Hot Take: Bunker and GOATS are Perfectly Fine

In the beginning, there was GOATS.

Well, maybe not all the way in the beginning but since the start of the 2019 OWL season, the only composition was GOATS. This 3-3 composition was composed of Reinhardt, Zarya, D.Va, Lucio, Zenyatta, and Brigitte. There might be some variation in the main tank and support roles, but beyond that, the meta stayed static and there certainly was no room for any DPS players.

The tweet above summarizes the sentiments fans had to watching every team, except the innovative, wacky Chengdu Hunters, run the GOATS composition in every match. It is unfortunate that at the highest level of Overwatch, it was GOATS or bust.

But suddenly, Baptiste arrived and a whole new element was brought into the game. Heroes could temporarily become invincible, and Baptiste added considerable amounts of healing to boot. Place Baptiste alongside an Orisa shield and Bastion turret from a good vantage point and even GOATS teams would have trouble getting through.

In summary, GOATS might not be as dominant as before but is the Bunker composition any more exciting to play or watch? The Bunker composition looks like a breath of fresh air from 3-3 every round, but all it really is is one pocketed Bastion sitting behind a shield shooting at everything that moves. There's hardly any movement. Should there be more clamoring from fans for another meta shift?

It's always hard to please a tough crowd, but what are all these complaints asking for? It sounds like what people want to see is action. People miss the days of Dive compositions or double sniper teams. They want to see the Widowmaker make a split second head shot or the Genji shoot up in the air before striking down with a Nanoboosted Dragonblade.

While such images are exciting, people eventually got bored of Dive and Snipers too. When those two compositions reigned supreme, there were complaints that the meta was stale. People grew tired of seeing snipers and Dive tanks dominating every round. All the exciting plays could not mask the fact that people just don't like seeing the same things all the time, no matter how cool they may be.

What does all this mean at the end of the day? It is perfectly normal for people to get tired of the meta because it is meta. The same compositions will eventually become a bore. Bringing back Dive or Double Snipers would just lead to the same complaints of GOATS and Bunker we hear today.

Photo courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment