Just like any competitive game, the meta for Overwatch is ever-evolving. The ability to hero switch on the fly and a myriad of different maps makes the meta incredibly diverse, so much so that shifts may occur during a single map. With so much happening at once, it can be hard to keep track. With this series, I aim to show what the meta as a whole looks like. Every week I manually record all the hero picks from the GosuGamer’s Weeklies (EU & NA) and compile them into a by-the-numbers look at the current state of the meta including: a tier list, summary of the week’s strategies, a look at each hero’s place in the meta, and more!

Highlights of this week’s meta

The fall of Zenyatta and the rise of everyone

Last week, Zenyatta dominated the meta with a 150% pickrate, largely due to the Orbital Destruction strategy where a team would use two of him for the ability to put Harmony Orbs on both DPS heroes. Zenyatta was nerfed this week, and it clearly had an effect on him. This week Zenyatta received only a 41% pickrate, still good in comparison with the rest of the roster, but not as insane as it was before.

Due to Zenyatta being the core of an incredibly dominant and inflexible strategy, many heroes saw decreased play due to not fitting into that strategy. With Zenyatta nerfed, the majority of hero’s moved up from the Rarely Used tier into the Underused tier, with many of them even doubling their pickrate. Overall the meta has been much healthier following the Zenyatta nerf, with many strategies viable at the same time.

You can read more about the effect the Zenyatta nerf has had on the meta here.

A myriad of strategies

With everyone increasing in play, we saw many new strategies arise. Of particular note was an 18% increase in Torbjörn play, as teams replace the second Zenyatta of Orbital Destruction with a Torbjörn as an alternative buff-providing hero. As well as that, Soldier 76’s pickrate more than doubled as teams found a place for him as a defense hero on certain maps.

Those weren’t the only new strategies of note this week, though. This week was abundant in playstyle and team composition shifts, and I just scratched the surface so far. To see the complete summary, including the full tier list and in-depth analysis of each hero’s place in the meta, watch the full video:

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