Overwatch Betting

Learn More About Overwatch Betting

Overwatch is a fun and intuitive game to play, but its 3D playing field, varied objectives and diverse roster of characters and abilities can make it harder to watch than other esports on the market. That’s why it pays to spend a little time understanding the core concepts of the game, before moving onto deeper levels of tactics and strategy. Use the betting guides and overview on this page to learn more about Overwatch and gain a competitive edge in Overwatch betting!

Like League of Legends or Dota, each character in Overwatch has unique abilities that can they can make use of constantly throughout the match. Each character has several abilities they can use often, and a more powerful ultimate ability that takes a long time to charge up. The use of these ultimates can turn the tide of a big battle, so a lot of strategy is spent on using these ultimates together, or denying the enemy a chance to use theirs effectively.

Teams are most effective when they’re grouped together in an area, so taking out a player or two early in a push can be a massive advantage to one side. On attack, expect to see teams group up, push together (not necessarily from one angle), then back off and reform if they face difficulties. Watch the ebb and flow of the game, and you’ll start to understand it better.

Overwatch Basics

Each Overwatch match consists of two teams, each made of six players. Players choose a hero from a roster of approximately two dozen characters, each of which have unique abilities and different attributes.

Games are played on one of over a dozen maps, available in four modes: control, assault, escort and hybrid.

Control mode tasks teams with holding an area of the map for an extended time period, and is typically played as a best-of-five.

Assault mode sets one team as attackers, the other as defenders. The attackers try to take two control points in sequence, while defenders try to prevent them. After the final point is taken or time expires, the teams switch sides. The team that secures the most points wins.

Escort mode requires the attacking team to push a payload along a pre-defined route against the clock. Teams switch sides after the attackers reach the end of the route or time expires. The winner is the team that reaches the end the fastest, or the team that goes the furthest if the end is not reached.

Hybrid mode begins as an assault mode, with a point to capture, and then proceeds as an escort mission. Teams switch sides as normal, and the winner is the team that accomplished their objective fastest (if both teams succeed while attacking) or got the furthest.

Roles and Heroes

The 20+ heroes of Overwatch are divided into four broad categories: offence, defence, tank and support.

Offence characters typically possess a lot of firepower and often good mobility as well, but they are relatively frail. Defence characters are more hardy but less speedy, with abilities that allow them to lock down areas for their team. In competitive play, both offence and defence characters are typically classified as DPS; heroes that dish out a lot of Damage Per Second.

Tanks have the largest health pools, and abilities that allow them to shield their teammates from enemy fire. Finally, supports are heroes that heal or otherwise augment their teammates, and some apply debilitating effects to the enemy.

Teams will use different mixtures of roles and heroes depending on what is currently effectively (the meta), the map, their own preferences and that of the enemy. Balanced compositions, like 2 DPS, 2 tanks and 2 support or 3 tanks and 3 supports are relatively common, but other combinations are possible. Choosing an effective composition is critical to success, although unlike MOBA games like League of Legends and Dota 2, players can switch heroes midway through a match to adapt.

The Map Pool

Overwatch has a wide map pool, including over a dozen maps, all of which are played at a competitive level. Overwatch bettors should remember that teams will have preferences for different maps and modes, based on the strategies they employ and the heroes their players prefer to use.

The map voting that occurs at the start of each competitive match can have a big outcome on the final result, and teams that can play well on a larger number of maps will typically be more consistent than a team that only shines on a few.

The odds of a team winning a match are given before the maps are decided, but you can try to predict where teams will end up based on their historical veto process, and how that will affect the probability of each of them winning. This can give you an edge in Overwatch betting, and should become more of a factor as the game is increasingly ‘figured out’.

The Meta

The meta of Overwatch refers to what is currently fashionable and effective at the top level of competitive play. This can include team compositions plus tactics for each map and mode.

As the game is updated with patches from Blizzard and new strategies are discovered, certain heroes and tactics will become more or less popular. Support and tank heroes tend to be slightly more stable in their popularity, but DPS (offence and defence) characters fall into and out of fashion frequently.

Knowing the current meta, and which teams are the best at employing it, can work to your advantage as an Overwatch gambler. For example, if a new patch arrives that nerfs a hero that one team relies on more heavily than another, you might have a better chance to win when picking the team less affected by the change.