Omnic Lab: A Strategic Overwatch Podcast

In the Lab this week we’ve got a very cool topic of Advanced Aiming for you to break down in techniques, movement, theory, and practical tips on how to improve. We’ve pulled a guest from Reddit who plays at a Grand Master level and wrote a high-quality Aim Theory article for Competitive Overwatch subreddit Daniel aka Burdock. Interview Begins at 00:05:30 Heads-Update: Game Night -- Still looking for a date Podcasting Apps: Overcast//Pocket Casts Omnic Meta: (Homepage) Console Meta: Dec. 14th 2017 OWL Recap now up on it’s own feed! Twitter Main Feed Aidmaro’s Twitter SPONSORS: Top Score Solutions Top Score Solutions: One of our longtime Patrons, Ben or “INeedPeeling” as he’s known on Reddit, is offering free business consulting in the eSports field. If you are aspiring to coach, starting a team, developing an app or service, trying to boost your subscriber base, or just want to work in eSports, you can visit his website at topscoresolutions.com, get him on Twitter @topscoreEsports, or join his Discord server. His services are free, and they will stay that way as long as demand allows it. Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (11/25) Chrisdaplaya, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Kippppp, Lisome, Magic, Matt R, NeverClutch, RickyTicky, & TragicZac. New Patrons this week: Goldensoldier, Shazear, Grant G Aim Techniques: LINK Aiming terms Placing is when you place your cross-hair and let the target move across its location Strafing is when you use your own movement as a means of aiming. Tracking is when you try to keep the crosshair on the target while shooting, consistent movements coming from your fingers, wrist, or arm depending on the target's distance and speed. Flicking is when you quickly move your crosshair to the target and shoot, often with your wrist. Advanced Advice Aiming with the eyes Understanding Enemy movement Shallow Angles How to aim against A/D spam Movement Terms General Advice Blue Posts & News: Mercy/Junkrat PTR Omnic Lab Links: Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show NotesTwitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud

  In the Lab this week we chose to do an end-of-the-year special featuring...you guys and girls out there that wanted to voice your opinions on what you learned this last year with the Omnic Lab! So you’re in the driver’s seat this week so let’s learn what the community is improving on! News & Blue Posts: Game Night -- DEC. 29th Review Omnic Meta: (Homepage) OWL Recap now up on it’s own feed! Twitter Main Feed Aidmaro’s Twitter Seaon 8 is now OUT: Good luck! Community Lessons: Aidmaro (Juston from OWL Recap): Geoseay KawaiiGenju NeverClutch Bioshrimp BlazzinBob Nerfanatic Queen of Salt Zapdosequis (Emily) Chipmunk2353 Shazear Walrus YangXiaoLong KeylimeKangaroo GreatRootBear ShadowJesus Switch Anstapa087 Raynorwilky L Chris L Tips from the Hosts: Knowing what each hero does optimally with their whole kit is important for everyone, not just the hero you play.  Don’t use do ANYTHING without vision of what’s going on. Don’t burn a Zen or Mercy ultimate just to speed to the point without seeing anything first with your own character.  Don’t Stagnate -- aka Never stop learning: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (14/25) Chrisdaplaya, GingerSasquash, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Lisome, Magic, Matt R, NotMuaddib, Never Clutch, RickyTicky, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, Top Score Solutions, & TragicZac. New Patrons this week: Kippppp (Diamond) Omnic Lab Links: Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show NotesTwitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud

  In the Lab this week a good podcasting friends joins us this week to talk about climbing from Silver to Diamond. Appa comes from Hearthstone as a top player in the esports scene and has attempted transitioning to Overwatch to compete in a different game! News & Blue Posts: Game Night -- DEC. 29th Omnic Meta: (Homepage) Console Meta: Dec. 14th 2017 OWL Recap now up on it’s own feed! Twitter Main Feed Aidmaro’s Twitter Sombra & Bastion “Toast” Victory Poses not in Lootboxes PTR Patch changing movement & Acceleration Silver to Diamond Progress: Basics: The core of Overwatch - Moba at heart disguised as FPS Much faster pace than MOBA Constant team fight I usually play in like 3-ish hour sittings, sometimes multiple times a day Putting in the hours Good practice is important. Don't form bad habits Watch streams, ask for help, get coaching Advanced Roles: Hero Switching Hero tracking, skill tracking and looking for openings. Learning your matchups. Self-Imposed Rules: My biggest self-imposed rule is if we’ve already lost a fight, just don’t ult Flexibility: Allowing yourself to know multiple heroes/roles Personal examples Mentality: If you lose a game, you should always look back on the game as if the loss was your fault -  as if there is always something you could improve Don’t be afraid to admit others can be better than you, embrace it and learn from them. Dealing with Teammates: Accept that is a team game and you need your teammates. Act accordingly Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (12/25) Chrisdaplaya, GingerSasquash, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Lisome, Magic, Matt R, NotMuaddib, RickyTicky, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, Top Score Solutions, & TragicZac. New Patrons this week: NeverClutch & Raphael C. Omnic Lab Links: Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show NotesTwitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud Appa: Twitter, Twitch

  In the Lab this week we finally come to circle back to do a strategy revisit on some of the key moments in OWL Pre-season, cover the 2017 Winter Wonderland, Season 8 competitive changes, and also a new PTR patch coming up! News & Blue Posts: Game Night -- DEC. 29th Omnic Meta: (Homepage) Console Meta: Dec. 14th 2017 OWL Recap will be moving to it’s own home. Overwatch League Skins & Tokens Starting in early 2018 the home uniforms for the 12 OWL teams are added. You can “acquire these for any hero” and will provide monetary support for the league League tokens only used for in-game OWL content. You can buy whichever team skin you want. Every Player will have enough tokens for 1 OWL skin in the first month Opening OWL week starts Jan. 10th Season 8 Changes - Scott Mercer Limit on the max SR difference between the highest SR & lowest SR player on the same team. “During the month of December we will be quietly testing the effect of more restrictive SR limits to both match quality and queue times. With the data and player feedback from testing, we’ll then come back from our holiday break on January 2 and apply a finalized set of values for Season 8.” Removing Personal Performance SR Adjustments for Diamond tier players and above Below is the performance based SR before Diamond If you have a higher than 50% chance to win a match, you gain less for a win and lose more for a defeat. Conversely, if you were an underdog in a match than you gain more SR when you win and lose less SR when defeated. New players experience both higher gains and higher losses than players who have completed a lot of matches. You gain less SR for a win than you lose for a defeat as you more closely approach the system’s mathematical upper limit 5000 SR. (So at very high SRs you do need a greater than 50% win rate to keep your SR stable.) A measurement of how well you personally performed during the match. If you perform well than you gain more SR when you win, and lose less SR when defeated. The reverse is also true. SUMMARY: The adjustment does create a lot of positive system wide effects including rewarding players who make the effort to play well, punishing inactive players, and more quickly providing fairer matches for new players or those who decide to play a new hero or role. So we spent quite a lot of time examining data over multiple seasons, checking a lot of math, reading a LOT of community feedback, and then doing some deep soul searching about this. Especially at the higher levels of online competition where every point of SR matters, we want players to not be distracted and worry about how to optimize around the personal performance adjustment. They should just be trying to WIN. So after we get back from the holidays on January 2nd we’re going to turn off the personal performance SR adjustments for players in the Diamond skill tier and above. Winter Wonderland 2017 Patch Dec. 12th to Jan. 1st is the Winter Wonderland Event 7 New Skins: Avalanche Bastion, Rime Sombra, Beachrat Junkrat, Snow Owl Ana, Casual Hanzo, Ice Fisherman Roadhog, & Alpine: 76 Soldier Each Skin with a corresponding player icon 2 New Emotes:Legendary Orisa Puppy & Epic Zenyatta Snowflakes New Reinhardt Shield/Snowball Highlight Intro New hero “Toast” Victory Poses Heroes that were not here for 2016 now have an ornament and Christmas Spray All previous event items are available for normal credit amount Developer Update Promo Dec. 12, 2017 Patch Mei’s Snowball Offensive Returns to Arcade New Arcade game: Yeti Hunter 5v1 Super Winston vs. Mei’s (ultimate is now a giant Junkrat Trap) Player Warning Update: Players being reported will receive an in-game message letting them know that they have been reported, along with a warning concerning continued negative behavior. Players who report someone for poor behavior, resulting in a disciplinary action, will now be notified with an in-game message when the issue has been resolved. Players can now clear new item notifications with the “Mark All As Seen” button in the Hero Gallery Doomfist Bug Fixing Overhaul (Round 1) Prevented Doomfist’s Rocket Punch from destroying objects Caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to not always deal damage when an enemy hits a wall Caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to not always stop an enemies' movement when they impact a wall Canceled Doomfist’s Seismic Slam when it was unable to reach the targeted location Caused Doomfist’s Seismic Slam to trigger instantly when the ability was used to travel up inclines Caused Doomfist’s Seismic Slam to create performance drops when repeatedly used with no cooldown Mei Fixed a bug that prevented Mei’s Cryo-freeze from clearing the healing debuff caused by Ana’s Biotic Grenade Mercy Fixed a bug that showed Mercy’s Guardian Angel targeting UI on allies while it was already in progress on a selected target Fixed a bug that allowed a Mercy player to cast Resurrect on a player that was in the process of being resurrected by another Mercy Moira Fixed a bug that allowed Moira’s Biotic Orb to pass through terrain and structures Fixed an issue that prevented players from using Moira’s Biotic Orb’s regeneration option when primary fire was disabled Fixed a visual bug with Moira’s Biotic Orb that sometimes caused Biotic Grasp’s healing spray effects to display instead Fixed a bug that prevented Moira’s Coalescence from healing an allied Reaper in Wraith Form Fixed a bug that prevented Moira from being able to pass through enemies when using Fade Fixed a bug that caused Moira’s eyelashes to detach from her face during her Heroic highlight intro Fixed an issue that prevented Moira’s self-healing statistic from being collected and displayed in the game stats Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (12/25) Chrisdaplaya, GingerSasquash, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Lisome, Magic, Matt R, NotMuaddib, RickyTicky, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, Silverback, & TragicZac. New Patrons this week: Alex B & Aron B. Omnic Lab Links: Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show NotesTwitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud

