Burnout can be defined as ‘physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress’ and has long been a problem in esports as well as other professions. More recently it has become apparent in Overwatch, with players like Taimou and the controversial Dafran. However, unlike other esport titles, Overwatch has only been around for a … Continue reading “Why is Overwatch experiencing burnout after only a year?”

Overwatch is a game always in flux. We do not have strong history to draw upon to understand the rise and fall of professional teams and the patterns of performance over time. Because of this, the thought of building a model predicting what will happen next seems foolish! It may be, but we will not … Continue reading “Introducing APEX Match Predictions”

The idea of midgame substitutes is uncommon across most esports titles, however, the idea is steadily creeping into competitive Overwatch. Their first major implementation has been at OGN APEX, where season 3 rules allow teams to use a timeout to substitute a player. Although it hasn’t been heavily utilised, it has opened the door to … Continue reading “Substitutes, do they have a future in Overwatch?”

In this second part, I am going to focus specifically on the Attack category of heroes in Overwatch and try to give my thoughts on which stats I deem valuable and insightful for every single hero in this category (Genji, McCree, Pharah, Sombra, Soldier76, Tracer, Reaper).   Genji Genji is the hardest one to evaluate … Continue reading “What Stats are Important [Pt.2] – Attack Heroes”

With Blizzard having announced an API for Overwatch and with the 10-minute averages being in the PTR -soon to be implemented, it’s the perfect time to start discussing what stats do we need the API to provide us with, so as to create infographics that represent the true potential and performance of players/teams and also … Continue reading “What Stats are Important [Pt.1] – Ground Stats”

One thing I talk about a lot is that you can model teams in regards to which players they rely upon the most in comparison to all other teams in a competition. Before I break down what I mean by that, here is what I found: Teams that rely on their DPS players too much … Continue reading “Tank and Support Players win Championships – Explaining the PTK-Model”

After several days of rigorous try-outs, Andreas “EPZZ” Wallvingskog will be joining Cyclowns permanently, the core of the team formerly known as Cyclone. During the last week, he was with the squad on trial basis, together with former Red Reserve teammate Oliwer “Lateks” Fahlander. Cyclowns found itself in need of two players after Tiago “mowzassa” … Continue reading “Interview with EPZZ on joining Cyclowns”

People like to talk about which Control map format they like more, Best of 3 or Best of 5. And most of those arguments go the direction of “Bo3s are over before they began” or “Bo5s give a team the chance to reverse sweep their opponent which can add excitement to the series”. What I … Continue reading “Why Bo5 Control Maps grant Random Advantages to Teams – with Numbers”

Today ladies and gentlemen we have something special to celebrate.   A very long overdue interview with the one and only League of Legends and Overwatch caster, streamer, host, Mario-thon runner, poet, with an insatiable gadget and tech addiction, who enjoys long walks in the mountains while sipping on long island iced tea and munching … Continue reading “An Interview with Alex “Left Guy” Gill”

The true strength of a team is really hard to evaluate in the constantly changing environment of Overwatch. I believe that one indicator of the strength of a team is how many compositions its players can play without losing efficiency. In other words, how well the players’ hero pools can be combined rather than how … Continue reading “Composition Pool Diversity beats Hero Pool Diversity”