Rumours From The ScrimCoin Metaverse - Who Is Top In NA?
Scrimbux rebranded. We're ScrimCoin now. Annoyed yet? That's the point.
Sascha Heinisch
25th Apr 2022 16:12
Blizzard Entertainment
Welcome back to the Overwatch League season 5 scrimbux stock exchange… or really what’s left of it. We call it ScrimCoin now… Whatever. It’s a magical place, where the currency is made up and built on nothing but hushed whispers, inflated winrates and a completely new game. Absolutely nothing is nailed down yet, so grab a couple of things and run for the hills. You’d be a fool to take anything here at face value, especially this season. And yet you come crawling back every year. Got burned badly last season, and now you claim ScrimCoin don’t have any inherent value? Wake up sleepy, that’s half of private investment in your age bracket. Regardless, scrimbux have tracked league winrate closely, dropping in accuracy only in knockout matches.
Considering that for the majority of the off-season we didn’t even have a game to play on, some of the guys thought about skipping the whole competition thing and planned to just speculate on imaginary scrim performances. They called it Non-Playable Esport (don’t copy-paste this idea, please.) Considering that power rankings content is generally the most consumed stuff all season, I think they had something there. Paying player salaries is really just pesky and unnecessary if you can generate the most buzz before a single game is played, right? Anyway… Once the Overwatch 2 PvP Alpha came along they invented something new that’s a literal game-changer. If you’d please put on your virtual reality glasses. This year, the real story is the new game and its new meta. Enter… the metaverse!
Meta Versus Professionals
More so than any other story of how teams match up, the entire game has switched on us and continues to do so. When the Alpha hit, a lot of Zarya, Reaper, Sojourn, Moira, Lucio were played. Considering the low skill floor of the comp, it’s exactly the type you’d expect to dominate in the early stages of the alpha. Just press W, snipe some dopamine from the opponent and be a happy team, then copy the others who figured out something less inane. Then it is time to edit the LinkedIn profile to include innovator as a job title. Lay down your hard hat and call it a good day’s work.
Sojourn felt extremely powerful and some ScrimCoin informants have shared that especially Kai stood out during that time. A couple of weeks and a balance adjustment later and the meta opened up to much more variety. During the first two weeks in April, teams were playing compositions like Reinhardt, Lucio, Baptiste, Mei, Cassidy or Ashe/Widow, Tracer in the DPS slot. Compositions like D.Va/Sigma, two hitscan heroes, Baptiste, and Zenyatta also found play.
Now comps like Doomfist, Genji, Soldier:76, Ana, Lucio are being played with some teams trying to counter those setups with Zarya, Sombra, one hitscan, Ana, Brigitte/Lucio. Throughout all those meta iterations, ScrimCoin power rankings were moderately affected.
Perhaps most importantly, many ScrimCoin informants have claimed that the game does feel a tad more random now. With one less player on the field, first kills have gained importance and given the space left unprotected by the now missing tank, the potential for a cheeky pick is now greater. Whether or not this is an inherent feature of Overwatch 2 and 5vs5 or a meta-game issue in which teams will eventually learn to add stability to engagements remains to be seen. As a result, especially teams around the mid-range of power rankings are more prone to be upset or punch up on individual maps in the current scrim economy. Let’s gamble, baby!
Moreover, a lot of players seem to have transitioned their Overwatch 1 skill over to Overwatch 2 relatively seamlessly. Some trends the ScrimCoin metaverse was able to get hold of was that some main tanks were having bigger trouble adapting to off tanks than the other way around. As a general rule of thumb, previous off-tank players are likely to see more playtime though the degree to which depends on each respective team and player. Former main tank heroes had less overall play share and especially the re-designed Orisa has been competitively irrelevant despite two buffs to her kit. Only Reinhardt has enjoyed meta-relevance and even here, some off-tank players have stolen the show from their main tank teammates. However, there are notable exceptions in which main tank players have blown out all expectations. More on this later.
Especially during the last meta development, the differences in power levels between individual teams have become less pronounced, and it’s likely to be more accurate to rank them into different categories. Moreover, considering that APAC is once again doing their individual thing, and we’ll only get two touching points during the mid and post-season, these teams will also be put into their own category.
North America - Stablecoin tier
Tied to the fiat of silly skill on practically every member of their roster, four teams have joined the top tier in NA. They are most likely to have a say in the title race.
The Dallas Fuel had a slow start and initially only ranked in the middle of the pack, also likely due to the travel of their team to Texas. Once settled down, the Fuel developed their own style and entered the top flight, trading highly. As always, their strategies remained non-fungible and the real deal as they are developed towards their own strength. Now they’ve neatly tucked themselves in with the other four top teams in North America, promising an interesting opening weekend. Some bulls have suggested that Hanbin might just have an MVP season despite being on a team with Fearless. In this metaverse, everything is possible.
The Los Angeles Gladiators have also held their previous season’s form and are considered one of the best teams in North America. ScrimCoin sources have advised that scepticism for Patiphan, while justified on paper, has largely not held up. The kid is still sick with it and continues to improve. With their roles otherwise stacked to the brim with high-quality alternatives, some have speculated that if anything, a double hitscan meta might make them mortal.
ScrimMath: When asking teams who practised against each other for win percentages of those scrims, the approximated sum will always exceed 120%.
Despite their considerable roster changes, the Reign have also maintained their status as a top team though some notable doubters have crept in. We’ll see how it goes. Especially Ultraviolet and Ojee have fully landed, convincing many ScrimCoin informants that the Reign will once again play for the championship. Kai has stood out individually and is most definitely rivalling for the title of the best hitscan in the league. Advisers have shared that they were surprised by Hawk’s tank performance on the full roster, commending the player for his flexibility.
Finally, the San Francisco Shock round out the top 4. While the threepeat was denied, the third title became all the more possible through the recruitment of key O2 Blast members. Informants say Proper is everything he was hyped up to be, being truly elite on at least Hanzo, Genji, and Tracer but still very good on multiple other picks. "Proper isn’t just good for a rookie, he will instantly rival for MVP. I know we say that already, but this is more than hype", one informant has shared. Sources also feel that fellow DPS Kilo is not talked about enough, giving the Shock one of the scariest DPS lines in the meta. Viol2t’s Lucio has been described as passable, though not on the level of someone like FunnyAstro. Some informants think this season will stand and fall with Viol2t’s ability to keep a high level on the wide hero range he will necessarily have to cover.
And this is the end of the blockchain for today. Come back tomorrow, we’ll get through the other teams then.
About The Author
Sascha Heinisch
Sascha "Yiska" Heinisch is a Senior Esports Journalist at GGRecon. He's been creating content in esports for over 10 years, starting with Warcraft 3.
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