When playing Mei in Ranked mode of Overwatch, you often attract the hate of your team. However, the professional team Dallas Fuel is helping the unpopular researcher to gain a better reputation with a combo alongside Reaper.
The polar researcher Mei is one of the heroes with the least playtime in the ranked games of Overwatch. It doesn’t matter whether it’s PC, Xbox, or PS4; the Chinese character is not popular on any system.
In the Overwatch League, where the best teams in the world compete, you hardly ever see her in combat. If she is used, it is by professionals to drain as much time from the points as possible or to lift allies to higher positions.
Accordingly, many fans and even the casters were amazed when Dallas Fuel deployed Mei against the current champion New York last Friday, March 23. The astonishment only grew when they were even successful with the tactic!
Mei 1, New York Excelsior 0
In the Overwatch League, tactics and strategies are often employed that are rarely encountered in Overwatch itself. The teams are well-rehearsed and can train specific compositions that would never work with a team of random players.
Dallas Fuel used such a tactic on the map Lijiang Tower against New York Excelsior. With a combo of Reaper and Mei, accompanied by offensive tanks and supports, they repeatedly pushed back and stalled New York. In the first round, in the control center, Dallas Fuel delivered a perfect game with 100% to 0%.
The currently best team in the league looked like a helpless ranked team, completely overwhelmed by well-coordinated professionals. Every attack was unsuccessful. Hardly any attempt brought them further than to the first door.
How could this work?
Since the control center is anyway a sequence of narrow rooms, Mei has the greatest advantage here of all maps. She can make the already difficult passages and gates even narrower or completely block them to separate the opposing team.
Reaper is the perfect complement for exactly this tactic. When there is so little space, it is impossible to dodge his inferno shotguns. He simply blasts his way through the opponents, who are forced to gather in a very small space.
This strategy was already very popular in 2016. Since then, many changes have made it unusable – until now. For ranked games, it may still be useless as it requires a lot of coordination and absolute professionals like Rascal and Effect, in whose hands Mei and Reaper are already deadly tools.
You can find the start of the round at this point in the video on Twitch.
Dallas, by the way, lost the match – but in a very close 3 to 2. On the decisive map, Ilios, they almost snatched victory and thus caused the biggest surprise win in Overwatch League history! But it was not meant to be.
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