Stratwatch 1: Protect the President
Summary: Cloud 9 unveils the first competitive variation of a Bastion based composition. Using Bastion on the pay load with 2 Reinhardts, and Mercy to immediately assist him - add 2 Widowmakers and this line-up can dominate any escort or hybrid map-type. Because Bastion has so much room with 2 Barriers protecting him and damage amp, coupled with the 2 Widowmakers and 2 Reinhardts being a threat in their own right; this comp has to be dealt with cleanly and swiftly.
Stratwatch 2: Goggles and Glasses
Summary: Double McCree, Double Lucio, Double Reinhardt, used by EnvyUs on KoTH map type versus Luminosity in Overkill.GG for 3rd place. This strategy uses aggression to seize tempo and cap the point, push out and establish a soft contain to get extra objective time. Through sticking together as 6 heroes and having healing and speed auras this lineup can be terrifying to play against. (McCree's can be subbed for tracers, and Reinhardts for Winstons).
Stratwatch 3: Hollywood Defense
Summary: This episode we will finally cover a Defensive strategy by Reunited against Cloud9 in the Overkill.GG Finals. Using spam, position and information manipulation Reunited's strong individual play lets them take the map, and tie the series.
Stratwatch 4: Importance of Individual plays in Strategies
Summary: This episode will be covering the elephant in the room, can individuals shape the outcome of the game? In this match between Luminosity and EnvyUs, Seagull and Enigma prove how much value there is in strong individual plays. Without their abilities in this game, Luminosity would have lost.
Stratwatch 5: C9's Gibraltar Defense
Summary: This Episode is another break down of defense. Cloud 9 on Gibraltar is terrifying, the best at it in the game at the moment. How do they do it? This video will break-down the main two parts of the defense, and how its almost impossible to break-through.
Stratwatch 6: Shutting out the Offense [GFE's Hold against TL at Agents Rising]
Summary: This Stratwatch will cover Gale Force Esports defensive hold against Team Liquid in the Agents Rising LAN run by EsportsArena. How does Gale Force Esports hold Team liquid where other teams couldn't? What compositions do they use to do it? And what concepts can we learn from them for our own play? This episode aims to answer those very questions.
Stratwatch 7 - King of the Hill in 1 Hero Limit
Summary: Nubris vs Teamliquid on Nepal was a very clean example of the current KotH standard composition in 1HL. As well this game displayed the key core concepts to winning King of the Hill with this composition, or one that uses Zarya. I hope this episode helps navigate these concepts with multiple examples, instancing how situational awareness and understanding the conditions of those situations improves your play on KotH maps.
Stratwatch 8 - How to improve Individually: Part One
Summary: This episode will be going back to the basics and look at the core mechanics of First Person Shooters that you will need to work on mastering to improve your game. As well this episode will look at the more ethereal concepts like: Positioning and situational awareness; these concepts take time and studying to develop a large enough conditional understanding of the game.
Stratwatch 9 - Kings Row: Defending Point A and Streets Phase
Summary: We finally look at Kings Row. This episode highlights how to defend on Point A and streets phase of kings row. We look at the previous patches compositions as well as the new patches. Specifically we look for the differences that are present on Point A defense; and for streets phase we focus on how to regain tempo and defend with Pharah.
Stratwatch 10 - Gibraltar Offense: Breakdown of OGInvitational and Alienware Monthly
Summary: This episodes looks at 5 games from the OG Invitational and Alienware monthly cup to find the core comps tactics and strategies for attacking on Gibraltar. This episode covers all three points, and hopes to highlight how different the first point is for the last two.
Stratwatch 11 - How to Improve Individually (Part two: Positioning)
Summary: This episode will continue the series Improving Individually and look at the core mechanics of First Person Shooters that you will need to work on mastering to improve your game. This episode in the series will focus on positioning, what is it? What is good positioning versus bad? What does having good positioning do for you? And how do you improve your positioning? The series of How to improve Individually will continue alone with other episodes of Stratwatch, and I will be covering Tempo next.
Stratwatch 12 - First Episode covering Numbani
Summary: This episode is the first one to look at Numbani. The focus of this episode is on the current comps most commonly seen on Numbani, how to defend on Numbani, and how to break Point A. This episode is a bit more informal, and a lot of the ideas and concepts covered in this episode can be applied to other maps!.
Stratwatch 13 - How to Improve Individually (Part Three: Situational Awareness)
Summary: In part 3 of the self-improvement series we take a loot at the idea of situational awareness. What is it? What does good situational awareness provide to a player? and how can one improve their situational awareness? This episode aims to answer these questions and provide insight about game sense/situational awareness.
Stratwatch 14 - 2CP Analysis - Temple of Anubis
Summary: We finally take a look at 2CP maps (assault game type) in Stratwatch. These maps have been a contentious subject in the community due to the quick swings of tempo. But with the addition of the time-bank setup, teams have started to pick them more in competitive events. I hope this episode helps shed some light on the theories of the map, the compositions reunited to defend and attack, as well as why these maps can feel imbalanced.
Stratwatch 15 - Ana in the Current Meta: 3 Support Composition
Summary: In a recent match from the recording Evoks ran a pocket Ana strategy that I wanted to look at through the lens of the current meta. In this episode I hope to cover the idea of why the 2/2/2 meta is so galvanized, where Ana could fit in the current meta, and analyze a high skill competitive match that used Ana. I hope this episode helps shed some light on these topics as the format this time around was a bit more informal.
Stratwatch 16 - Mei on Kings Row: Analysis of Team Liquid and OhNo from the Atlantic Showdown
Summary: In the NA Regionals of the Atlantic Showdown there was plenty of different heroes picks seen. There was a revival of the Pharamercy combo, there was play of Junkrat and - most importantly for this episode - Mei was a seen in multiple games on Kings Row. In this episode I hope to breakdown what makes Mei a good pick on Kings Row point A, how to effectively use her, what it looks like in contrast to the standard defense, and how to deal with Mei.
Stratwatch 17 - Ultimate Management
Summary: In this Stratwatch I tried to tackle the concept of Ultimate Management. There are many layers to this, and the goal was to at least cover the following parts of it: What are the categories of Ultimates, what is good Ultimate Management, how does this effect the individual, how does this effect the team, and how is Ultimate Management different for the offense and defense (with the latter logic sometimes applying to King of the Hill). I hope this episode helps drive more discussion and analysis into Ultimate Management as I strong feel this is a core layer to strong Overwatch play!
Any thoughts or feedback are always appreciated!
Edit: Cleaned up links so it easier to find the episode you want!