Overwatch maps are like candy grab-bags. Sometimes, you get an M&M. Other times, you get a black licorice chew.
Recently, Blizzard posted a pollasking players to vote on their favorite maps. Seventeen thousand players responded, a small sample size for a game thatâs played by tens of millions. But everyoneâs favorite map won by a large margin: Kingâs Row. Today, I gathered notorious Pharah fanboy Nathan Grayson and Competeâs Eric Van Esports to emote about why I think thatâs bad, and also, talk about their favorite maps.
Cecilia DâAnastasio: Hello to hopeless Overwatch fiends and casuals alike. Weâre here to talk about Overwatch maps, the first thing you see in Overwatchâs competitive mode before you emit a heaving, sad sigh. Why? Because Blizzard recently polled 17,000 fans about their favorite map. Eric, did the outcome surprise you?
Eric Van Allen: Hell no, Kingâs Row is the greatest. I am a staunch advocate of Kingâs Row as one of the best maps in Overwatch
Nathan Grayson: I agree that, objectively, Kingâs Row is probably the best map in Overwatch. Not my personal favorite, but in terms of design and use of space, itâs pretty masterful.
Cecilia: Okay, I guess weâre done here. Guys, come on. Kings Row is the most boring map in the entirety of Overwatch, and the exact model for Blizzard World, the actual worst map.
Eric: It being âboringâ is good though! It doesnât lend itself too heavily to any one strategy. It has great sight lines for snipers, but plenty of cover to dart between. Chokepoints are there for the defense, but theyâre surmountable and have clever routes around, like the balcony at the first pointâs choke. It excels because itâs standard, it doesnât try to âdoâ a certain thing. In my view, itâs the consummate Overwatch map. It is the best map for Overwatch to take place in.
Nathan: Yeah, itâs kinda like how Dust is the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map. Not a thrilling location or an aesthetic work of art, but a solid, if unambitious piece of design.
Cecilia: Thatâs not what âbestâ means. Youâre saying that, like, momâs meatloaf is the âbestâ food because itâs the most emblematic of mom. Tell me one fun way to get around Kingâs Rowâs choke point.
Eric: Iâm saying the map itself rarely gets in the way of the gameplay, and doesnât discourage any player from doing what they want to do. On that first choke point, itâs great to play someone like Tracer and zip from the balcony over, take the stairs up and instantly be flanking the defense.
Cecilia: Thatâs trueâit doesnât get in the way of gameplay. But I donât think thatâs a good thing. I canât count how many times I, as Reinhardt, have held my shield up while my team throws grenades at the enemy Reinhardtâs shield thatâs blocking the chokepoint. It never feels kinetic until you toss in a D.va bomb or get a ton of successful flanks.
Nathan: Yeah, you can also launch yourself over the wall as Junkrat or lob rockets as Pharah while still having functional cover behind the statue. Youâve got options, all of which are pretty fun. Itâs one of the only maps where I donât get pissed off when my team gets full-held, because even up to the bitter end, I still feel like we can try something new.
Eric: Iâm interested to hear what yâalls favorites are, if not Kingâs Row. Certainly not Blizzard World, right?
Cecilia: Blizzard World feels like a reskin of Kingâs Row, so Iâm curious why you donât like it!
Nathan: Blizzard World feels like Blizzard learned all the wrong lessons from Kingâs Row. Itâs what would happen if Kingâs Row was bad. Tons of wasted space, chokes that are insurmountable unless you use a few select strats, a second point push thatâs dull as heckâI could go on.
Eric: Itâs filled with side rooms full of Blizzard nostalgia that donât add anything to the map itself. Itâs a gorgeous map, but it does little for me once Iâm actually playing.
Nathan: The only thing I like about itâthe one thingâis that thereâs an amazing D.va bomb spot when youâre walking to the first point from the defenderâs spawn. You can launch her mech right onto the point from just outside the entrance to that section of the map. And it owns.
Cecilia: Oooooo, that does own. Honestly, my heart will never be stolen by a hybrid payload/control point map. I love that pure control point shit.
Nathan: Thatâs because youâre a Roadhog main.
Cecilia: Itâs true. The movement of my character in these spaces is so different. Circular. Swervy. Itâs never two dimensionalâalways three.
Eric: I will say, one of my absolute favorite maps is Ilios. I have never loved playing Overwatch as much as when I Orisa-vacuumed a team into the well.
Cecilia: Everyone loves Ilios because itâs perfect.
Nathan: Yeah, itâs a good mix of functional design and wacky environmental kill opportunities. Boops and hooks. Boops and hooks for days. Oh man, yâall remember that clip of somebody yanking an enemy D.Va bomb down into the well with a Roadhog hook? And like, falling in with the D.Va bomb?
