemy team. Los Angeles Valiant’s Pan-seung "Fate" Koo is able to contest the area for a few extra seconds exploiting the big drum in the middle of the point.