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The future looks rosy for Overwatch. Within a week of its release last month, Blizzards newest game already had seven million players. Whats more, the games traditional sales model had players plopping down a minimum of $40 to play the new IP, which meant it lacked the easy access of the increasingly common free-to-play route.Over the months of closed beta, top players put the game through the wringer and Blizzard balanced and re-balanced the relative strengths of Overwatchs 21 heroes. Even before launch, there were a healthy number of professional Overwatch tournaments, populated by some of the biggest teams in eSports.All of these efforts developed the games strategy space. Any spectator sport, whether its hitting a ball with a large stick or dispensing an animated fighter with a Shoryuken, quickly develops its own internal strategies and trends as the players become more experienced and the sport becomes more refined. In gaming, we refer to this as the meta, an endlessly evolving state that forms the backbone of tactics employed in the game.With Overwatchs audience growing and Blizzards focus on developing the games competitive aspect -- as indicated by the games just-released Competitive Mode -- theres an opportunity for Overwatch to flourish as an esport. And for a new player curious about Overwatchs burgeoning competitive scene and interested in following a matchs intricacies, theres a lot of information to absorb about the individual heroes to really get a feel for whats going on. So, weve put together a competitive introduction for each Overwatch hero to guide the beginner, starting this week with the six heroes in the Offense class.TracerTracer is a character that has come and gone in the meta before (she was used a lot more before a health nerf late in the beta). The classic in-and-out harasser, Tracer is the fastest character in the game. Tracer cant match Genjis vertical mobility, but she has the ability to use Blink and Recall to get out of trouble quickly.These days, Tracer doesnt see competitive play on every map, although we may see her more frequently if McCree sees less play for reasons well get into below. Tracer is most common on king of the hill maps where she has the ability to really get behind enemy lines. In maps with choke points, however, Tracer sees a good deal less use as she can do little to help the team bust through and her mobility cant be used as effectively.Best maps: Nepal, Route 66GenjiHalf ninja, half cyborg -- both things people on the internet love (OK, me too) -- youve probably encountered quite a few Genji while playing pub games. With the ability to double-jump, climb vertical surfaces, and use Swift Strike for additional speed plus burst damage, Genjis mobility makes him a versatile flanker that can harass a defenders back line.In competitive play, Genji is a lower-tier hero despite having a high skill cap. One of Genjis strengths in pubs is his ability to deal with Bastion; Genji can get behind Bastion fairly easily and, depending on placement, can either pepper him with shuriken or dispatch him with Deflect/Swift Strike. Given fewer Bastions present and elite players that can deal with his harassment tactics effectively with hitscan weapons, Genjis relatively fragile body becomes a bigger deal.Thats not to say that Genji never sees play. You may see Genji in particular instances when his vertical mobility is extremely useful, for example, in flanker maps such as Gibraltar or Hollywood.Best maps: Watchpoint: Gibraltar, HollywoodPharahAnother character with good vertical mobility, Pharah uses it to different effect than a Genji player does. Pharah is a long-range attacker and her verticality focuses more on opening up sight lines rather than the annoy-and-escape tactics that you see from more traditional harassing flankers like Tracer.Where Pharah shines is in situations where crowd control is most valuable or the other team is playing a number of short-range characters. Heroes like the non-Roadhog tanks, Junkrat, Tracer, Mei, and Reaper dont have a really effective way to deal with Pharah.The downside of Pharah is that she has map mobility more than tactical mobility, meaning that a Widowmaker, McCree, or Soldier 76 can knock her out of the sky fairly easily despite the high damage from her rocket barrages. This is especially true with her ultimate, which leaves her completely immobile and easy pickings for enemy heroes.In competitive play, successful Pharah players will try to keep her sight lines open for only as long as necessary in order to reduce her exposure. By contrast, against six random players youre more likely to see Pharah just hovering over the battlefield as if she were a helicopter.Best maps: Kings Row, Lijiang Tower, and arguably everywhereSoldier: 76Soldier: 76 is one of the games core heroes in competitive play because of his flexible, orthodox playstyle. He uses a medium-range hitscan weapon, can fire off a projectile, do a little bit of healing, and sprint to a control point fairly quickly. Even if youve never played Overwatch, if youve ever played a first-person shooter, youve essentially played Soldier. Even his name sounds a bit generic.As it turns out, this versatility means you can plug him into a lot of roles. For a player with elite targeting skills, Soldiers standard attack is useful in most situations, whether its dealing with a pesky Tracer or knocking Pharah out of the sky. Soldier has issues with tanks that have shielding capabilities and isnt great at creating his own sight lines, but hes a safe, solid choice in most situations.Best maps: Nepal, IliosReaperWith one of his strongest checks, McCree, on the outs for the time being, Reapers extremely high levels of close-range damage make him a staple of both competitive play and casual games. Pharahs still around to keep Reaper honest -- theres very little Reaper can do against Pharah except live to fight another day -- but Reapers shotguns can effectively take out most characters in close quarters. While hes slow, his Wraith