Overwatch League - Best Performances for Each Hero in Stage 2
Part 1 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 will be splitting this up into two parts. The eight heroes that I will be reviewing today are: D.Va, Genji, Junkrat, Lucio, McCree, Mercy, Moira, and Pharah. Part 2 includes Reinhardt, Soldier: 76, Sombra, Tracer, Widowmaker, Winston, Zarya, and Zenyatta.
So let’s get started!
D.VA
Often overlooked in the off-tank role, Manneten has quietly been one of the best D.Va players in the league.
While likely not the most important stat for D.Va players, Manneten excels in his accuracy, which he showcased by hitting 44% of his shots in this match-up. The most we’ve seen, 45%, has only been recorded four times - and two of those were also by Manneten (which he accomplished with longer playtimes than his colleagues, to boot, including in a seventeen-and-a-half minute match against Houston).
Best of the Rest: Despite switching to a new role, having not played on stage for over a month, and going up against the two top teams in the league, Seagull’s D.Va performance in Week 5 was extremely impressive, including unleashing a flurry of Self-Destruct kills that the league hadn’t seen since Poko burst onto the scene in Stage 1.
GENJI
While the previous map, Nepal, saw Hydration set the new record for most Dragonblade kills (12), it was his near-flawless performance on King’s Row that earned him the top overall spot for Stage 2.
While their dominant victory over San Francisco in Week 1 started the stage off right, a stumble against Dallas later that week - plus dropping games to both Philadelphia and Boston, when they needed them the most - dashed their hopes of making their way into the Stage 2 playoffs.
Best of the Rest: Despite not being considered a top-tier Genji, Jake narrowly missed the top-10, with a performance against Boston on Watchpoint: Gibraltar in Week 1, which saw the Uprising unable to even capture the first checkpoint.
JUNKRAT
Last stage’s top Junkrat performance also came from the Valiant during their face-off against their Los Angeles rivals, the Gladiators. While Agilities took up the role in Stage 1, it was Soon, proving he was more than just a great Tracer player, in Stage 2.
While Lijiang Tower’s Control Center is known to be a Junkrat-friendly map, it was Hydration on Doomfist who would help bring the Gladiators back from a 99–0 deficit, and go on to sweep the map, and the series.
Best of the Rest: The ever-versatile Tviq pulled out Junkrat on Hollywood in Florida’s final match of the stage against Seoul. That strategy proved effective, as he would end up with 20 eliminations to just 3 deaths, as the Mayhem stopped the Dynasty from even capturing the first point - leading to the one map victory that Florida would earn in that series.
LUCIO
Undoubtedly one of the best Lucio players in the world, Neptuno’s Stage 2 performance helped propel Philadelphia from 7th place in Stage 1, to 3rd place and fighting for $100,000 in the Stage 2 finals.
This match-up was against the Mayhem in Week 1, and would end up being a 4–0 shutout in favor of the Fusion - a clear improvement over their narrow 3–2 victory the first time the two teams faced off, at the end of Stage 1.
Best of the Rest: Biggoose scored 5 environmental kills against Dallas, in their Week 1 match-up on Lijiang Tower. Those kills helped L.A. secure that map, however that would be the only map the Gladiators would win, as they went on to lose the series 3–1 against the Fuel.
MCCREE
While Logix has previously shown to be both a Tracer god and Widow god, he might just be a McCree god, as well.
Amidst a reverse-sweep in Week 3, Logix and the Mayhem fought back against the Dallas Fuel to secure their second win of the season. They would go on to win two of their next three games, doubling their win total for the season and showing a new spark of life as they head into Stage 3.
Best of the Rest: McCree didn’t see as much play in Stage 2, but one constant was Undead, whose performances ranked 5th, 6th, and 7th. Going along with his pair of top-10 performances from Stage 1, he has shown quite an affinity for the hero.
With Shanghai’s recent decision to release Undead, it remains to be seen who, if anyone, will take up the revolver for the Dragons moving forward.
MERCY
Houston started out the first week of Stage 2 with a bang, narrowly defeating the Stage 1 champs, London, and then scoring a decisive victory over Boston - including their utter domination on Watchpoint: Gibraltar, a map that would prove quite favorable for the Outlaws as the stage progressed.
Bani has shown himself to be one of the better Mercy players in the league, but with the amount of pressure Bani’s teammates were able to apply on this map (inlcuding Jake’s Genji performance, noted above), it made his job easy.
Best of the Rest: London’s Closer was on pace for over 15,000 healing per 10 minutes on Hanamura in their Week 5 match-up with Shanghai - the highest the league has seen for Mercy players having played over 5 minutes.
MOIRA
Well, we went longer than expected before a game against the Shanghai Dragons took the top spot.
In this case, Rawkus and the Houston Outlaws opted for a different approach to their usual King’s Row strategy, by substituting Spree in place of Linkzr. This allowed them to run a very formidable triple-tank composition, which, when combined with the narrow streets of King’s Row, makes for the ideal situation for Moira to thrive.
Best of the Rest: In this case, it’s pretty much the opposite of ‘the rest,’ but the most interesting statistic to me is that if I had lowered the time threshold to four minutes, the entirety of the top-10 would belong to Rawkus and Boombox - which they would have split evenly, with five entries apiece. To break the tie, we wouldn’t have to look far, as the eleventh spot also belonged to one of the two - Rawkus.
PHARAH
In a repeat performance, Dreamkazper again takes the top-spot with his Pharah play. While admittedly less remarkable than his top Stage 1 performance, it was impressive nonetheless, especially in a stage that favored Pharah a bit less than before.
Best of the Rest: Missing the 5-minute cutoff by just three seconds, Tviq had an absolutely clutch performance on Pharah on the tiebreaker round of Ilios in Florida’s week 5 match-up against San Francisco.
View Part 2 Here!
Thank you for reading, and thanks for your time!
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