Overwatch 2-2-2 Role Lock and remembering the legacy of Fissure

The Overwatch League commission is once again making headlines as the rumors have all been virtually confirmed for what’s to come in Stage Four. With the GOATS meta still prevalent in professional play, the OWL will now be shifting into a 2-2-2 role lock where damage dealers, tanks and healers will all be guaranteed two slots on each team, basically rendering the GOATS strategy obsolete. This news was first murmured on recently retired Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek’s stream after his departure from the League was announced.

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Looking forward, the complexion of Overwatch is set to change dramatically as pro play will finally adhere to the same rules that take place in competitive matchmaking. The return of DPS legends will likely flip this meta on its head, but which teams have the most to gain from this highly favored change?

Fissure the Great

If you have kept tabs on Fissure’s career at all since joining the Overwatch League, you’d know that his departure from the game is every bit emblematic of his time spent in it. Since his days on the London Spitfire, Fissure has always been an aggressive, outspoken and committed player to any team he has been put on.

The most important aspect to Fissure’s career has always been play time, which is something he just couldn’t secure regularly with the multitude of teams he played for. Heading into Stage Two, what seemed like a good home for the bombastic Main Tank son became his undoing as he lost a roster spot rather quickly to his understudy, Min-seo “Marve1” Hwang.

On his departure stream, Fissure commented that his lack of passion for the game started towards the tail end of Season One. Looking back, its obvious to see that Seoul Dynasty was his final destination to continue or stop his career, and with a week left till Stage Four, the writing was already on the wall for quite some time.

Even still, the rumblings of controversy would follow Fissure with or without a team by his side as he once again spilled some insider OWL tea that quickly spiraled into a media frenzy. The Overwatch League enforcing a 2-2-2 role lock in professional play is an unprecedented move within the eSports realm, and for that monumental news to be broken by an unlikely beacon of truth in Fissure, the circumstances have only added to the drama.

For these reasons both in and out of the game, Fissure must be remembered and respected for never holding his tongue and always being true to himself and his fans before anyone else. There are very few pro players, especially Korean players who so actively and purposefully use their voice prominently in the scene and losing a character like Fissure will be a blow to be felt for seasons to come.

The 2-2-2 Era

Now that the 2-2-2 role lock has all but been confirmed, the cornucopia of strategies that will be opened within the Overwatch League will be nice to see now that prominent DPS players can get back to their flashy main characters. Seeing SBB on his patented Tracer, or watching Haksal hack up the competition with his Genji will be a nice treat for fans, but the strategy for these teams will obviously go much deeper than that.

From a balance standpoint, and from a team preparation standpoint, this role lock will give the Overwatch League a lot of parity and positive continuity within the meta, something that hasn’t really been appreciated this season with the overwhelming team coordination that was necessary for GOAT compositions to thrive.

Whatever the meta, Stage Four will be an extremely interesting stage to watch as all playoff prospective teams look to gear up for one final push before playoffs. Will your favorite team be able to make the cut?