what is map control?
you can explode that term into a world of complexity for organized play, but in terms of ranked games, it suffices to simplify having good “map control” as: “when you are more satisfied with your position than the enemy team, and the enemy team cannot easily change that.”
meaning, you’re holding a position that affords you certain rights that the enemy team does not want you to have, and no matter what they do, it’s going to be temporarily detrimental to take those rights away.
perhaps it’s an angle to do damage past shields, setting up a crossfire to divert their tanks resources on two fronts, or maybe you’re preemptively controlling a key access point to highground to remove options from their team in the next fight. it’s an advanced and flexible concept because it’s going to differ depending on the map, heroes involved, gamemode, and maybe even playstyles. you must actively think about what is important to the enemy team comp and deny it.
there’s a pretty good video from spilo a while back that goes over map control in a good deal of depth, and i’d recommend watching it at your leisure:
which roles should care about map control?
literally everybody. all of the tanks, dps, and supports each have their own preferences regarding where they want themselves, their teammates, and the enemy team to be or not be, and they all have the ability to contribute in fighting for map control.
the worst case scenario is when the entire team forfeits fighting for control and clumps together in one spot, usually on point, attacking at everything around and above them like an angry amoeba. sure, if you’re deliberately playing a 6-man rushdown comp or bunker and you understand the risks, go for it… but you’re probably not.
by deliberately not taking or denying aggressive positions before a fight begins, you’re inviting the enemy team to assume them for you. it is paramount that you preemptively control them, actively monitor them, and contest them as the fight develops.
examples
these happen all the freaking time in metal ranks:
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the classic - eichenwalde second point. attackers are about to cap the checkpoint at the doors when… “it’s high noon!” all the way behind them on the bridge. unlucky! cassidy is way too far away for anybody to kill him and nobody has time to react properly - he just got 4 kills. the solution? proactively position yourself near access to the highground, or monitor that route so that play is no longer an option for their team. seriously, it isn’t that hard.
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hollywood, dorado, and gibraltar 2nd point all have the same common map control failures - not clearing highground before fighting for the point. these points are absolutely abysmal to capture if your team insists on controlling lowground. it’s paramount to at least clear the highground - you don’t have to stay there, but you must force the enemy team to leave, and you must prevent them from recapturing it freely.
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how about defending the hanamura 2nd point? have you ever felt the pain of trying to stall a losing fight by contesting the point with an enemy ana, 76 or widowmaker on the far balcony? it’s nigh impossible unless you deal with them first, but you often can’t, because you must contest the point. the problem is clear, but the solution depends more on what heroes you’re playing. for example, a competent widow swap will dismantle this in no time, i will let you brainstorm on why she flips the enemy team’s map control on its head in this situ
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is it only highground? no! king’s row 1st point and hollywood 1st point is proof. the tiny hotel lobby adjacent to first point KR, and the security room leading into hollywood A, are extremely volatile areas of the map to control given the proximity both teams have to eachother. however whichever team DOES control this room is afforded a very direct attack vector for the enemy squishies that must be contested (this is less true for defenders on hollywood given the geometry, but it holds true for attackers)
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how about hero specific levels? for example, widowmaker has different positional desires than soldier 76. soldier would love to be assuming a midranged highground position on a flank. widowmaker simply wants a long, uninterrupted sightline with exploitable gaps in the enemy defences. however, if you’re trying to exert one-size-fits-all map control designed for 76 against widowmaker by denying midranged and flank highground, she just doesn’t care. she’ll sit somewhere else and shoot your poor ana player in the head, while you’re contesting a part of the map nobody cares about and getting little value for it.
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reinhardt is another fantastic hero specific example because it’s so common for them to assume map control is someone else’s job - granted, often it is, but you cannot simply shield down main and prey that the rest of the map remains safe! (another great video opportunity - “SMASH HIGH GROUND!” - Diamond Reinhard Coaching - YouTube)
what rank does this matter in?
in concept, it matters in every rank - often fights will be serendipitously won or lost based on map control, but if you pay attention to the smurfs in your games, they often repeatedly exploit these map control concepts deliberately. they take positions that are uncontested and fight really hard to stop your team from taking them and it feels like you’re being strangled out of the game.
in reality, it does require a fundamental understanding of the game, the heroes, and a little bit of intuition to read other players desires. i can’t comfortably say whether or not it’s worth it for a bronze, silver, or even gold player to prioritize learning about map control - but i can comfortably say that if they did learn it, they’d exert a lot more pressure in their games.
it sounds complicated and its lot to take in, how do i get started?
what i would recommend you do is pick one hero at a time (start with the ones you play, then who you commonly play against), and just pay really close attention to where they go, what flanks they go on if they are flanking, how you can deny those flanks, or what positions they prefer to hold and how to pressure them before they have a chance to do what they’re trying to do. do it for that one hero until it’s intuition, and then move on to the next.
no sugar coating, overwatch is a chaotic game when you’re playing at your proper elo and it’s certainly a lot to take in. when youre first trying to learn and apply this, you are most likely going to be distracted by how much you have to pay attention to and you’re going to do worse. but eventually it starts becoming automatic, you’ll be doing it without thinking about it, and it’ll free up mental bandwidth to think about other things.
what you’ll find is that you eventually start getting really comfortable around those heroes and you start to predict them quickly and accurately, and even though its not one-size-fits-all, there’s quite a bit of carryover intuitition when reading the heroes given that people tend to carry over their experience playing them.
where can i learn more
you can learn a lot from spilo and kajor’s free content, and you can learn a lot about what each hero and composition desires and how to counter it from iostux. but you’d mostly be getting that from vods from potentially months or years ago
soz for no good answer, but feel free to ask questions or expand with your own advice if you have 