On this episode of the OWL Recap we are joined by former support player for team NRG Ajax! We discuss our thoughts on the Pre-season and our expectations moving forward. We also get to learn about Ajax time during NRG and his plans for Contenders Season 1. 

In the Lab this week we finally conclude the full roster on the Going Deep series with Widowmaker featuring the one and only BeefTipsy! Top player and streamer known for his Widow play, BeefTipsy comes to help us break down the strats for optimizing and improving playing this hero! Widowmaker Reference Going Deep Discussion: What roles does Widow fill or what is her job in a game? Basically, what is the core to the hero for Bronze to Gold to grasp for improvement Let’s talk about using Grappling Hook effective use. NOTE: Ask about Movement/Engaging/Escaping/New Cooldown change How to do we get the most out of our Venom Mines? Practicing the flick shots. How do you set this up for practicing, what do you do to warm up? Proper timing for Infra-Sight breakdown When to use, where to be, who to prioritize Combo ultimates? General Uses Can we chat about positioning and how to use your position/presence and sight lines to maximize damage and pressure? How Map Dependent is Widow? Now let’s work on proper engagement and disengages. Now let’s talk synergies and matchups. What heroes do you need to be careful of for being countered and others that you really think are great/necessary for your comp. Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (11/25) Chrisdaplaya, GingerSasquash, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Lisome, Magic, NotMuaddib, RickyTicky, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, Silverback, & TragicZac. New Patrons this week: NailBomb, Orion, Kasey M, Matt R, Matt J Omnic Lab Links: Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show NotesTwitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud BeefTipsy: Twitter, Twitch, Discord

In this episode of the OWL Recap we go through the results of the last of the Overwatch League Pre-Season. We go through an amazing match from Seoul Dynasty vs NY Excelsior and share our plans with the show moving forward.

