# Overwatch 2 Theorycraft

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# game fundamentals
> 1. ult/util tracking
> 2. positioning/LOS
> 3. cooldowns
> 4. tempo
> 5. space & map control
> 6. ebb & flow
> 7. team comps

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# ult and utility tracking
**easy concept to understand, easy to execute in game.**

*knowing what ultimates and or high impact abilities are online and understanding when and where you can find a window to exploit*
- *(ties in with pressure cycling)*

- *knowing when an enemy is going to ult can lead to winning fights before they even started e.g. knowing zarya is going to grav soon so you purposely position differently.*

>*if they have nano blade and you dont have a counter for it but you have zarya grav its probably worth to commit grav to counter blade.*

> *if you know they have mercy res online and you kill someone its probably worth to anchor the body and deny res.*

> *if you see them use kiriko cleanse and sleep dart you know its probably the best time to cordinate a dive*

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# corners and positioning
(*knowing where to position and where to anchor is a key fundamental of the game and an easy concept to understand but hard to execute into your gameplay*)

* playing around a corner and engaging a team fight around that corner is a very common practice and alot of times its worth to give the enemy team free **space** just to be able to play around the corner.

### **why should i play around corners?**
> *playing around these common corners create consistency and reduce your chance at dying from random shots or getting shot from an off angle, by cutting off **LOS** you are given a window to restabilize and let your cds and resources come back online.*

### **what is power positioning?**
> *a power position is a strong spot on the map (usally a high ground) that gives you an edge on the team fight, these spots are scattered across every map and are very strong if used correctly. a couple examples being eichenwalde high ground, lijiang control center white room, hollywood B roofs, etc... if youre not taking these power positions at the very least soft contest them and force enemys off of them*

### **what are lanes and why are they important?**
> *lanes go in hand with creating space and taking map control, overwatch maps can usually be divided into 3 lanes, winning team fights in overwatch is all about taking lanes more efficiently than the enemy team.* 

* being assertive but not reckless, while you should push an advantage when you have it putting yourself in the open is never the answer, you still want to play by a corner or some sort of protection or you risk losing whatever advantage you had to begin with, not letting the enemy team make a comeback by playing assertive and maintaining pressure.

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# cooldowns

### **what is pressure cycling?**

> *when team 2 uses high value cooldowns assuming these cooldowns get value team 1 will have to match the pressure and use similar high value cooldowns or they will have to surrender some **space**, however once those higher value cooldowns are used theyre not available for a while thus making team 2 weaker until theyre back online hense the term pressure cycle, the same concept can be done with ults to initiate or match pressure.*

* the key take away from pressure cycling and cooldown usage is when the enemy team commits big cooldowns or ults its frequently worth to give up **space** but as little as you can get away with surrendering, and then pushing back into them with your pressure advantage HARD and either get kills or take MORE **space** back from them than you let them take from you. **(ebb and flow)** this does not mean you always have to play reactive, but does mean that you should recognize your own weakness after using cooldowns and that you may have to give up **space**.

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# tempo

(*lucio speed being the best way to play at a fast tempo*)

* playing at a **higher** tempo requires aggression; **space** is capitalized on quickly, rotations must happen faster, and minor weaknesses must be pushed as soon as they present themselves before a team fight rapidly spins out of control. due to the nature of the fast tempo of the team fight more openings and opportunities are able to be exploited thus resulting in a won team fight.

* playing at a **lower** tempo offers less opportunities to take the advantage, most lower tempo fights are won off of taking slow advantages over time (map control and cd advantage), playing for ults, or capitalizing off of a major mistake and getting a player advantage.

### **how to counter fast tempo?**

> *you must react quickly and not provide any opportunities for the higher-tempo team to get an advantage during the team fight.*

### **how to counter low tempo?**

> *if youre playing the higher-tempo comp you must play aggressively, if you play down to tempo of the enemy team, their poke/pick potential will eventually win them the team fight.*

### **why play low tempo when you can play high tempo?**

> *theres multiple reasons why playing at a lower tempo can be better than playing at a high tempo 1 being on a low tempo defense if youre winning your team fights youre dragging out fights and minimizing the number of fight opportunities for the attackers. 1 downside being you are allowing the attacking team the **space** to engage and the opportunity to control the pace of the game.*

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# space & map control
*(space and map control are the building blocks of overwatch the team with more space and more map control is most likely going to win the team fight)*

### **what is space?**

> **space** *is the area of the map that you or the enemy team can safely maneuver in*

### **what does taking space do?**

> *taking **space** allows you and your team to take advantage of map control that youve just gained and force enemys off of certain spots (high ground, etc...)*

### **how do i take space?**

> *theres multiple ways of taking **space** 1 of them being forcing the enemy team off a certain spot on the map. for example diving the high ground and forcing them to drop or **kite** away therefore giving you and your team the high ground thus creating **space***

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# ebb & flow
**easy concept to understand, hard to execute in game;due to communication and coordination**
++(ebb & flow and space go hand in hand and are known as the building blocks to overwatch)++

*the state and flow at which the team fight is accuring at, the example "push and pulling" can be used here.*
**pulling** - kiting the enemys push
**pushing** - pushing into enemy team
**matching** - both teams pushing into each other
- [ ] *team 1 speed engages into team 2 and takes **space*** 
- [ ] *team 2 kites back and gives the **space**, then using beat and speed to engage back into team 1 and take the **space** back* 
- [ ] *team 1 has no speed to kite out and are now forced to match and commit beat to brawl for the **space*** 

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# rotating through space

when playing overwatch you might look to:
* **setup** to play in space
* **rotate** through a space
- is the space a kill box? -> scouting
- can we beat the engage? -> baiting
- rotate through it -> execute

### setup
> you should always look to set your core up on an important or good space on the map. in a point control situation you can set up in these spots before the fight. during a retake you will need to rotate into one of these spots. the enemy will most likely look to punish your rotations.

### scouting
> certain rotates will take you through dangerous spaces on the map, poke/dive teams will look for open spaces versus brawl teams will look to setup around chokes an enemy team with point control **(KOTH)** will look to set killboxes up in these spaces. before you rotate you should get information **(scout)** about how the enemy team has setup around the killbox.
**(ult tracking is key here)**

### bait
> before you rotate through a killbox you can look to bait enemy aggression so that they use their cooldowns innefficently
**e.g. (forcing bap to use lamp, baiting both zarya bubbles)**
the goal here is that your team uses less cooldowns during their engagement so you have an easier time completing the rotation.

* call youre baiting the rotation
* main healer stays in relative safety
* brawly/mobile heros walk into the kill box
* wait for the enemy team to engage and commit cds -> kite the engage **immediately**
* stabilize
* rotate and commit as a team

*a good team might not get baited into engaging unless the rotating team is moving as a full group. they might also look to split focus onto the main healer with a hero like tracer, decreasing the survival chance of the rotation*

### **rotate**
- **stack** up and call 3, 2, 1
- path efficiently -> shoose the shortest/fastest path with the most cover
- use **cooldowns** to get through and live
- **deny angles** by splitting focus away from your core

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# team comps & theory crafting
*(the first thing to note is that we split the role frame and look at things as brawl, poke, and dive roles rather than tank, dps, and support.)*

### **what is brawl?**

> *brawl wants to close the distance on the enemy and force an engagement in a close quarters scenario. brawl compositions generally lack the ability to exert map control on long and/or open sight lines. rather they will look to take point control, or setup around chokes as a form of map control*

- the standard brawl comp in overwatch 2 has **zarya** *(interchangable with rein)*
**sojourn**, **reaper**, **lucio**, **kiriko** *(interchangable with brig)* who all provide value in short to medium ranges, sojourn allows this comp to be more flexable and can be considered a spam/brawl hybrid, these a little more enphasis on the poke phase against brawlier comps or in the mirror.

### holding map space
> brawl comps generally cannot establish map control on long open sight lines, instead a brawl should look to hold an area with a lot of chokes if the enemy get to the open space then they wont be able to establish map control

- most overwatch maps are designed in stages which can then be divided between capture points , the flow of the map goes from some *closed* off areas into an *open* area then back into a *closed* area, these closed areas are usually a large building that naturally creates a choke point in the map.


