Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment The first stage of Overwatch League begins Wednesday night.
Overwatch League is here, and we’re playing Fantasy OWL every week at Winston’s Lab. Each week, we’ll provide the best matchups to exploit each week, and give a few examples of players that should have big scoring weeks.
The scoring rules are simple: Every single player, regardless of role, is bound by the same scoring rules. Players are awarded two points for a kill, and lose one point for a death. Additionally, a player earns an extra point for each ultimate ability used.
Lastly, Winston’s Lab places a large emphasis on initiation of team fights. A player earns three points for scoring the first kill in a teamfight, and loses two points for suffering the first death in a teamfight.
Now, for weekly leagues, there is no budget and players can choose from the full OWL roster. You can start no more than four players from the same team, and must start at least two support, two tank, and two offense players.
In season long formats, players in leagues of varying sizes draft teams of ten players. Owners can only start six players per week, and must include at least one support, one tank and one offense player.
With that knowledge in tow, here’s my lineup for the opening week of Overwatch League:
My biggest strategy was to pick on what I believe to be the worst teams in the league. I think that Shanghai, Philadelphia and Boston will struggle early, and so I’ll be stacking my rosters against those teams. That’s why I’m starting with Birdring, the London DPS that faces Florida and Philadelphia this week.
If I don’t have to adhere to any budget, I’m taking ryujehong as my first support. It’s an obvious choice that won’t make my lineup stand out in any weekly leagues, but he’s so good that there’s a chance my score will be irrelevant without him as one of my two supports.
Before Fl0w3r becomes eligible and joins NYXL, expect Pine to be their top DPS. He destroyed Boston in their preseason opener, finishing with 71 kills to only 34 deaths. Pine wasn’t as good against Seoul, but abused the lesser competition. Boston may have had extra time to prepare, but I expect to Pine to be just as sharp the second time around.
There are lots of big names on this roster, but one name I avoided is Miro. Even though he might be the best tank in the world, Seoul has two worthy opponents this week in Dallas and Los Angeles Gladiators. Instead I stacked the tanks for London and NYXL, adding Fissure and MekO to my lineup, respectively.
For the flex spots, my strategy to start the season will be to stack as many star DPS players as possible. Seoul has tough matchups, but Fleta has been outmatched his entire career and produced at a high level. It’s unknown what we’ll get out of Philadelphia, but it’s a decent bet that most strategy will be built around star DPS ShaDowBurn.
Let me know in the comments or on Twitter what other players deserve a spot in this week’s lineup. Get ready for a full season of Overwatch League action!