Form gives him an effective way to escape and his ability to collect Soul Globes to restore health provides a measure of additional survivability.Reaper tends to be a good hero even for beginners simply because his use is straightforward: get behind the enemy, kill things, get away. While elite players more effectively execute this plan, the basic concept stays the same. Reaper is a particular problem for Mercy, who is often seen in the two-healers-per-team standard composition. Lucio, on the other hand, can be a bit trickier to deal with, as his Sound Barrier is a strong play against Reapers Death Blossom ultimate.Best maps: Kings Row, NepalMcCreeMcCree used to be king of the mountain of the Offense class. So dominant was McCree both through beta and early release that teams at the competitive level actually averaged more than one McCree a game. In the hands of an accurate shooter like an elite player, McCree was always dangerous. But his ability to destroy tanks at close range with his Flashbang/Fan the Hammer combo was even scarier.Then Blizzard made some big changes to McCree, causing him to fall into disuse very quickly. McCrees alternate-fire ability, the aforementioned Fan the Hammer, had its damage reduced by nearly 40 percent, preventing McCree from killing Reinhardt or Roadhog with relative ease. Hes still lethal to many of the squishier Offense harassers like Tracer, but hes no longer the must-include he used to be.In this past weekends tournaments, you could see the fallout from the McCree nerf. No longer a staple, McCree was mainly reduced to a situational play of hunting down Pharah. McCree can still be dangerous in a pros hands, but his lack of mobility is a much bigger deal when he cant go toe-to-toe with any hero in the game.Best maps: Dorado, Hollywood Vapormax Flyknit Scontate . -- Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Alrdridge were again the go-to duo for the Trail Blazers against the Kings. Nike Vapormax Nere Scontate . But when it comes to determining if Raymond will find a place on the Leafs roster when training camp concludes in a week, well, that decision will ultimately fall to the head coach. http://www.vapormaxscontateoutlet.it/ .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again. Vapormax Bianche Uomo . Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee? Green had bounced around the NBA when he wasnt playing overseas. The Pacers gave up on Plumlee after just one season. Now Green and Plumlee are key cogs in the Suns surprising breakout season. Vapormax Scontate .S District Court against Major League Baseball, the Office of the Commissioner and his own union, the MLBPA. LOS ANGELES -- The ball. Thats what Team USA coach Mike Krzyzewski came up as part of a list of things that are going to be challenging for the Americans during this five-game exhibition tour before they head to Rio de Janeiro for the Summer Olympics.It takes some time to adjust to the Molten basketball, which is used in international competition and is said to be a bit slicker than the Spalding basketballs used in the NBA, Krzyzewski said on Sunday after his teams 106-57 rout of China.Even with superstars such as Stephen Curry, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and LeBron James pulling out of consideration for this Olympic team, Team USA is so much better than the teams theyll be playing during these warm-up games, its hard to assess just where the American team is.I hope were never challenged, Krzyzewski said after Team USAs second straight rout. But there have been challenging points in each game. A huge thing is for us to just get to know one another [on this tour]. ... The rules and the ball. You can tell with some of our guys, they dont have the feel yet. Its a challenge to adapt to the game.The challenging points Sunday came, um, in the first quarter when Team USA led just 10-7 with 3 minutes, 10 seconds to go. But then Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson came in and started raining 3-pointers and the Americans went on a 16-6 run to close the quarter.I dont think theres any coach that likes not to see the ball go in, Krzyzewski said. Because theres a part of you that says -- Will it?I dont care what team youre coaching, you would feel that way.Still, this is what constitutes worry for Team USA at this point.And it basically went away as soon as Durant and Thompson started making shots.For all the talk of the lack of experience and leadership on this years team -- only Durant and Carmelo Anthony played in the 2012 Summer Olympics -- the talent gap, particularly against the teams the Americans will play on this exhibition tour, is still virtually insurmountable.ddddddddddddThere are teams that are capable of challenging the U.S. once it gets to Rio -- Spain, France, Serbia to name a few -- but right now the Select Team would probably push them harder than Argentina, China or Nigeria during this tour.In the meantime, Krzyzewski said hes putting the team focus on building a defensive identity because of the versatility and athleticism it has on that side of the ball.This group has been a fabulous group to coach, Krzyzewski said. None of the groups weve coached have worked harder defensively.Sunday he tried out lineups with Indiana Pacers swingman Paul George defending the point guard position and loved the pressure he was able to put on the ball. Then, theres the dimension Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan gives them.Jordan began the game with a thunderous block on Chinas Wang Zhelin, then raced down the court to slam home an alley-oop, which got the home crowd out of its seats early.Coach told me if I didnt do anything in the first 30 seconds I was coming out, said Jordan, who finished with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 3 blocks in just 17 minutes.Team USA will face this same Chinese team Tuesday at Oracle Arena, then finish out the tour in Chicago and Houston.A lot of the times were thinking about the opponent, Jordan said. But with only five games, all we really need to work on is ourselves. ' ' '