### holding chokes *(brawl space)*

> holding a choke creates a natural *kill box* when a team tries to walk through it, alot of maps have a areas where a brawl comp can easily exploit this and *choke* out the enemy team but setting up a pinch around it.


### holding open space

> the standard brawl comp has a strong midrange poke/spam while still keeping the close range brawl fundamentals, you should look to setup *spam squad* and a *brawl squad* to make the most out of the early poke/posture phase of the team fight.

*heres an example of how you would set up against a dive team.*


> you might think -> "isnt brawl comp supposed to be centered around all 5 players stacking against the dive?"

* the short answer is yes, because of your ability to absorb the dive when stacked together. but due to the previously mentioned strong mid-range poke elements, you can play for open sight lines on certain map geometry to poke out and prevent the dive before it happens.

### holding objective

> the root win condition of a brawl comp is to close distance on the opponent, a form of this wincon can be executed by playing on the objective a more mobile enemy that would otherwise be out of reach will be forced to contest you, allowing the gap to be closed without the brawl comp having to move.

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### **what is poke?**

> *poke wants to create a lot of distance between them and the enemy in order to widdle them down and kill them before they get too close*

### **what is dive?**

> *dive wants to surround the enemy and suffocate their cooldowns, eventually killing the enemy team*
**dive is by far the most complicated from all the 3 with having to know the fundamental stages of dive**

**pre-fight phase**
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plan the most important factors of the dive
- basic win con
- target priority
- ult/util planning *(pressure cycling)*

**uptime:** using your cooldowns and engaging in the fight
**downtime:** living and restablizing until cooldowns come back online

the main idea is as a team you should have a cordinated "pulse". this is known as uptime/downtime cycle.

your power level as a team is at its highest during *uptime* and at its lowest during *downtime*

**fundamental stages of dive**
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`scout -> stage -> execute -> reset`

***phase 1: (scout,poke)***
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scout -> decision making + pathing (choosing target)
> playing for lanes?
> whos the dive target?

- *scout:* get information (cooldown usage, positional mistake you can exploit)
- *pathing:* how will you get there? *positioning:* where will you play?

- what are the advantages/disadvantages based on your lane matchup?
- who are you setting the dive on? what util/ults are online?
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**phase 2: exec (engage/midfight)**
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focus resources with timing to achieve planned goal:
- burst in isolated target -> **dive**
- close distance -> **brawl**
- create opening for **poke** value or **pick** potential

executing phase 1 to phase 2 should be almost instant. its okay to fail acomplishing the planned goal as long as you can move onto the next phase quickly *(very important concept)*

*ults: use ults to stay in longer and extend this phase*

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**phase 3: out (restabilize)**
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when hard executing on a dive you run out of resources (cds) if you are still stuck chasing the goal for the exec phase without any resources left you will die.

*ults: use ults to stay alive after going in*

- **kite back**
- **hard reset**
- **recover cooldowns and hp**
- **repeat from the phase 1**

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**3 outs comp**
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### **what is 3 outs comp?**

* [3 outs comp example](https://youtu.be/Z_ZGCxmGqC8?t=1322)

>*3 outs meta is the combination of 2 zarya bubbles + kiriko cleanse, effectively having 3 defensive outs in a team fight. kiriko can be switched out for bap, but kiriko is definitely the stronger and better pick due to the fact that she has higher mobility and less prone to dives and her ult being alot stronger.*

***role description***
- [ ] ***genji** should be forcing cds and contesting enemy sojourn*
- [ ] ***sojourn** should be taking bigger off angles and be looking for railgunning squishys*
- [ ] ***zarya** should be trying to get early high energy while not wasting bubbles unless enough space is made and has free downtime inbetween fights, most bubbles should be looking to get your teammates a free out*
- [ ] ***lucio** should be with the zarya looking to position her where she needs to be*
- [ ] ***kiriko** should be off angling with a dps looking for poke damage and kill potential but all the while still sustaining zarya from afar*


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**tank counter triangle**
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> ***all 3 current meta tanks all counter each other***
> - [ ] zarya counters dva
> - [ ] dva counters monkey
> - [ ] monkey counters zarya