Blizzard's Overwatch Catch-All

I've told others this. From the announcement and up to the beta launch it seemed obvious to me this was going to be primarily a CS clone with a dash of OW. I was thinking 60/40. After playing in the beta now i see it more as 85/15 CS/OW. Also as others pointed out. CS is by far the most popular game between the 2 when looking at the numbers. So not much of a surprise.

Although it's taking a lot of time to relearn old habits not just with gun control but also movement and timing. You can't play this like CoD or even OW. Still, it's definitely fun for me.

I also don't think this has ever been designed as a 'OW killer'. This is Riot jumping into another Esports lane and so far i think they're poised to be another leader there.

fenomas wrote:

Keep hearing people talk about Valorant as the next big overwatch killer, so I watched some twitch streams of the closed beta today. For like two minutes I legit thought it was just people playing CS:GO on a custom map.

From what I've read it sounds like you spend a lot of time dead. You get one life per round and fights last a couple of seconds. That sounds like just the type of game I hate. I may give it a try if OW dries up but by that time I'll be well behind everyone else, play a few hours, get annoyed at how much time I spend dead watching others and never put in the time to even learn all the characters and what they do. Maybe I'll find it's great but that's pretty unlikely.

I've watched the streams. Bleh.

Axel wrote:

Stupid fun fact: Carolina Ravassa the voice actress who voices Sombra in Overwatch also voices Raze in Valorant. For some reason I'm surprised she was allowed to do that, I assumed there was like a non-compete clause in her contract with Blizz

Video games are where most voice actors make their bread and butter, so they would either have to pay her a LOT to make giving up other video game roles worth it, or the contract would have to be VERY specific about how similar a game has to be to Overwatch to count as "competing." Doubt it would be worth the trouble either way.

EvilHomer3k wrote:
fenomas wrote:

Keep hearing people talk about Valorant as the next big overwatch killer, so I watched some twitch streams of the closed beta today. For like two minutes I legit thought it was just people playing CS:GO on a custom map.

From what I've read it sounds like you spend a lot of time dead. You get one life per round and fights last a couple of seconds. That sounds like just the type of game I hate. I may give it a try if OW dries up but by that time I'll be well behind everyone else, play a few hours, get annoyed at how much time I spend dead watching others and never put in the time to even learn all the characters and what they do. Maybe I'll find it's great but that's pretty unlikely.

Everyone keeps saying you spend a lot of time dead. That's not really true. Even if you die immediately at the start. The rounds are relatively quick. Still it is just like CS and you get the 1 life per round.

My biggest complaint is that the number of rounds that need to be played during a match.

Top guy at Riot: "hey let's copy that popular esports shooter"
Designer: "which one, overwatch or CSGO?"
Top: "Yes"

I can totally see it as a CS:GO killer, it has exactly the same feel and core loop, but modernized and with more of a gesture in the direction of personality and world building.

But yeah, it scratches a completely different itch than overwatch. I reckon some pros will switch, and it will be precisely the ones who were already CS players at heart but doing OW for career reasons.

I'm just genuinely surprised Riot didn't try to innovate a little more. Sooo much about Valorant looks/feels identical to CS, and half of the special abilities seem to be directly from OW.

Anybody else play Mystery Heroes, and if so, have you been noticing a LOT of Echo? Like, to the point where you wonder if Blizz might not have weighted the dice rolls to give folks a chance to try her out? I've seldom gone long without at least one around, and at one point had three on my team and two on the other.

hbi2k wrote:

Anybody else play Mystery Heroes, and if so, have you been noticing a LOT of Echo? Like, to the point where you wonder if Blizz might not have weighted the dice rolls to give folks a chance to try her out? I've seldom gone long without at least one around, and at one point had three on my team and two on the other.

Are people helping the odds by dying quickly for another roll?

Eh, I mean, it's Arcade, so it's hard to tell the difference between literal throwing and the normal amount of sucking and/or not giving a sh*t.

I seemed to be rolling her a lot too though-- a couple times a match sometimes-- and I wasn't going out of my way to die.

hbi2k wrote:

Eh, I mean, it's Arcade, so it's hard to tell the difference between literal throwing and the normal amount of sucking and/or not giving a sh*t.

I seemed to be rolling her a lot too though-- a couple times a match sometimes-- and I wasn't going out of my way to die.

I just remember the old days when you could suicide for a new character.

Yup. I get why they got rid of that, but MAN I miss being able to ditch a Widow for something I could be of use with.

hbi2k wrote:

Anybody else play Mystery Heroes, and if so, have you been noticing a LOT of Echo? Like, to the point where you wonder if Blizz might not have weighted the dice rolls to give folks a chance to try her out? I've seldom gone long without at least one around, and at one point had three on my team and two on the other.

A case of the availability heuristic?

I’ve played 8 Mystery matches and can count on one hand the number of Echo’s: four. It’s pretty strongly my belief Mystery is purely random. A little bit of survival bias in that people who get Echo are less likely to Chuck themselves into a fray because they want to live.

staygold wrote:
hbi2k wrote:

Anybody else play Mystery Heroes, and if so, have you been noticing a LOT of Echo? Like, to the point where you wonder if Blizz might not have weighted the dice rolls to give folks a chance to try her out? I've seldom gone long without at least one around, and at one point had three on my team and two on the other.

