Overwatch League - Best Performances for Each Hero in Stage 2
Part 2 of 2
Introduction
As Blizzard does not yet allow public access to the entirety of stats for the Overwatch League, I have been collecting all of the broadcasted stats by hand in an effort to organize them and get the most out of what’s accessible. I have created a spreadsheet that contains all of the available data from the first stage of play, averaged them, extrapolated them based on time, and will be sharing a weekly summary of those statistics.
This week I will be reviewing the second stage of the Overwatch League games. In this two-part feature, I will be highlighting the best performances coming out of the previous five weeks of play. These will be specific to each hero, and to give context to the broadcasted end-of-game stats - as well as to allow for easy comparison - I have adjusted all of the numbers to a ‘per 10 minute’ basis. I will then compare each game against the average, and share the top statistical performances for each hero.
For eligibility, performances will require 10 minutes of playtime for the more commonly played heroes, or 5 minutes for heroes with more niche roles. I will then rank the players on either a top-10, or top-5 basis, depending on the sample size. Additionally, there are only 16 heroes which have sufficient data to review.
To make things a little more manageable for me, I split this up into two parts. Today’s installment will include the second half: Reinhardt, Soldier: 76, Sombra, Tracer, Widowmaker, Winston, Zarya, and Zenyatta. The eight heroes that I reviewed previously were: D.Va, Genji, Junkrat, Lucio, McCree, Mercy, Moira, and Pharah.
So let’s continue!
REINHARDT
King’s Row was the only map in Stage 2 that London had a losing record on, but they pulled through when it mattered the most.
Led by an impressive performance by Gesture’s Reinhardt, the Spitfire would go on to tie the series 2–2, but would ultimately fall short to Philadelphia in the deciding match of Route 66.
Best of the Rest: Going into Stage 2, Houston’s Muma had gained a reputation as one of the best Winston players in the league, but his Reinhardt play was still questioned by some. He attempted to silence all doubters in their first match of the stage, on King’s Row versus London. He and his team set a blistering pace on attack against the Stage 1 Champions (4:33 left in the time-bank), and in the process, Muma did not die once as he made plenty of space for Linkzr, on Hanzo, to pick apart their enemies.
SOLDIER: 76
It was Akm’s Overwatch League debut, and you couldn’t ask for a much better start. Not only was the opponent ideal, but his performance was flawless.
Dallas, as a whole, outgunned Shanghai on Volskaya Industries to the tune of 38 kills to just 10 deaths, with Akm standing tall above the rest, as the lone player to not die a single time.
Best of the Rest: Only five players recorded a weapon accuracy greater than 50% so far this season, and all were in Stage 2. Tied at 51% were Akm, Jake, and Eqo. At 52% was another performance by Akm. At 53% was Fleta, and alone at the top was Babybay’s performance against the Valiant on Lijiang Tower in Week 2 - at an impressive 54%.
SOMBRA
With Sinatraa coming off the bench and taking over the Tracer duties, Danteh was free to play another hero that he excels at.
While the former seems to have required some time to get re-acclimated to playing on the big stage, the latter has never looked better, as illustrated by his tremendous Sombra play, managing to put up impressive stats even in what was ultimately a losing effort.
Best of the Rest: Danteh may have scored two entries into the top-5, but if you go further than that, he also accounts for four of the top-7. I guess there’s a reason he’s known for his proficiency on Sombra. It’ll be interesting to see how he’s affected by the changes in Stage 3.
TRACER
Watching this live, it jumped out to me as one of the truly stand-out Tracer performances I’ve seen, so it’s no surprise to me that it tops the list, even among such incredible competition.
Dallas fought admirably to try to put together a final map-winning push, but Seoul came through in the clutch - and Munchkin’s last second kill on his counterpart, Effect, may have been what sealed the deal.
Best of the Rest: Speaking of truly stand-out Tracer play, Snillo’s efforts against London in the deciding map of the Stage 2 Semi-Finals (coming in off the bench, no less) was one of the most buzzworthy performances all season. Unfortunately, it’s another instance where the end-of-game statcards weren’t made available, so we don’t get to know how it placed compared to the other top performances of the stage.
WIDOWMAKER
Down 0–2 in the Stage 2 Finals, the Excelsior entrusted Libero, not known for his Widowmaker prowess, to go head-to-head with one of the league’s absolute best in Carpe. He did not disappoint.
In this instance, Libero switched to Widowmaker for Hollywood’s Point B, and didn’t die once (on Attack or Defense). In fact, in addition to going 10–0 on the map, the eventual Finals MVP went 5–0 in Widow vs. Widow duels against Carpe in the set, turning things around for the New York and leading them to their first Stage Championship, and their share of $100,000.
Best of the Rest: Unfortunately not included in the post-match statcards, Linkzr’s performance on Watchpoint: Gibraltar against Seoul in Week 5 was a master-class in Widowmaker-play. With Seoul needing a victory to keep their playoff hopes alive, Linkzr put on one of the most stifling Widowmaker performances we’ve seen so far in the league.
WINSTON
Apparently this Gesture guy is a pretty good main tank.
While perhaps less remarkable than his Reinhardt performance in the Stage 2 Playoffs, his Winston performance against Shanghai is still statistically impressive. Perhaps even more impressive is his consistency - it seems like he never has a bad game.
Best of the Rest: Fragi’s performance throughout the stage was a big reason for Philadelphia’s success in Stage 2. While he maintained his aggressive nature, it seemed to be more in-tune with his teammates, which is crucial for Winston, in particular, to have success.
ZARYA
Probably not one of the names you would usually expect when it comes to top Zarya players, but then, Profit is anything but usual.
The statline suggests a game against Shanghai, but this was actually the set-deciding map against Seoul. For Profit, there’s not much difference, as this is just how he and his Spitfire crew treat the Dynasty, a team they haven’t so much as dropped a map to (a combined 14–0 if you go back to the GC Busan vs Lunatic-Hai days).
Best of the Rest: Zarya saw virtually no use outside of King’s Row and Lijiang Tower’s Control Center, but Shanghai’s Diya pulled her out on Hollywood against Dallas in Week 1. Their tank-heavy composition, combined with Diya’s great individual performance (26 eliminations, 3 deaths, and 8 ultimate kills) paid off, as the Dragons would defeat the Fuel on that map (in large part to Diya’s game-winning Graviton Surge). Unfortunately for Shanghai, that would be the only map they would take in the series.
ZENYATTA
…and nobody was surprised.
While his damage numbers are what typically catch your attention, it’s his healing numbers that caught mine. Despite his obvious success, he seemed to be a bit too focused on dealing damage in Stage 1, and as a result his healing and Transcendence usage suffered as a result. In Stage 2, however, he seems to have grown into a much more well-rounded Zenyatta player, which is perhaps even scarier for his opponents.
Best of the Rest: Custa was the butt of many jokes for his ill-timed Transcendence on Route 66 against Shanghai in Week 1, but his performance overall, and especially on that map, was extremely good. On Route 66 alone, he had a league-high 48 offensive assists - which, at the time, was 10 more than the previous best, which was also by him, in Stage 1 versus Boston (and that took him over 4 more minutes to achieve).
That’s all for today. Thank you for reading, and I’ll talk to you again soon!
