Hero Tier and Meta Report: OWL Stage 2 Week 5

S Tier (≥95% Usage Rate): D.Va (98%)

Tier 1 (≥80% Usage Rate): Winston (85%), Zenyatta (81), Tracer (81%)

Tier 2 (≥50% Usage Rate): Mercy (53%)

Tier 3 (≥20% Usage Rate): Lucio (41%), Widowmaker (32%), Genji (24%)

Tier 4 (≥5% Usage Rate): Junkrat (18%), Soldier: 76 (12%), McCree (11%), Ana (11%), Reinhardt (11%), Moira (11%), Pharah (9%), Zarya (6%), Sombra (6%), Roadhog (5%)

Tier 5 (<5% Usage Rate): Orisa (3.90%), Hanzo (0.53%), Doomfist (0.48%), Reaper (0.35%), Mei (0.16%), Symmetra (0.003%), Bastion (0%), Torbjorn (0%)

Tier Discussion

Dive reigns supreme.

A surprise to no one who has been watching the past few months, the dive meta still reigns supreme for the Overwatch League. At almost 100% pick rate, almost the only times one wouldn’t see D.Va is when a team would do comp changes in the spawn room to switch who is playing as her. D.Va’s versatility and maneuverability is too strong not to have right now. Is that necessarily a bad thing though? I’m not so sure. She can stand beside just about any other tank and be effective in supporting them as they do whatever it is that they do best, be it diving in with Winston or moving ahead slowly with Reinhardt or Orisa.

Everything’s turning up explodey.

Junkrat wound up just shy of Tier 3. With 18%, this is still the highest I believe he’s been in any meta report. Why so high? Well primarily, JAKE from the Houston Outlaws was in this dataset, but other teams found him quite useful on Escort/Hybrid maps, such as Hollywood and King’s Row. With great places to “hide” on those maps, constant grenade spam, and survivability, it’s dangerous for flankers to get near him, so he’s quite useful to have when defending a position.

Photo credit: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

Symmetra not at 0?

Muma from the Outlaws led our sample in Symmetra playtime with 1 second after not switching off her fast enough before the match against Dynasty started on Hanamura. Don’t expect her to have much higher playtime anytime soon.

What’s up ahead?

Stage 3 brings with it a few changes that should prove to slightly change the meta. First up, Junkertown is coming back, so we’re certain to see the Pirate Ship meta (Bastion + shields galore) make a return to some degree. We also have Blizzard World in the map pool, a map that we’ve yet to see Overwatch League players tackle in tournament play. It’s sure to be interesting to see how they approach the theme park.

The recent patch where Sombra’s Hack is less forgiving if interrupted may mean her use is going to drop down even further. In most situations during Stage 2, her use was relegated to getting back to the point as quickly as possible to help stall. Then again, maybe her ability to shut down D.Va hard will prove useful as you know she’s always going to be around.

Final Thoughts and Shoutouts

As I build up more data, we’ll have more talking points to dive into. With an “n” of 1, only so much can be said, but I look forward to seeing how the meta develops for Stage 3. A huge thanks to some of the folks in our Discord for getting me to tackle the meta report. Ben left some huge shoes to fill, but I’ll give it a shot!

Photo credit: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment

Data Collection

With 15 games normally played during a week of the Overwatch League, 17 on finals weeks, it means there are a minimum of 48 maps in a given week and no sleep for me if I analyzed them all. For that reason I’ve pared data collection down to a random selection of one series a day, taking care for no duplicate teams all week, and because it’s Stage Finals week, added the series between the Philadelphia Fusion and New York Excelsior.

This week:

Wednesday - Mayhem/Shock

Thursday - Outlaws/Dynasty

Friday - Spitfire/Dragons

Saturday - Uprising/Gladiators

Sunday - Fusion/NYXL

The Chart

Inspired by the one and only CaptainPlanetOW and his old meta reports, with some modifications of my own. I already have some things I want to change for next time, such as making portrait sizes consistent instead of vaguely scaling with how many heroes there are in any given tier, but I’m up for feedback and suggestions as well. Just remember that I’m no graphic artist. ;)

Programming Note

In the future I’m thinking about alternating between OWL and Contenders to spread the love a bit. Also, I will be traveling to PAX East next week so likely won’t be posting a meta report at that time, and for sure will not post one the following week as I will be traveling, but it will return soon after!

Until next time,

Sabriality (Miko)

Talk about this on our Twitter, my Twitter, or in our Discord!

Cover photo credit: Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment