Are The Overwatch League Playoffs Going To Give Us A Just Winner?
With the introduction of hero pools in week 5 of the Overwatch League, the development team came up with a feature that aimed to help with the lack of meta diversity throughout the first two seasons. In season 3, teams were asked either every week, or every other week, to show off their best ideas on the meta given the hero bans, either derived from their own creative minds, or through osmosis of meta knowledge that they received from scrim blocks with other teams. Due to this, teams have become increasingly efficient at adapting to new metas, and the best ones were rewarded with season wins accordingly. A lot of Overwatch was played, and each week the game asked “how good are you this weekend with those bans?”
Confidently only Philadelphia Fusion, Shanghai Dragons, and San Francisco Shock were able to answer “maybe we are the best in the world” each week. The three giants of Overwatch League season 3 managed to remain top tier teams throughout the majority of meta archetypes, towering above the competition with great win records during the regular season and deep runs in tournaments.
Teams like the Guangzhou Charge, Seoul Dynasty, Florida Mayhem, and the Paris Eternal were able to bring the fight to those three, sometimes even able to take a playoff series, though likely assisted by hitting a meta that either suited the underdogs, or lay in one of the few weak spots of the top teams.
Competitive integrity and playoff formats
Disclaimer: It may appear to be a tired trope to ask for competitive integrity in a season as challenging as this one, but as far as I can tell, not all contributing factors of this issue are influenced by the global pandemic in a meaningful way. When they do, I did my best to point out that fact.
Now that we’ve arrived in playoffs the question the game will ask will be entirely different to an arguably unrecognisable degree, giving off a feeling that the 21 regular-season games for each team meant very little. After all, the playoffs may very well turn out to ask “how good are you on a patch that doesn’t feature main tanks for the next two months?” Sure, we asked teams to give us their best take outside of hero pools in the three tournaments this season, but it wasn’t a question of refinement. Essentially, no hero pools for one-week playoff matches were simply another hero pool with less restrictions.
Moreover, the playoff format arguably works against the expressed viewer interest to see many different meta compositions in rapid succession, freezing Overwatch into one meta state, unless a significant strategical evolution was to happen in the playoffs. While we can expect augmentations of compositions with one or two heroes remaining flexible at some point in the tournament, it appears unlikely that we will be frequently switching between dive, double shield, and no main tank compositions each week. As it looks, it’s likely to be either dive or the main tankless comp all the way, until we find a winner.
Click to enlarge“How sad would you feel if you had finished six, seven wins above a team... This patch happens and they’re given this charity lifeline at the bottom.” said assistant coach of the Philadelphia Fusion Christopher "ChrisTFer" Graham in a podcast appearance, offering up a thought experiment that also entailed a criticism towards the decision to include every team in the Overwatch League playoffs. Specifically, ChrisTFer addressed those teams that fought hard for a top spot for half a year, only for it to be thrown away in an entirely different ball game.
While the inclusion of all teams in the playoff increases the chances of exacerbating the issue of an unaligned regular season format with the playoff tournament structure, we have to recognise fairly that this decision was likely made due to circumstances of COVID-19. A lot of missed revenue due to canceled homestands and tighter sponsorship budgets make a good argument to give each team as much exposure as possible, on top of limitations to improve one's roster during a global pandemic.
The playoff patch timing is a third aspect that adds to the pile of volatility, especially if the composition that we are currently seeing played in Contenders was to be the chosen meta of Overwatch League teams. With the game changed fundamentally, how would it feel for neither of the top three teams to make it to the top four and meet in Korea? How would it feel if it was instead a team like the Fuel, or even the Justice, who were even allowed to further improve their projected performance past the transfer window by being allowed to recruit Gui-un "Decay" Jang?
It also bears repeating that the playoff format is relatively harsh on lower seeds, requiring them to go through knockout runs one or two more times than the high seeding teams. However, that advantage in the face of this meta bomb might become slim for the ones blindsided by the aforementioned factors.
Solutions for another season
Arguing in favour at least of the vocal crowd of Overwatch League fans who enjoy frequent meta switches, aligning these preferences with the playoff format in a meaningful way would go a long way to ask a consistent question throughout the entire season. If we are to go forward with hero pools in season 4, incorporating them in our tournaments, and finally in our playoffs would both help competitive integrity while also serving the interest of viewers. The premise here is simple - if we filter and reward teams for flexibility, then make them part of the playoffs too.
Click to enlargeAs a point of discussion, take the following suggestion: One way to achieve that would be to have playoff matches after a certain stage in the playoffs become best of three of best of fives, with each match being played under different hero pool restrictions. Whether or not these would be random, based on play rate of the playoff weeks before, or the aggregate of the most banned heroes over the season, any starting point here would allow teams to showcase their flexibility over a wide array of metas. To make this workable, each best of five would have to be played with some timely separation, so each team could prepare for their series. The playoffs would necessarily stretch out which, given the success of tournaments, would be a welcome byproduct with the downside being that a 2-0 blowout series would result in a dead broadcast slot while the other side of the bracket may still be playing out their series. Playoff patches would no longer be required as the novelty injection would come at the hand of the tournament structure, satisfying our appetite for something new.
There are many holes even in the basics of this idea that would likely make it impossible to put into action. Moreso than the specifics of the format, I’d like to stimulate us to think about solutions that carries the idea of hero pools into the playoffs in actionable ways. How would you include the questions of hero pools into the playoff format?
Images via Blizzard Entertainment