In this episode of the OWL Recap we go through the results of day three of the Overwatch League Pre-Season. Things are heating up as some of the favorite teams from the league start clashing against one another!

In this episode of the OWL Recap we go through the results of day two of the Overwatch League Pre-Season. We get to see the remaining teams debut and see the emergence of one of the many rivalries of the tournament. 

In this episode of the OWL Recap we catch up with XQC for a brief interview and bring you all of the results for the first day of the OWL Pre-Season. Stay tuned as we will be covering the rest of the pre-season as well!

In the Lab this week Andres got a really REALLY different style interview with Susan Lyon, mother of Jake from the Houston Outlaws. We ask her about her thoughts on the video game industry as a parent, how to support her son in esports for a career, and the developing industry around the Overwatch League. News & Blue Posts: Game Night -- RECAP Omnic Meta: (Homepage) Moira Hero Analysis Nov. 28, 2017 New Omnic Meta Patreon Page The Doomfist Mega Fix Thread Fixed on PTR: Wall Slamming with a 45 degree impact as the cut-off point for registry vs sliding off. Rocket Punch will break things on the make that can be broken consistently Seismic Slam no longer cancels when you land too close to a wall. Seismic Slam now "slides" a short distance up ramps instead of triggering immediately and Winston leap also adjusted in the same way. Things not fixed yet Seismic Slam bugged when you/your target is near a corner, it will sometimes not find them as a valid target. Little longer to get a fix in place. Ghost Punches: going through enemies instead of impacting. Partially latency related, but there working on it. Corner bounce: when you Punch near a corner/edge it will force you to "bounce off" and slide away a good distance. Working on it. Things under investigation: Rocket punch vs. Rocket Punch (or Charge): inconsistent interactions between hit registration on this. Both players are ideally supposed to fall down as a result. Aerial Seismic Slam sometimes causing grounded SS: Reports of people being in the air and triggering the grounded version. Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (11/25) Chrisdaplaya, GingerSasquash, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Lisome, Magic, NotMuaddib, RickyTicky, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, Silverback, & TragicZac. New Patrons this week: Zimmy & Kevin S. Omnic Lab Links: Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show NotesTwitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud   “Don’t be a lab rat, be a scientist...see ya next week, Omnics!”

With the Overwatch League starting, we have gathered a group of fine podcasters to keep you updated on the league! Join Andres, Juston, and Bob as they take on the pre-season and break it down for you!

In the Lab this week Andres and Rob got a killer email and sparked us talking about hero “framing” as a main discussion. We have an amazing set of chats about using the optimum view for what you are wanting to do in the game of Overwatch. News & Blue Posts: Game Night -- RECAP Omnic Meta: (Homepage) Email from Neil S: In the latest Podcast, Rob mentioned a hypothetical situation when he made an error of contesting the payload recklessly instead of taking his time. This got me wondering what other situations we could identify to help make targeted improvements in our game play. (NFL coach, Bill Belichick, is well known for talking about "situations". Recognize the situations, and win the situations to win the game.) I think a break down of recognizing small situations in the game great podcast content. Perhaps it is just an additional question to ask top 500 players you guys have (those are my favourite podcasts btw.) Team situations I think you guys have talked about include: Setting up on defence Poke phase Engaging Disengaging Hopeless fight Cleaning up after won fight (staggering / building ults / when you are better off getting on the playload instead?) Planning for next fight (calling what ults were used and planning what ults your team will use, or calling for no ults) To help illustrate what I'm talking about, here are a few very basic situations that took me a while to recognize: 1. Good vs Bad "Trickling in" on KOTH: People say don't "trickle in", but it is important to recognize On KOTH, if you have the point, it can be worth contesting a losing battle longer to gain more capture percentage. If you don't have the point, then running back to die is just "feeding". Simple idea, but can look the same if you don't recognize the situation. 2. Good vs Bad trading kills on 2 CP maps. This is not so cut and dry, but if your opponent has a longer spawn distance than you, then trading kills can be worthwhile. (Value of targets can make a big difference of course, so this feels like it needs a more detailed discussion). 3. 2nd fight as losing team: If you lose the first fight, you probably have an ultimate disadvantage. On KOTH this might mean it is a good idea to call for no ULTs on the 2nd fight to set up to win the 3rd fight. On Payload, this might mean you should take an early fight even before you have the whole team to get some ults out if you can convince the team to group up to win the 3rd fight (I'm not really sure about this strategy, but I'd like to hear more). In closing, I really think your content is key to keeping the community strong. As the game adds more heroes and more maps, I think the biggest threat to the long term health of the game is how we on board new players. Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (11/25) Chrisdaplaya, GingerSasquash, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Lisome, Magic, NotMuaddib, RickyTicky, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, Silverback, & TragicZac. Omnic Lab Links: Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show Notes Twitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud

