Hello, I am Bunnuh from team UTM (Ur Tilting Me) and I want to voice my concerns about the ESL rule set. https://twitter.com/urtiltingme


The rule set for ESL has 3 main topics that are a problem.

    0 Hero Limit
    2 Control Point Maps
    No map vetoes


The first problem that arises from 0 hero limit is mainly relevant to a situation that involves Defense being locked into a composition. Whenever there is 0 hero limit, most compositions that take first point are going to be literally a counter to the current defense composition. Overwatch already has a relatively low skill ceiling when you compare it against other competitive games, and 0 hero limit makes it even lower.

When you have 1 hero limit, you raise the skill cap not only individually but in a grander sense. When a team is forced to only have 1 of a hero, that means that hero has to have a higher impact. The best example is Winston, when you can only have 1 Winston you need him to do as much as possible to truly make him a high impact hero. Winston being used in a competitive setting has a specific goal in mind. The nerf of Widow meant that Winston's role is to jump on her, it's not always easy to win the fight. 0 Hero limit takes away the need for a Winston player to make the best possible decisions. It goes from Winston being played properly, to 2 Winstons pressing Shift at the same time to the same location. Compositions become less about countering the enemy and being tailored to your strengths as individuals and 6 teammates.

The last thing that is relevant to several of the points I made, is not only is no hero limit less fun and damaging to the game for players, it harms the viewing experience. I don't want to watch people play 2 Winston's every time there's a point to capture.

Now for 2 Control Point maps, these are poorly designed and balanced. Playing offense, you only need a strategy that gets you control of the first point, and then second point you just press Q. The vast majority of the time you decisively take point A, gain ultimate advantage over the enemy and just run to point B and use the Ultimate advantage to win.
That's honestly it, 2 Control Maps require little team skill and even individual player skill, compared to every other game mode. This game mode, in it's current form, is not competitive and should not be played, in it's current state.

Map vetoes, this is a topic that I think CS:GO should be related to and I think it's understandable why. You have a map pool of roughly 10 maps, teams will practice maps they like and want to be good at. Then teams know what you're good at, and ban it, if you do the same, you get put into this strategic position of either banning what the enemy is strong at, or what you're weak at. Every team has different philosophies on this topic, and it's another case of raising the skill ceiling and strategy in the game.

This touches on a topic that is prevalent in Overwatch which is the skill ceiling. The current ESL rule set makes people who are able to play a lot of heroes and teams that can play a lot of maps the best. This is the opposite of CS:GO where you have teams that are good on X maps and good in Y positions (Positions would roughly relate to heroes in Overwatch since position affects playstyle same as heroes affect playstyle).
To truly emphasize my point, imagine a player that is AMAZING at Widowmaker in 1 hero limit. You can actually play her on Defense, because she can actually have an impact because worst case scenario there is 1 Winston. Now imagine 0 hero limit, worst case scenario there could be 6, but realistically there is going to be 2. This makes Widowmaker not viable on defense because of what offense CAN do. Defense becomes a matter of playing the composition that can deal with the most random compositions the best. It has nothing to do with what a player is good at, because no matter what you can be countered easily. In 1 hero limit you can still be countered, but not easily because heroes that hard counter a team cannot have duplicates.