Piggybacking off of the excitement of the Summer Showdown, the Countdown cup saw plenty of action from a wide-array of playmakers. Genji was still the most popular DPS pick, but teams leaned towards other Dive heroes like Sombra and Winston in order to find small advantages over their opponents. Unfortunately for viewers, this past tournament may be the last time they watch Genji be played at the highest level.
Courtesy of the Overwatch League
The most recent nerf to his damage tanked Genji’s play rate in competitive matches. In his absence, players have been searching for that next over-the-top damage character to take over games.
In the meantime, Double Shield remains the must-pick tank line for most maps. Winston and Zarya have become a surprisingly dominant duo, thanks to their similar aggressive play styles. In fact, players just may see an uptick in Zarya play if the most recent Experimental Card changes are to go live. If Orisa and Sigma do receive their proposed nerfs, the meta could be blown wide open.
The following tier list exists precisely to help guide players through this more dynamic meta, reflecting how individually well-kitted Overwatch’s 32 heroes are and how well they synergize with other powerful heroes. With each month, there will be a new tier list released to update changes in each hero’s performance from month-to-month so be sure to check back next month to see what changes lie ahead.
[Previous Tier List: July 2020]
Until the nerfs come through, Double Shield is here to stay. Orisa and Sigma just simply do everything better than every other tank at the moment. Teams are starting to test the waters with Dive compositions, but when push comes to shove, Double Shield is just the composition with the highest floor.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Brigitte, inexplicably, is still one of the best supports to have on any team. In fact, there are even more nerfs coming to Brig in the Experimental Card. Maybe this will be the time Brigitte gets pushed down a tier. However some pros are hinting that this may in fact be a buff to the problematic support.
Hit-scan DPS are still the best options around for any ladder match. Ashe and McCree do it all, and serve as the perfect go-to option for any situation. If Double Shield is nerfed soon, maybe some projectile heroes come back, but at this point it is all speculation.
Hopefully, Genji players had fun while it lasted, because the cybernetic ninja heads back to the bench after a month of near insta-pick status. The most recent patch reduced Genji’s damage and fire speed, vastly increasing his ultimate charge rate. People will continue to play Genji for a little while just out of stubbornness, but expect to see much less of him going forward.
Winston has finally hopped up a tier thanks to the APAC region showing all of us how to properly run Winston/Zarya. The San Francisco Shock borrowed this composition to win the Countdown Cup. Expect plenty of Winston on maps with plenty of high ground, because main tanks are very much looking to play anything not named Orisa.
Both Pharah and Zenyatta received pretty interesting changes in the Experimental Card, but it is unclear if those will be enough to see an uptick in play time. Zen has the best shot out of the two, as he provides more impact with his ultimate and Discord Orbs. Dives without Zen are much harder to coordinate and create opportunities, making his presence much more needed than a Pharah in a hit-scan heavy environment.
Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Symmetra received a few buffs as well, but her success is tied directly to the layout of the objective. Nepal and Lijiang Tower are her best maps, thanks to the enclosed objective areas that allow her turrets to maximize damage.
The two characters here that can see some amount of increased play time are Reaper and Mei. When hero bans were in full effect, Reaper and Mei saw success in Rush-type compositions. Now that certain changes are in the pipeline, the two brawler DPS just may resurface as primary picks.
Sombra is the name on this list people want to watch. She was highly played in the Countdown Cup, and usually succeeds when players are actively trying out new compositions and strategies. After the various nerfs come through, Sombra should feast in competitive matches.
Doomfist could sneak back into Tier 3 given the rise of Sombra, but there are a lot of pieces that need to fall in place for that to happen. Supports are tricky to one-shot at the moment thanks to Baptiste Lamp and Brigitte just existing.
Otherwise, there isn’t much going on that would signal a change for the lowest tier. Junkrat sees play on just a few maps, but with limited success. He struggles to outduel the hit-scan characters in the first tier, which severely lowers his impact in the neutral game.
As a reminder, this tier list is currently operating off of the latest live patch, 1.51.0.0. A new list will be published in September.
Featured image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
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