Here's a Blizzcon bonus episode where we feature a bunch of clips from our experience with some community members while we were there. Thanks again to all our patreon supporters who seriously made this possible over the course of months and still continue to help us do big things for the community. Special thanks to Laura Platt for letting use her awesome take on the Overwatch Theme. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook @LauraPlattMusic  Omnic Lab Links: Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS Rob: Twitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud

In the Lab this week Andres got really sick, but Rob brought back Switch from Omnic Meta to fill in as we discuss the Moira Patch, some more news, and what we’re looking to do to set goals for Season 7 of Overwatch Competitive Mode! News & Blue Posts: Game Night -- Nov. 24 Game Night Omnic Lab is now a Twitch Affiliate! Sub now with Twitch/Amazon Prime! Omnic Meta: (Homepage) Overwatch Free Weekend! Nov. 17-20 New Patch! Nov. 16 New Group Queue Restrictions: Bronze to Diamond - within 1000 SR Masters - within 500 SR Grand Masters - within 250 SR Ana Rifle up to 70 (was 60) Mercy Caduceus Staff Increased visual readability of Mercy’s healing and damage boosting beams Mercy Resurrect Cast time increased from 0 seconds to 1.75 seconds Mercy’s movement speed is now reduced by 75% while casting Can now be interrupted when Mercy is knocked back, stunned, or hacked Mercy Valkyrie When activated, Resurrection no longer has a cast time While active, casting Resurrect does not reduce Mercy's movement speed Lucio Lúcio now has an effect above his head to indicate which song he's playing in spectator mode Winston Barrier Projector - Now displays a health bar Moira available for all platforms Available to use in Comp Nov. 23rd General Clicking the "leave game as group" checkbox will now remember your selection for future matches Made several visual adjustments to revamp the spectator mode HUD including an improved spectator mode UI, a new unit frame style, and an animated ultimate indicator Arcade: One of the arcade slots will now change on a daily basis to include a variety of game modes such as Limited Duel, Low Gravity, and Capture the Flag Special Thanks to Diamond Sponsors & New Patrons: (11/25) Chrisdaplaya, GingerSasquash, Good Apollo, GreatRootBear, Lisome, Magic, NotMuaddib, RickyTicky, Sketchy Nonsense Podcast, Silverback, & TragicZac. New Patrons this week: BlazzinBob 11 - Declined announcement Omnic Lab Links: Twitter, Facebook, Patreon Twitch, Youtube, MERCH Discord: discord.me/omniclab Email: omniclabpodcast@gmail.com Website: http://www.omniclab.com iTunes, Google Play Music, RSS --Full Extended Show NotesTwitter, Twitch, Velen's Chosen Podcast, Concept Craft Podcast Andres: Twitter, audioblender.studio, soundcloud Switch: Twitter, OmnicMeta