Since Overwatch was in closed beta, eSport teams have been founded and the first tournaments have been played. Right now the game has just been released and the first Overwatch LANs from TakeTV (Europe) and eSportArena (USA) are finished. Many games were played and some combinations of heroes seem to be really effective. In this article I will show you some good picks and combinations of heroes for the different maps.

The Different Support Combos

Playing with at least one support in your team is highly recommended and often you will see a Mercy or a Lucio on your and the enemy's team. The reason for those picks is simple: Lucio has a passive healing aura, that provides all near allies a constant amount of healing and his ultimate can counter huge amounts of incoming damage. On the other hand, Mercy's Resurrect can quickly change lost situations into a huge advantage for her team. Both heroes seem to be equally strong, but together they are even harder to handle. Having a huge Resurrect and a Sound Barrier with constant passive healing provided by Lucio, gives Mercy the chance to boost the damage of her carries like McCree, Widowmaker or Pharrah. The combination of both heroes is frequently used by teams with one tank like Reinhardt and is recommended to play if you feel like you have enough damage output. If you feel like you have low damage on your team, you should only pick Mercy as a single support.

The map you play on is also very important for your support picks. Hybrid maps and capture point maps like Numbani or Temple of Anubis are pretty hard to defend, because your spawn point is far away. Therefor you should consider about a Symmetra pick instead of a Lucio. To complete the support picks, Zenyatta is least played support in the meta. The reason for this is that Zenyatta's health pool is pretty low and an enemy Widowmaker can pretty much one-shot him. Even if his discord orb and healing orb seem to be pretty strong and his damage is also above the average supports, the time his orbs fly is a bit too long and compared to other supports he seems to be too weak. His playstyle seems to be also pretty weird, because you have only 150 health, but your ultimate forces you to stay in the front to heal your team.

A Quick Look into Carries

Now that you know which support heroes you should pick, it's time for the carries. In the recent tournaments and competitive games, McCree was seen quiet often, as well as Widowmaker. Both heroes provide a huge amount of damage and obviously McCree's Flashbang and Fan the Hammer combo is huge against any enemy. Widowmaker is used to harass enemy supports and to pick out the enemy sniper. Soldier:76 is also used in combination with a Zarya and Reinhardt to poke enemies and kill them with his ultimate. Many hero compositions have at least one Mccree and a Widowmaker. If the team needs to be more offensive, Widowmaker will be replaced with McCree or Tracer. Pharrah, Genji and Tracer have a hard time against the other carries. Often you pick a Tracer or Genji on maps like Route 66, Numbani or Hollywood. Pharrah is often used on Hollywood where you have to take care of the roof tops in Stage 2. Tracer's best maps are Nepal, Illios and Lijiang Tower, where you fight close range and her ultimate can easily kill large parts of the enemy team while capturing the point.

The different compositions

You might ask yourself why I haven't mentioned tanks yet, but in this paragraph I will show you some team compositions and tanks actually play a huge role into them.

The Standard: This team composition is the basic composition that can handle most of the other teams if played right. Reinhardt, Mercy, Lucio, McCree, Widowmaker and another carry like Tracer, Soldier: 76 or McCree are considered as the basic setup for most maps. With this composition, you have a basic setup that provides enough heal, damage and survivability. Reinhardt's Earth Shatter can be used with High Noon to win teamfights. Lucio's Sound Barrier and Mercy's Resurrect protect you from dying. Standing behind Reinhardt's Shield gives your team enough time to deal damage and push forward. This combination is also frequently used to defend, but instead of a carry you will add a Junkrat for constant poke damage.

Two Tanks: The next team composition is close to the first one, but it adds an additional tank and is often used for defending objectives. Adding an additional tank like Zarya or Winston gives your team more teamfight potential as well as survivability. Zarya deals good damage and her ultimate provides your team a pretty nice teamfight, while Winston should be picked against a Widowmaker to aggressivly jump on her or a Mercy and try to pick them out. His ultimate can be used to push onto objectives and finish of the last meters to a checkpoint.

One Healer: Instead of swapping from a carry to a tank, some teams prefer to play with only one support. Often Mercy is picked as the support to give your team more damage against those heavy tank compositions. You will play with two tanks, one support and three damage dealers. This composition is more often picked as the defending team to take the enemy tanks down with your damage. If you need more damage, you can easily swap from the offtank to a damage dealer to give your team even more power.

Different Maps, Different Tactics

With the common combinations of heroes, there are some special tactics and picks on the different maps.

Hybrid Maps and Point Capture Maps: On hybrid maps and point capture maps, you have to defend a point at the start of the game. That's why your standard support Lucio will be replaced with Symmetra. Her ability to create a Teleporter is a huge advantage to defend the point and her shields still give your team enough health. Of course Sound Barrier can't be replaced but her Teleporter will quickly bring your team back on the point. Symmetra's Sentry Turrets will also help you to defend the point as they will go through Reinhardt's shield and harass him. Often you won't end the game at the first point by defending it, but you can delay the enemies and buy some time for the next checkpoint. Additionally Pharrah is a really strong carry on King's Row and Hollywood, because of her ability to control higher ground like the rooftops on Hollywood. Instead of a third carry on Hollywood, you can also bring a Torbjörn to the first point for some decent amount damage and protection. Tracer is a good option for your defense if you decide to not run a Symmetra, because she will quickly be back on the point and prevent enemy from capture it.

Escort Maps: On Dorado, you can also pick a Symmetra instead of a Lucio to defend the first checkpoint. Route 66 and Watchpoint: Gibraltar are great maps for the double tank compositions as offense. But instead of a Reinhardt, you will pick two Winstons to push enemies aggressively and pick them out from those higher grounds which makes it so hard for the offense to reach some checkpoints, like the shuttle stage on Watchpoint: Gibraltar. When the attacking team gets closer to finish the map, some teams have even decided to pick a Bastion for destroying the tanks and give your team some time.

King of the Hill Maps: Illios, Lijiang Tower and Nepal prefer some special combinations of heroes. You will most likely play with double Lucio, double Winston and two carries. Double Lucio is nice to push enemies from the map and double Winston or Winston/Zarya provide good damage and survivability. Carries like Tracer, Soldier:76 and Pharrah are often used on those maps for their nice poke and ultimates. A Bastion is also a good pick if you can bring him into the point to deal some huge damage and destroy enemy tanks.

Picture of Cloud 9's team composition on Nepal vs Team Liquid

Conclusion

Even before the game was officially released a meta was foreseeable. Many teams ran the same compositions and some maps favoured different heroes like Symmetra. The main composition of one or two supports and one or two tanks is basically the best combination to win the game. Knowing the strengths of heroes on the different maps can give your team a huge advantage and makes it easier to defend. Try to communicate with your team about your strategies and picks. Every hero seems to be viable, even if you have two Widowmakers or a Torbjörn!

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