It’s the end of stage three, the Confetti has fallen, the NYXL have celebrated after defending their title as stage winners and the team are all together on the ramp getting interviewed about how they just trounced the undefeated Boston Uprising 3-0. It comes to Saebyeolbe’s turn to be interviewed and right at the end he says seven words in perfect English “I’m the best Tracer in the world”. After reviewing his performance against the Uprising in the finals, it’s hard to disagree with him, as he’s slowly separated himself from Nam-Joo "Striker" Kwon of the Uprising and Joon-Yeong "Profit" Park of the London Spitfire. The one problem with this is the upcoming changes in the meta after the introduction of Brigitte and the possibility of going to an anti-Tracer meta. It's this meta that has the potential to silence Saebyeolbe due to the DPS pool that could be available to DPS players, got me thinking. While he is the best Tracer in the world, he’s not the best DPS player in the world.
With the introduction on Brigitte into the hero pool, there’s a possibility that we are going to go from the Dive compositions in which heroes such as Tracer and Genji thrive in, to potentially heavy tank meta where heroes such as Junkrat, Widowmaker and Reaper to name a few are more likely to be the DPS heroes of choice. While SBB does have a world class Tracer and good McCree, his hero pool outside of these two dives off a cliff. Solider:76 right now isn’t well equipped for a potential shield meta, his Roadhog while serviceable though this is more due to the changes Roadhog has faced since the APEX days, isn't an effective use of his skill level and although he can play both Widowmaker and to a lesser degree Pharah, both Do-Hyeon "Pine" Kim and Hae-Seong "Libero" Kim respectively play these heroes to a higher standard. It leaves Saebyeolbe in a situation where he could potentially be replaced in stage four with Pine and playing the super sub role for the entire stage.
When you look at the other Tier One DPS players within the league, they all have the hero pool's to stay effective in an anti-dive/tank heavy composition. Striker can play Junkrat who works as a good counter to Brigitte and tank heroes, Striker will also be able to get away with playing Tracer in this meta as his play style is focused more around the Uprising tanks, compared to Saebyeolbe's support based Tracer. Profit on the other hand is a has a unique hyper carry style of DPS play but has a hero pool that would make some supportive DPS players jealous. Profit's Junkrat has been consistent plus point throughout the season, a Reaper that's wiped out tank lines on Junkertown and prior to OWL starting, he was known for having a high level Zarya. Both of these players are in a better situation for their teams and due to this when it could allow them to shine through towards the end of the season.
The change in the meta has a negative effect on the carry DPS players such as Saebyeolbe. it could be the perfect meta for those supportive DPS players such as Dong-Eun "Hooreg" Lee, Libero, Stanislav "Mistakes" Danilov and Brandon "Seagull" Larned who are versatile with their hero pools but go for a more damage than final eliminations. With the potential for it to be a more skirmished based meta, it will be about who can produce the most damage to break shield's in those close quarter battles and these supportive DPS players could get more play time, if a DPS is subbed out for an extra tank. You would expect Libero and not Saebyeolbe to be the main DPS player for the NYXL.
With a combination of the above, an anti-Tracer meta is possibly the worst style that could happen for Saebyeolbe and could effect the NYXL in the long term and it will be interesting to see how they could cope if SBB isn't the focal point.
You can find more Overwatch content @haloofthoughts
(Picture Credit: Blizzard ENT)
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