Overwatch World Cup: Short and sweet for Team South Africa; Some reflections

As a wrap-up to our experience through the Overwatch World Cup group stage, I'll be briefly outlining some of the take-homes from competing in a tournament such as this. Once we had initially learnt of who would be in our team, we began practicing immediately and almost every day in the run-up to the matches on the Friday and Sunday gone by. 

A broad outline of the outcome

We went in hopeful, but realistically knowing that even a top 2 finish would be a serious challenge given the presence of Germany and CIS as teams with considerable talent from established professional rosters. However what we didn't know is that we would be pushed to the limit against the two comparably weaker sides as well, Ireland and Poland. Not only did all four teams in the group display good individual skill, but also a level of teamwork which we had not been able to achieve in the allotted time.

Losing the first match to Ireland was thus somewhat surprising, and also a blow to our chances at qualifying, having needed to finish top 2 to do so. We were slightly disappointed at the fact that maps were preselected and that a quick map ban process was not on the cards, as our least practiced maps tended to show up over and over and quickly put an end to our idealistic view of how to approach team fights. From there on things did not get easier, and we struggled at times to match the synergies of the opposing teams, leading to a few very quick defeats. In the end, we came out at a bit of an ego-dampening 0-4.

Nevertheless, it was a fun experience playing against such a diversity of players. There were also a number of cool plays to go down, including a few of my favourites against an unsuspecting CIS/Baltic team:

For myself having competed in Battlefield Nations Cups previously, I was not new to the concept of playing with mixed teams on short notice against other nations, but it did serve as a reminder that in order for a country like ours to be competitive on a national scale that we need to put full rosters forward. Of course other nations were competing with mixed teams too, but given our ping disadvantage and comparably less exposure to competitive FPS in general prior to Overwatch, we need all the help we can get.

Looking ahead

This brings me to my point around South African teams competing globally in Overwatch. Teams that really want to improve should not fall into the trap of assuming it's not possible/optimal compete vs. European teams based on our legacy of being unable to do so in other competitive esports titles. There is a ping disadvantage but it will not stop you from learning and improving as your mechanics will remain constant for the most part anyway. There are tons of scrims to be had in various competitive discord channels, and many concurrent open cups and tournaments running. Even if your end goal is to compete against South Africans only, it is a way to diversify your experience against more rounded teams. The other aspects of improving I touched on in an earlier article on this blog, but this is certainly the beginning step.

As for what happens next to the team, it's now on the shoulders of the guys who continue playing. I myself will certainly remain active in the competitive mode, but less so in terms of actual matches/tournaments as I have some exciting things lined up on the analysis front. 

Thanks as always for reading.