Stage 1 of the Overwatch League began on January 10th and ended on February 10th; let’s look back throughout Stage 1 to see how the hero Moira impacted games. Moira, a support hero, who was released earlier in the year, saw some playtime due to her unique kit which other supports don’t provide – area-of-effect healing. Teams in the Overwatch League crafted specific strategies around her on maps such as Horizon Lunar Colony and Junkertown, enabling them to catch teams off guard and achieve success. Moira is one of the main reasons that Quad-Tank compositions are being seen more frequently within the game.
Known as the Deathball approach, the Quad-Tank + Moira + Lucio approach is nearly unkillable: due to the large health-pools on tanks and sustained area-of-effect healing by Moira. Teams mainly use this strategy on Horizon Lunar Colony, forcing teams who have set up a high ground defense to engage them on the capture point. By removing the high ground advantage that defensive teams have, attacking teams can force a team fight that is favorable for them, usually resulting in an easy take on the first capture point. The clip below is from Stage 1 Week 3 between the Seoul Dynasty and New York Excelsior, showing how the NYXL successfully used the Quad-Tank + Moira composition against the Dynasty.
Although nearly unkillable, a few teams have managed to stop the impact of a Quad-Tank composition. By getting an early kill on one of the healers, negating the push, or quickly generating their hero’s ultimate charge off the enemy tanks, teams have been able to reduce the composition’s effectiveness. Seoul Dynasty’s Byung-Sun “FLETA” Kim sets a record time for generating Junkrat’s ultimate – Riptire, allowing him to stop NYXL’s Quad-Tank push in overtime. The clip below is from a later moment in the same map between the Seoul Dynasty and New York Excelsior. The Seoul Dynasty also end up winning the map: Map 2 Horizon Lunar Colony 5-4.
In addition to its use on Horizon Lunar Colony, Quad-Tank has also seen little play on Junkertown. Teams mainly run Quad-Tank as a stalling strategy on Junkertown or use it occasionally to deny Widowmaker’s impact. With large health-pools on tanks, teams are forced to adapt and figure out a solution if they want to overcome this strategy. Below is a clip from the London Spitfire vs Philadelphia Fusion game in Week 1, showing just how hard it is to deal with four tanks on the enemy team.
Although, not impossible to counter, it’s clear that a Quad-Tank composition is effective when executed well and used in the right situation. In addition to Moira’s abundance of area-of-effect healing, she can also deal with enemy threats more so than Mercy via the use of her Biotic Grasp, Biotic Orb, and Fade abilities. With the current state of Moira in the game and changes Blizzard made, making Mercy an overall weaker support hero, Moira is a strong choice in any composition. Filling the void that Mercy will leave, we can expect to see more Moira competitive play alongside different supports and tanks during Stage 2 of the Overwatch League. Stage 2 of the Overwatch League kicks back off on Wednesday, February 21st.
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Featured Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment/Overwatch
Videos Clips: Overwatch League
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