Overwatch Streamer xQc Explains How Double-Shield Compositions Became Meta

A former Overwatch League player, Félix "xQc" Lengyel, was streaming himself playing the new role queue matchmaking on the live servers. After playing a frustrating match on Temple of Anubis, xQc explained to his viewers how double shield compositions became viable in Overwatch. To explain his point, he used Microsoft Paint to provide an illustration of what he was talking about.

Essentially, xQc stated that double shield compositions became viable because there are several damage characters who can take risks to flank an opposing team in order to get eliminations that put their team in an advantageous state. However, with the addition of Sigma, who can change his shield placement at will, he can singlehandedly shutdown and prevent any flanks from occurring. As such, opposing teams are essentially forced to focus fire shields before they can even push through a teamfight or objective. The team with better shield break and focus fire capabilities will win the fight.

In hindsight, double shield compositions came about due to the power creep that had gone unnoticed during the time that the GOATS meta was considered viable. In an attempt to make GOATS less oppressive, Blizzard decided to buff several damage heroes in order to make them feasible hero picks that could tackle the GOATS composition. However, this effort was futile. These heroes were still never seen as viable counters to a GOATS composition, and they remained untouched.

However, now that 2-2-2 lock has been implemented, these damage heroes have maintained their buffs. Heroes like Hanzo, Mei, Reaper, McCree, Symmetra, Junkrat, and many others have been buffed to the point where they are too impactful by themselves. As such, any of these heroes could flank an enemy team, get several eliminations on their own, and could essentially carry fights. This has caused main tank heroes such as Winston and Reinhardt to be much weaker. Currently, Orisa is seen to be the most viable main tank hero, and many players find her to be the least interactive and most boring of the bunch.

Furthermore, Sigma, who Blizzard intended to be a main tank hero, is not seen as a good main tank hero at all because his shield isn't large enough and Sigma spends lots of time dealing damage to enemies. As such, he is commonly used as an off tank hero whose barrier can be used to cover flanks and occasionally prevent an Orisa shield from getting destroyed. Coupled with Sigma's absurd damage output which can melt any damage or support hero in seconds, you have a recipe for disaster.

Because flanking is near useless and focus fire and burst damage are so important, heroes that excel when flanking are essentially useless. Heroes that also provide consistent damage outputs as opposed to burst damage are also seen as being useless. Heroes like Soldier: 76, Tracer, Genji, and Bastion are seen as being bottom-tier against a double shield composition. Quite frankly, despite GOATS being dead, its impact on the game is still present. Blizzard needs to address these issues right away, or else Overwatch will fall into another period of recession.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard