A funny thing happened on the way to Season 2.

Players realized that Ana's rapidly-charging ultimate, Nano Boost, just about guarantees a kill when used in conjunction with Winston or Reinhardt. It's difficult to counter with only basic abilities and all but serves the lucky tank a free ult on a silver platter. That's led to the rise of the 3/3 tank/support composition, which is really just 3 beefy bodyguards for Ana to popgun as her heart desires. And headed in to Overwatch's largest prize pool to date, the 3/3 meta is the word on everyone's lips.

So we're looking to the ELEAGUE Overwatch Open in Atlanta next weekend as the first large-scale display of the new meta, waiting anxiously for HuK and Seltzer to describe to us how very fast Ana's ult truly does charge. And the tumult of confusion has lead to so much wild uncertainty. And it's grand.

Let's take a moment for reflection and appreciate just how much the new meta has revived the idea of counter picks and strategies. Everyone needs a plan against this dominant strategy. Mei play? Genji/Tracer? How do you defend the triple tank triple support? Are any responses actually viable in game? Has anyone put the practice time into a counter strat? Players are thinking, reeling and creating.

This is something that's been conspicuously absent from Overwatch in the last few months. Until recently, any tactics discussion received a brutal beating from Angry Scientist, 50% Discord and their gang, The Dive Comp Meta. One has to wonder if the community has even retained the capacity for counterplay and decision-making that made Overwatch so engaging initially as a class-based shooter. This weekend we'll either bear witness to the most innovative, emergent gameplay since the game's release... or we'll see a whole lot of glowing Reinheardts swinging away at each other followed by a balance patch 2 weeks later.

Except the tanky strategy, bereft of any burst damage or mobility, already has its counter. It's well known. There's one hero in the game that forces area denial like no other and rips through armor and cloth alike – Overwatch's resident lurker: Bastion.

Honestly, take a look. With minimal protection, a Mercy and a bit of team coordination, Bastion is able to repel the standard 3/3, albeit with some difficulty.

Of course, the first thing you're going to ask is why the attackers didn't switch. A Genji or Tracer would have put them easily in the advantage here, there's no doubt to be had. On the other side of the counter coin, watch Finland use offensive Bastion to mow through a tanky Ana lineup. Ignore for the sake of argument the fact that Finland probably would have been able to do the same thing if Taimou were handicapped to only a pistol. It's clear that Bastion, in whatever form, counters a composition heavy on tanks and low on mobility.

A high-risk hero like Bastion forces a response, injecting fear back into Overwatch more than any other character. There's a wonderful, hideous surprise when the players turn the corner and find they've thrown down paper into the gatling scissors. Of course, what follows most often is that on the next push the defender, high on emotion and pride, takes a lump of rocks straight to the face. Hard counters become terrible once the opponent is given 5-6 attempts to adapt and the freedom to do so.

And there's the issue with any defensive counter in this game. Defending the start of an Overwatch map is like playing poker and being forced to keep the same hand for every round. With the weight of thousands of dollars in the back of their minds, it's no wonder professional gamers forsake the rock-paper-scissors, take the smart money, put faith in their aim, and choose McCree, Lucio, Zarya and other tier-list kings and queens with few exploitable weaknesses.

It's axiomatic and it's been known for quite a while now. But that's only at the start of the match.

While completely prohibitive on the first two thirds of most payload/hybrid matches, the final leg of the capture point and payload swaps this advantage. The defenders know what's coming for them and now they have the reactive prerogative. But the stakes are higher here. One death might mean a loss of the game and of the prize money. And this tournament loaded to the brim with the world's best teams may come down to something this small.

But how often does one ever pull a proactive defensive swap? It's not like the tab screen doesn't tell you immediately what composition the offense is preparing for their next push. There's substantial time after a successful defensive hold for a risky pick like Bastion, fresh off mowing down Ana and her three tanks, to head back into the spawn room and reemerge as a McCree, ready to flashbang a very surprised offensive Genji swap. Even if one team wipe was gained through the surprise Bastion and then he's quickly abandoned, that's one more team wipe than before.

Understandably complicating all of this is ultimate status. Almost any character with their ultimate is worth more than the best possible counter without. High level play revolves around ult coordination and ult conservation. However, consider that forcing a member of the enemy team to switch is a zero-sum trade in total; even if you give up 50% of the DOO DOO DOOOO, you've forced at least one member of their team to sink to your level by swapping.

Admittedly, these levels of yomi mostly sit backseat to shooting skill, coordination and positioning at the highest levels of play. There's plenty aside from counters to concern yourself with in an Overwatch game. Add in that few pros count Bastion as one of their tools they feel comfortable exploiting, and overthinking is a danger. And sure, this line of thought can get Day[9] or Princess Bride levels of absurd pretty darn fast. And, yes, perhaps Overwatch overall is just too new and the scene far too young for an optimization like proactive defensive swaps. But the fact remains that Ana and her bouncers forcefully injected hard counters back into Overwatch's payload gametype with just a needle and some Arabic. Whether we're up to the task of countering the strat without mirroring it, whether the pros are willing or able to muck around in the mire of mindgames and hard swapping counterplay, and whether Overwatch holds up to function on this level at all remain to be answered. But at least Ana is asking them.

And these questions are too interesting to ignore. The current meta is one that truly lets us expose the strategy and counter and coordination side of this great game alongside the reaction-based side. The increased hype of a dominant strategy and the payload is moving out, conducted by a sixty-year old Egyptian woman with one eye.

Next stop - Atlanta, Georgia.

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