Since Season 1, the term “stomps” have been littered in threads and posts throughout the forums. Many could write it off as the usual low-post-count people complaining they are not having fun, but by the sheer amount of them which always seems to be related to talks about Matchmaking seems abnormal. This is especially true for any of you who have read Blizzard’s latest dev post here which share similar sentiments to the few previous ones as well which I will quote:
Now, I would like to do some comparisons of TTK real quick before we get into further talks. This short table will just be a basic, vague address of TTK averages of listed games and we’ll detail some information after.
| Game | TTK | |
|---|---|---|
| Call of Duty: Black Ops | 300 milliseconds | |
| Valorant | 120-450 ms (based on weapon) | |
| League of Legends | 10-20 seconds (Full Team Fight) | |
| Paladins | 1-3 seconds | |
| DOTA 2 | ? (Higher than LoL) | |
| Counter-Strike | 0.4-1 second | |
| Smite | ? (Higher than Dota 2) |
Now, there is a small issue when trying to accurately gather data and show it in a condensed and small table as there are MASSIVE variables which decide TTK in games. As well, the genre massively changes the numbers obviously.
Black Ops, Valorant, and Counter-Strike
These are variously similar times but listed slightly differently when looking at available data. Now, mind you, there are a few big important considerations when averaging TTK for the game as a whole. The main factor is a weapon’s damage. If you notice the spectrum of Valorant and Counter-strike, the data looked at was analyzed by a chart of all given weapons and their various abilities to kill. Pistols tending to take the longest, with many weapons having instant kill potential in both. However, they all on average stay below one second.
The other variable, and much harder to analyze, is map designs and layout. I imagine this effects weapon choice and the average distance players must fight one another so it is very difficult to get an actually accurate time with this. However, the fact maps are broadly mentioned often and that “Distance” is usually included in these tables meant it was worth mentioning.
Paladins
Paladins was a difficult one to look at. For one, every character has a different health pool, damage resistance, and more which changes the numbers. (Average HP range of HP can be anywhere between 2k and 4k)
Not only does the target change these, but paladins has an unusual means of combat compared to the above topic that is beyond just guns and their damage. Damage mitigation comes from more aspects than, say, Counter-Strike as not just from “Body Armor”. There are many abilities and builds meant to completely avoid or negate damage numbers. Paladins deserves it’s own section in this discussion as it is the most comparable type of gameplay to Overwatch with a TKK spectrum fairly comparable.
League, DOTA, High TTK Explained
With what was mentioned earlier in Paladins, the same can be said here and more. In a game where concepts like Aim and Headshots do not apply combined with various damages, health pools, and other concepts meant to negate damage numbers drastically affects TTK in various ways to the point where the only method you could try recording the numbers in a hyper specifically observed situation. You would need the characters involved, their levels, items, abilities, and number of people involved in a fight. Getting the average time for all ten people fighting in a 5v5 was the only easy average to gain.
This is because both sides will equal out relatively to a similar pool of health split between five people in an engagement that starts and only ends when one side is essentially eliminated. Getting a rough estimate of a group “All-In” is essentially the only means of giving a short average time without it deserving it’s own graphs and break-downs entirely. The same sentiment can also be given for Smite or most other MOBAs or generally just games built around High TTK.
What was the point of these comparisons?
Simple: Genres have a purpose and somewhat good idea of why their gameplay is represented by TTK. Things like Call of Duty have millisecond TTK due to it being certained around lightning-fast engagements. A fight can be almost instantaneous and this similar sentiment can be given to Counter-Strike and Valorant. Though, with those games, their TKK changes considerably as matches progress and higher damage-scaled weapons are available.
MOBAs tend to have WAY higher levels of TTK due to the genre difference. The sheer difference of something like 300 milliseconds looks dramatically different to observe if you have ever tried to compare a CoD montage to someone’s MOBA comedy video of, say, two Tank characters dueling for roughly 50 seconds.
How this relates to Overwatch and Overwatch 2
For numerical data, this is a chart from 2016 by a reddit user named Don’t_Rush:
(h ttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wY_yJgMaFZqgRwo7GM5vvpL7rHIPWTkDk162AazxVPM/edit#gid=0)
Understanding different genre games and their types of gameplay, we can understand what goes on in Overwatch which arguably has a unique style of combat unlike other shooters where combat can’t be measured easily in milliseconds alone. This chart is also just measured by different weapons and draining someone’s health pool without considering things like mitigation, sustain, and so on. Even without those, it still ranged from around 1 second and even 10 seconds.
If we are going to discussing something about Overwatch 2 such as the state of the game and these proposed “Stompings”, taking a look into TTK of matches is important. Not just roughly by weapon damages alone, but everything discussed above which can effect the time of engagement:
Map design, health variances, mitigations, healing, team formation design, META, possibly more variables I forgot to mention.
These are all concepts that must be deeply looked at if we are to view Overwatch 2’s TTK being objectively lower per match compared to what it used to be and what changes have been made to reach this number. As well, what changes are good and what are bad. If a game does not have every character, team, and formation to be of equal value, it is quite possible there is some variables which create an unfair potential for a “Time of Engagement” for one team and another.
tl:dr - What’s the point of this thread?
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TTK and how they drastically differ from genres
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TTK and how it has become different from OW 1 and 2 (Possibly?)
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What makes Overwatch different from a standard FPS like CoD
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Presentable topics and data when referring to other topics as of late such as what Overwatch has changed or kept, “One-Shots” in general, map design in OW effecting state-of-play, and whatever else you can conceive from looking at this
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These variables make simple concepts like “Nerf/Buff Genji” way more of a complex topic than damage number changes