A case of the availability heuristic?

I’ve played 8 Mystery matches and can count on one hand the number of Echo’s: four. It’s pretty strongly my belief Mystery is purely random. A little bit of survival bias in that people who get Echo are less likely to Chuck themselves into a fray because they want to live.

I still remember the defensive Hollywood match where we go three orisa's . Unlimited Shields!!!

From last night in custom match. The defense snatched victory (1 Meter) from the jaws of defeat.

Zen's got moves like Jonak.

hbi2k wrote:

Impressive! But - not sure if it was faster than this classic from back in the day, that included one Mr. Sands and some great banter. I know I posted it years ago, but it is a nice companion to this. Erik probably remembers it (and, WTF was I shooting at most of the time? I would like to say I am much better now, but...).

By my timing, "Roland Has a Plan" is 1:46 from the door opening to the "Victory" voice line, whereas "Fastest Match Ever" was 1:41.

Still very impressive, especially considering that in "Roland Has a Plan" you had to walk from Point A to Point B like savages instead of teleporting like gentlemen.

And yeah, I elected a third-person view instead of sticking with my own (Reaper) perspective to avoid showing exactly how little I was contributing. (-:

Last week had a super weird thing happen. Somehow captured the point on Numbani even though we were it was a baby DVa against a Soldier and a Rein and both appeared to be on the point. Had to go back and watch the super slow-mo to figure out what happened! Broke it down here:

I've been playing mostly DPS for quite a while recently as many of you know. For the hell of it, frankly. Over the past couple of days I've decided to just queue for anything and rediscovered my love of Moira. I was damned near a Moira main a while ago but stopped playing her for some reason. I know there are those who consider her an "easy" hero, or lambast the "DPS Moiras" which I don't believe I am. I mean, I'll finish people off and suck to recharge my healing urine, but I'm not focused on kills. Damned if her kit just really doesn't jive with how I think and play.

Here's a dump of PotGs from the past two days. I have yet to be beaten in healing by my healing teammate and am running about an 80% win rate. Ludicrous. I think I'm going pro.

hbi2k wrote:

By my timing, "Roland Has a Plan" is 1:46 from the door opening to the "Victory" voice line, whereas "Fastest Match Ever" was 1:41.

Still very impressive, especially considering that in "Roland Has a Plan" you had to walk from Point A to Point B like savages instead of teleporting like gentlemen.

And yeah, I elected a third-person view instead of sticking with my own (Reaper) perspective to avoid showing exactly how little I was contributing. (-:

We had another really fast Hanamura game earlier this year. It was also sub-two minutes, but I am having trouble finding the post about it. I feel like Axel recorded it.

EriktheRed wrote:

We had another really fast Hanamura game earlier this year. It was also sub-two minutes, but I am having trouble finding the post about it. I feel like Axel recorded it.

Yeah I posted it a while back. Rewatching the video my vague math puts it at 1 minute 19 seconds time for us to win the match. It's funny how both times we pretty much do the exact same strategy (Sym tele past choke onto the point, then far left tele to surprise flank)

ColdForged wrote:

I mean, I'll finish people off and suck to recharge my healing urine, but I'm not focused on kills.

Seriously, we can't let this lovely bit of Autocorrect goodness go unacknowledged, can we? Heck no! This is sig worthy, for sure.

bhchrist wrote:
ColdForged wrote:

I mean, I'll finish people off and suck to recharge my healing urine, but I'm not focused on kills.

Seriously, we can't let this lovely bit of Autocorrect goodness go unacknowledged, can we? Heck no! This is sig worthy, for sure.

None of that is autocorrect. I wanted all of that, sweetcheeks.

I felt a little bad after that... Only a little

Axel wrote:
EriktheRed wrote:

We had another really fast Hanamura game earlier this year. It was also sub-two minutes, but I am having trouble finding the post about it. I feel like Axel recorded it.

Yeah I posted it a while back. Rewatching the video my vague math puts it at 1 minute 19 seconds time for us to win the match. It's funny how both times we pretty much do the exact same strategy (Sym tele past choke onto the point, then far left tele to surprise flank)

And here's another 1:19 from last night through my useless perspective using the same strategy.
\(^▽^)/

Edit: Game code - 8QWYZS

I swear that strat works like 80-90% of the time.

The only time we have trouble is if they either run a turret comp and all setup directly on the point, or if have have a Mei waiting on the point and somehow splits us using a wall.

I love this (accidental) coordination between us earlier today when attacking Eichenwald

Adobo and I are running Rein/Monkey while BH and Haze are running Moira/Ana. Our pubbie DPS are having a hard time breaking the enemy Rein shield preventing me from hammering down.

At the 3 second mark, Adobo jumps the enemy backline. Instead of continuing to protect his team the enemy Rein turns his shield to face Adobo, opening a window for me to hammer down and us to win the match.

Protip: Listening to the Tony Hawk Pro Skater soundtrack makes you a better Lucio player

I'm so glad we got the new communication-wheel options. Now pubbies can ignore me saying "Fall Back" AND "Group Up" instead of just "Group Up" as they trickle in and get slaughtered like animals.