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Overwatch7 years agoGosu "GosuGamers" Gamers

South Korea's dominance of Overwatch World Cup teaches NA and EU teams about meta variety



If you were a viewer of the matches, you know that South Korea didn’t just win the match ups, they dominated the World Cup field. In the finals between South Korea and Russia, South Korea did not allow their opponents to take a single round let alone an entire map. 

So what happened? Is South Korea just naturally better than the NA and EU teams? The answer is no. In an ESPN interview, when asked to compare South Korea’s high skill play with the rest of the world, South Korea’s MVP Gong “Miro” Jin-Hyun stated that,

Skill-wise,I think [Europe, South Korea, and North America] are pretty much the same […] Except, NA and EU don’t use Winston as much as Koreans do, so aside from myself, there are a lot of Korean tanks who use Winston a lot more often . I think that might be the difference. 

What does Miro mean by saying that?  During the Overwatch World Cup, Miro showed amazing performance playing as Winston, using the high mobility tank to take key players completely out of the match such as team USA’s “Seagull” and team Russia's “Rubikon”.  An example of this would be the clip below where Miro continues to disrupt the Russian backline even though Russia has control of the point, eventually forcing Team Russia to retreat back to spawn with the help of Ryujhong playing the ally Ana.



One thing that becomes apparent when watching Korea play, is that the Winston often ignores the frontline and objective completely in favour of harassing the squishy backline. Why was this small tactic such a game changer? It’s because Winston as the main tank isn’t considered part of the meta in top tier play according to the NA and the EU teams. Prior to the cup, Winston was considered the "squishiest" tank, with too many counters to consider him a threat. South Korea debunked this theory by pairing Winston with a pocket healer such as Ana or Mercy and an off-tank that can provide additional sustain (Zarya). After the World Cup, Winston is a hero that cannot be ignored and Miro has shown that.

South Korea's win over the NA and EU shows a problem with strictly following the Overwatch meta.  There is nothing wrong with following a meta, it lays out a proven blueprint that shows high success in pro gameplay. Unfortunately, when that structure breaks down during a match, players tend to not change. It’s not because the player is stubborn to swap to a different hero, but because they are not sure their current team composition can support that change. 

This has been seen before. Mei, now considered high up in the meta currently, was not considered a reliable pick up until the Overwatch Open Grand Finals between Team EnVyUs and Team Misfits. Players like "TaleSpin" took advantage of Mei's amazing crowd control and zoning to win a few more maps during the open. While the buff to her Ultimate was significant, Mei could have seen play even before that if players had experiment with, and figured out the value of her wall, sooner.

South Korea dominating the World Cup could be a good thing. They are encouraging more experimentation with that vast character roster that Overwatch provides to their NA and EU counterparts. Soon professional Overwatch play might see more varied compositions than the same tired setup that viewers see every match.

For the future, other characters might come back to greatness. Widowmaker recently recieved a change where she can charge up her shot faster and cannot be hurt by her own venom mine, D.VA will now become the Tankiest character in the game, because of an added 200 points added to her health, and Pharah will no longer inflict knockback on heroes she shoots. While the latter could be considered a nerf, the best players and teams will find a way to turn it into a buff.
Of course, soon Sombra will also become available, whose primary focus is to completely disable most sustain abilities with the use of her EMP and hacking abilities. So when it comes to Overwatch,  the so-called meta is a living organism that is constantly changing and is never concrete.

Check out South Korea's full Final match with Russia down below!

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