Interview with Content Creator of the Year Ben "CaptainPlanet" Trautman

Ben "CaptainPlanet" Trautman is the author of the Overwatch Hero Meta Reports, the premier source of statistical analysis for the competitive Overwatch scene. In the months since the game's release, Ben's reports have given the community in-depth figures on hero usage rates, teams' success rates on specific maps or specific comps, and more. He's identified trends before they became well known, and then explained the numbers in an accessible way.

CaptainPlanet recently won Content Creator of the Year in the GosuAwards. We sat down with him to talk about the Hero Meta Reports, the role of stats in Overwatch, and what kinds of statistics he'd like to see the developers make available in the future.

Congratulations on your win! Can you tell us a bit about yourself? What brought you into Overwatch, and into covering the scene the way you do?

My win!? I was surprised to even be nominated! I've had an interest in macro/micro stats in video games dating back to World of Warcraft, where I raided in a top US guild as an elemental shaman. I spent… let's call it way too much time poring over Wowlogs trying to learn from the stats of other elemental shaman to apply to my own play. I eventually found my way into Hearthstone via a lucky break (read: asking Frodan nicely) writing hearthstone guides for Tempo Storm, and through that was able to attend BlizzCon 2015 where I played Overwatch for the first time.

I initially wanted to write tournament match breakdowns, but having been adjacent to Tempo's popular meta reports long enough inspired me to do my own very basic analysis for the GosuGamers weeklies. I believe I started with week 3(?) and with a simple count of heroes present at the beginning and end of each match, which I kept track of with a whiteboard, tallies, and a marker. Things have definitely grown from there!!

There's obviously a huge appreciation among the community for your work, but what do you think it is that makes your reports so valuable?

The secret to the reports is that I'm not actually that great at Overwatch myself. I think my peak rating is 2800 or so? Because I'm always coming at this sort of analysis from what is essentially a "noob" point of view, I think I'm able to ask and then answer the kinds of questions that non-GM level players may want answered.

Looking back on the year, what was your favorite Meta to cover, or your favorite meta report?

I really enjoy the very beginnings of the "OP" metas, before they overrun all the other lineups. There's always something interesting about lineups that no one's ever seen before, that maybe only a couple of teams are running at the time. With that in mind, the closed-beta "Orb-ital Destruction" meta was very interesting to cover when it was first emerging, as well as the Beyblade lineup that rose to the top during ELEAGUE. If we're talking metas that seemed the most "healthy" – and by this I mean, the only one I don't recall most of the pros complaining about – there was a two week span in July where both Pharah and Soldier 76 were viable at the same time which was pretty neat.

For those that are familiar with the NBA, Kirk Goldsberry used to do (and maybe still does!) these beautiful shot charts that demonstrated the effectiveness of shots taken by particular players depending on their position on the court. I would love to get this kind of information for all sorts of stats – swaps, kills, deaths, headshots, ults used – based on position on the map.

With the Overwatch League launching in Q3 2017, it's likely that the developers will be implementing a more in-depth scoreboard, and with it, releasing a lot more statistics. What kind of figures would you like to get your hands on?

For those that are familiar with the NBA, Kirk Goldsberry used to do (and maybe still does!) these beautiful shot charts that demonstrated the effectiveness of shots taken by particular players depending on their position on the court. I would love to get this kind of information for all sorts of stats – swaps, kills, deaths, headshots, ults used – based on position on the map. Imagine a blank model of the map and a bunch of different bits of information to select… you could create an "Overwatch Heat Map" that could tell you information ranging from where on King's Row most players are placing their Symmetra turrets to where TviQ got most of his kills in the Overwatch League qualifiers. That kind of thing would make me very happy.

Do you feel that the game will change once more statistics become available? Will it change how teams train, or how heroes are viewed?

I would hope it would help the "average Joe" improve their play more effectively rather than giving your "average ladder troll" more specific ways to flame you. I hope there is an in-game UI overhaul on the way as well. One thing that would help teams an immense amount would be better tracking of team's ult levels so that shot callers can make better macro decisions. As a coach, you'd actually have information to make decisions with, as opposed to having to guess how X player died based on wherever the observer happened to be facing on a replay and the minimal kill feed.

Blizzard seems to be hoping that team owners in leagues like the NFL, NBA, and MLB will buy spots in the Overwatch League. Teams in these sports are increasingly relying on in-house statistical analysis (sabermetrics). Do you see a day when Overwatch teams are going to want to hire people like you to help them gain an edge?

There was something I read from a Dota 2 team regarding their coach/analyst – unfortunately I don't remember which one – where they said if their analyst discovered something that gave them even a 5% edge to win a $200,000 split – that's already worth $10,000, or $5,000 if the difference between first and second was $100,000…something along those lines. As prize pools increase and/or the amount of money poured into these teams increases, I could definitely see a place for "numbers guys" like me. Although, I would want to take some serious statistics classes on my own time before quitting my day job!

Any closing thoughts?

This is something I try to stress in my Meta Reports and I'd like to do it here as well. Try to not let numbers and what "the Pros" do be the only thing that matters to you when you're playing your game. If you're an amazing Genji, a kick-ass Mercy, or a baller Winston, there's a good chance you're going to do well even though those "aren't Meta" right now. A final bit of advice I'd give is to try not to one-trick-pony yourself into a corner – at the very least pick one support, one tank, and one DPS to master… for those matches where trolls refuse to change.

Also – much love to all of you guys and gals for reading my stuff, it’s made a long year of weekends spent watching Overwatch tournaments more than worth it. Shoutout to Overbuff for bringing on board, IcarusGamers for helping me early on, Slasher (gasp!) for helping me network, and all of the other content creators in the scene.

Thank you so much for your time, and congratulations again.

You can follow CaptainPlanet at @CaptainPlanetOW. His meta reports are posted to both /r/CompetitiveOverwatch and /r/Overwatch, and are hosted at overbuff.com

For more competitive Overwatch news, follow @GosuOverwatch.

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