Overwatch’s Play of the Game (PotG) is a mechanic shrouded in mystery. Everybody’s had a moment where they figured their quadruple kill with a perfectly timed emote would nab it, only to be ousted by a couple of boring turret bursts.
In a recent forum post, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan provided stats to help dispel some of the questions surrounding PotG. Here are the characters who earn it the most as of the latest big patch (1.3):
Quick Play:
1. Bastion
2. Genji
3. Torbjörn
Competitive Play:
1. Mercy
2. McCree
3. Reaper
According to Kaplan, Mercy is the only abnormality. “We’ll look into her,” he said, which makes me sad, because good Mercys deserve all the love in the world — even if their replays aren’t always bullet-riddled thrill rides.
The lowest number of PotGs, meanwhile, go to Ana and Lucio. That’s not particularly surprising, given that neither character possesses a big burst or AoE attack, or even a team-wide mega-revive, a la Mercy. That said, Lucio can gently shove entire teams off ledges, which is hilarious every single time.
Everything else here is about what you’d expect. Genji and The Turret Boys clean up in quick play (there are two types of quick play teams: Ones that are totally lost against turrets and ones that steamroll them with surgical precision; there’s zero in-between). Meanwhile, Reaper and McCree, with nightmare ults and high close-range damage to follow up, dominate competitive.
At first glance, stats like these seem to reinforce the notion that the PotG system is unfairly weighted in favour of characters capable of generating absurd offence in short bursts. Supports and defensively oriented characters, meanwhile, can only clap (to mask their jealousy) from the sidelines.
That’s not exactly untrue. But it’s clearly a system that Blizzard is constantly tweaking and adding new variables to, as they have said in the past. Can the system — which some players believe is dictated heavily by Overwatch’s oft-ignored “on fire” mechanic — be shifted to prioritise characters who aren’t damage-dealing death robots? Will it one day keep track of teamwork or moments that are pivotal, making them, you know, actual Plays of the Game? Or is the system busted on a fundamental level, at odds with Overwatch’s goals as a game about teams working as well-oiled machines?
At this point, it’s impossible to say. I have noticed, though, that in-the-know Overwatch players simply don’t give a shit any more. Some will still get hella salty, but many just say, “Eh, PotG doesn’t really mean anything.” Does that mean the system’s failed, or has it stealthily taught players the most important lesson of all: Acceptance?
Comments
10 responses to “The Overwatch Characters Who Get Play Of The Game Most (And Least) Often”
Would be nice to see a change so ana can get some POTG love. Definitely had plenty of games where the POTG has gone to a reinhardt or D.va that i’ve nano boosted, but no mention of ana. I like the fan idea i saw a while ago that had a split screen POTG system so that contributing heroes also get some of the spotlight (Zarya + Pharah ult combo for example)
There needs to be “assists” for PotG… PotG doesnt haveto be solo. lucio, mercy, ana. Maybe even from their view point cause sometimes I would like to see Ana over the shouldering Rein. or if Zenyatta comboed his ultimate with Reaper
Support heroes may not get POTG, but they always get the most thumbs up at the end!
Mercy needed some help with POTG (which is broken irrespective), but they went too far imo. Now, we see rubbish Mercy rez’s where only 1 or 2 people get rez’d get POTG. I had one where I was d.va and got a quad kill right at the end of Numbani using my ult which effectively won the game, and the POTG went to a Mercy who rez’d 2 people back on the first point…
Lucio is kinda restricted to when he can get enviro kills. Ana is just not built for POTG either. Mei and Zarya also get ignored because their ults dont directly contribute to elims. Again, the POTG system is broken because while a moment might be spectacular in terms of what it does for the team and the win, if you’re not actually killing anyone or reviving or whatever, you’re not being spectacular as far as the POTG algorithm is concerned.
I see more Symmetra POTGs than I have seen Mei or Zarya.
Zarya does, gravity ult + few grenades see’s potg’s come often enough. But as someone who usually plays Mei or Ana, I know I’m not getting potg’s anytime soon :).
I was playing Symmetra in comp and Mercy and I were the only people defending the point against 3 of the enemy team and we were in overtime. Reinhardt set his sights on Mercy as I killed a squishy. Mercy asked for help but I got there too late. I managed to avenge Mercy, and kill the D.Va thus winning the game.
And Torbjorn got play of the game while he was dead.
Meanwhile, I believe, as symmetra again, I got a play of the game while being dead. It was a terrible play of the game that made everyone laugh. The enemy team floundered against my turrets while I was dead and I commented something along the line of “Torbjorn would be proud”
One of the things that grinds my gears about the PotG system is that Overwatch is a team game, and the best plays usually involve some coordiation with your team. Zarya using their ult to pull everyone in so Reinhardt/Pharah/Junkrat/etc. can murder everyone, Winston going to town on an entire team because he has Ana’s nanoboost on, stuff like that.
I mean, sure, individual plays are great and all, but at the end of the day it’s a team game, and it’d be nice to get some recognition of actual teamwork and coordination.
You know times are grim when you get a sextuple kill wipe with Zarya, get really excited about the POTG….. and it’s a Mercy 2 person rez… WTF!
Amazed there aren’t more Hanzo potgs, I saw a lot of Bastion potgs in quick play at very low levels but after that I didn’t see him often – Hanzo and to a lesser extent Genji got it a lot.