Eric: I love that Ilios makes interactions like that really shine.
Cecilia: Yes. That was gorgeous. I think thatâs an instance where the map didnât interfere with gameplay, but inspired a cool strategy. Same with The Boops. The fear of Boop makes everyone play tighter on Ilios. That makes interactions often more chaotic and fun.
Eric: One map Iâm surprised is so high [on Blizzardâs poll results] is Hanamura. I know Volskaya is one of the more generally disliked maps, but I donât dig Hanamura for basically the same reasons.
Nathan: Yeah, I hate Hanamura. Its rhythm is too stop-and-go, and neither point is particularly fun to take. In both cases, you just feel relief afterward, like âthank god thatâs over.â
Cecilia: I didnât think Iâd agree with you there, but you voiced something that I had kind of only felt before.
Eric: Also, it just has one thing that bothers the hell out of me: those giant doors. Why are they always just cracked a smidge? Youâve got Reinhardt and Roadhog, fling those bad boys open!
Cecilia: Hahaha. Well, the map that gets me riled up is Oasis. First of allâthat intro music. Itâs gorgeous. Itâs like some swelling swings movie climax shit. The color schemeâgreens, goldsâis superb. And I just love the twirling, tornado-esque gameplay it inspires, plus its verticality.
Nathan: And itâs great for Roadhogs.
Cecilia: Nathan! I play lots of other heroes!
Nathan: Iâm just saying, Iâm sensing a pattern here.
Cecilia: Fun? Excitement? No static stand-stills?
Eric: Open doors! But yes, I think a general rule for good Overwatch maps is that they need to highlight what the heroes do and how they can interact. Maps with interesting ways for heroes to maneuver and take advantage of their skill set work, while more cookie-cutter maps donât do as much for me.
Cecilia: So, whatâs your stance on Route 66? That oneâs pretty controversial in that regard.
Eric: I really dig Route 66, but a lot of that is the aesthetic. I never really know whether I love or hate the final point of that map.
Nathan: I know for sure that I hate the final point. If you can pretty much guarantee that a team will win after theyâve pushed past the second point, your third point is bad. I like the first point on Route 66 a ton, though. The start of the map is so weird, and then it opens up into this area with tons of cool verticality, as well as space for harassers like Tracer and Sombra to shine.
Cecilia: I want to hear about maps you guys changed your minds on. For example, I used to hate Junkertown. Then I started playing tons of Bastion and I love it.
Nathan: Same! Except the Bastion part. So Junkertown, I think, is my favorite map.
Cecilia: Woah! Only you and 3% of the people who voted in the Blizzard poll.
Nathan: I like playing characters that can sneak around and be crafty. Junkertown is paradise for that.
Cecilia: Yeah, but lots of people hate that flanky spread on Junkertown. Why do you think it works?
Nathan: There are a few too many rooms, but it mostly strikes a good balance between payload-pushing space and cool little corridors to hide in.
Eric: The last point of Junkertown is really fun to play as Junkrat, just saying.
Nathan: Yeah, I pretty much insta-lock Junkrat on Junkertown these days. The map winds like crazy, too, so you can set up tricky RIP-Tires and things like that off line of sight.
Cecilia: Itâs so crazy Blizzard hasnât deleted Junkrat from Overwatch yet. Guess Iâll keep e-mailing them. Anyway.
Eric: I think another one thatâs always been weird for me is Horizon. Iâm still never quite sure what to make of it.
Cecilia: Oh! I have a solution to this one! My Overwatch buddies and I were watching New York Excelsior on that map one day and, on attack, they picked 4 tanks, plus Lucio and Moira. We were like, What is this madness!. But then, we tried it out one day. It works beautifully. Iâve never seen that work well anywhere else except maybe Temple of Anubis. Really fascinating that a map can breed such a wild strategy.
Eric: Itâs cool, I just donât feel like there are a lot of ways to attack the objective besides barreling at it face-first. Which is probably why the tank thing works so well.
Cecilia: Right!
Nathan: The points on Horizon are super confined, so it makes sense that Tons Oâ Tanksâa strat the generally works well for control pointsâworks super well on Horizon. And yeah, itâs a map where Moira really shines, thanks to all those tight spaces and walls. She can just bounce healing orbs everywhere and spray Definitely Not Urine on her allies all the while. Her ult is killer on that first point, too.
Eric: Moira is really just great, all around. So maybe thatâs our ultimate takeaway: Make Maps For Moira
Cecilia: Moiraâs map is every map.
Nathan: Dear Blizzard, replace Blizzard World with Moira World.
Cecilia: Please. I think thatâs it for us! Thanks for tuning in. Remember to smash that âLikeâ button.
