It looks like the unpopular GOATS meta in Overwatch will soon come to an end – at least in the professional scene. This was hinted at by a former player who apparently knows a bit more and has now spilled the beans.
How will GOATS be abolished? Allegedly, with the upcoming Phase 4 of the second season of the Overwatch League, a “2-2-2 role lock” will be introduced. This means that there must be two healers, two tanks, and two DPS heroes on the team.
The GOATS meta, however, consists of three healers and three tanks, focusing more on long fights, defense, and crowd control, rather than quick action and kills. With a 2-2-2 distribution, that would no longer work.
So far, however, the changes are only planned for the OWL, not for ranked games or even quick matches in Overwatch itself. Removing GOATS “naturally” with a new hero already didn’t work with Baptiste.
Who revealed this? The ex-professional player who revealed this is the Korean Overwatch player Baek “Fissure” Chan-hyung. Fissure started in Season 1 of the Overwatch League with London Spitfire but then moved to the LA Gladiators, with whom he rolled over his old team.
For Season 2, he transferred once more, this time to Seoul Dynasty, only to retire from the OWL shortly thereafter. Now that he no longer plays officially, he feels no longer bound by confidentiality.
In one of his streams, he announced that the “2-2-2 lock” will come. A Reddit user has translated that from Korean.
Why the meta is so unpopular
This is what makes GOATS so boring: GOATS is a defensive and quite static approach to Overwatch. When two GOATS teams meet, they usually face each other stiffly until one of the Zaryas has charged her ultimate.
Then it ultimately only depends on which Zarya hits better and which team can get more out of the ultimate. In the worst case, nobody dies at all, and it goes on until the next ultimate.
Of course, there are variations and teams that play the comp a bit differently. Generally, however, not much happens in GOATS, and most fans find it boring to watch.
Why should GOATS be abolished? One of the biggest problems is that almost every team plays GOATS. This means that most heroes are not seen in competitive play at all. There is a lack of variety.
There were huge cheers when something different was finally played, only to be drowned out by louder boos when GOATS was switched back to. DPS heroes and great plays are simply more popular with the fans, but are rarely seen. Some heroes like Symmetra have only just seen the stage once.
Will GOATS really be gone? Actually, Blizzard has already previously expressed opposition to the role lock. The meta has even been immortalized by the Overwatch League as a meme with real goats. Even “Overwatch Dad” Jeff Kaplan has already opposed it.
However, the current headwinds and Fissure’s statement are good indicators. GOATS annoys many and is difficult to get rid of without coercion, as the causes of GOATS lie much deeper:
