What is Sombra's TRUE place in the Pro Meta currently?

General Discussion
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I’ve seen multiple threads today saying Sombra is meta now, because she’s seeing play in most Hammond patch Contenders games. This seems conflicting with the ladder stats,so I decided to investigate for myself.

I am currently in the process of watching the full VODs of every game played so far on the Hammond patch, starting with EU games, then moving on to US, and I believe the KR final was as well so I’ll finish with that. I will update this post as I go.

Watched so far:

  • Angry Titans v One.Point
  • Winstrike (CIS Hope) v 6nakes
  • Gigantti v Young and Beautiful
  • Orgless and Hungry v Eagle Gaming
  • EU Semifinal 1
  • EU Semifinal 2

Angry Titans v One.Point:

Eichenwalde - Both use on Attack A. No clear contribution, both take A first attack though. Used by both sides attack AND defence on B. ONIGOD charges EMP quicker, but Horthic gets some value from Hacks where ONIGOD doesn’t. Both swap to Big Beef/Goats on C.

Volskaya - Used at very start of A to scout then change to D.Va by both offtanks. Swapped to to stall on B defence by both but not much else use. After surviving the initial stall requirement, ONIGOD goes on to get a key hack on Horthic’s Genji, then in the next fight instantly shuts down Phatt’s Coalescence. Best use I’ve seen so far.

Winstrike (formerly CIS Hope) v 6nakes

Ilios - Both Unfixed and Tkao try to gain value for Winstrike from playing Sombra, without much success. Each take a long time to charge EMP (Kensi nearly gets 2 Infrasight’s in the time Tkao took to get EMP)

Eichenwalde - Only used by Winstrike on A and B, Unfixed only gained value from hacking ChrisTFer to help start the first push take of A. 6nakes only use for scouting purposes, no defensive play this time.

Gigantti v Young and Beautiful

King’s Row - Shadder uses Sombra on attack A as a variant of Big Beef without the Brig, to distract from the rest of his team, then switched to Brig as soon as A is taken.

Orgless and Hungry v Eagle Gaming

Ilios - Hardest gains EMP very quickly on Well for Eagle, takes out 2 of 3 healers out with it, then switches. Team fight is lost but by no means because of the Sombra pick.

King’s Row - Kevster plays Sombra in the O&H specialist comp with Bastion on A defence, uses EMP then switches on B.

Volskaya = Leaf is first pick on short-lived A defence for Eagle, switches to Doom immediately.

EU Semifinal 1

Angry Titans v Winstrike

Ilios - Mirror Sombras from Erki and Tkao on Ruins. Tkao is ineffective, other than taking out his opposite number, whilst Erki eliminates Engh on Lucio a couple of times to turn the fight in in Angry Titans’ favour. On Lighthouse Erki switches to Sombra having started off her, when he sees Txao on Hammond. Uses EMP to shut down Minefield immediately.

Anubis - ONIGOD switches to Sombra on last push of attack A to get back to the point quick in OT. Uses Hack’n’Slash ult combo with Erki on B, but with no success, then switches to Hog.

EU Semifinal 2

Gigantti v Eagle

Volskaya - Shadder uses Sombra on first attack A for Gigantti. Charges EMP in the first fight and uses it in an attempt to roll the point, but fails, and switches to Hog as part of Slambulance

To be continued later with the NA playoffs

6 Likes
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OWL and Contenders meta isn’t tied at all to competitive Overwatch. For example, Hanzo + Zarya + Zenyatta is very meta in ladder, but was never really meta in OWL and Contenders. So don’t rely on competitive stats when looking at those two divisions.

Instead, look at the stats for contenders and OWL.

3 Likes
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She is unmatched in the amount of information she can give her team. Being able to sit behind enemy lines and tell your team exactly what they’re doing is like having infinite Widow ult, arguably one of the best in the game. You are just not noticing her value because you can’t hear their comms.

1 Like
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Well if it is pro game Sombra can have near 100 percent hack. Because all she need is a Dva matrix on shortly for her. So either they really need Hack or Emp, Sombra is good.

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I doubt that using her as a scout will really catch on, especially when Widow and Hanzo can give the same information but much more directly.

This isn’t Rainbow Six, those callouts aren’t that helpful- especially on ladder. As for pro-meta, we’ll just have to see.

7 Likes
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Right, I doubt it’ll do much of anything in ladder. However, in the competitive scene, it’s insane how much she can do. Hanzo can’t come close to it, and Widow can only provide the same information during her Ultimate.

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Hanzo can give direct enemy positions to his team without the distraction of having to talk and on a relatively short cooldown. I don’t see how Sombra callouts can match that really.

Also, Sombra’s team has to fight a 5v6 while Sombra is giving out callouts, and with slower stealth, it’s going to be harder to rush and join in on the fight when the push starts.

Only time will tell how useful it is.

4 Likes
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current state as well will be very unstable as she has just got a very large change, and the meta its self is in flux, with a new hero as well as changes to nearly every support. so the states will be rather incomplete.

i for one am watching her closely, i think she has value vs many meta picks,

i kept my eyes on her since release i have always felt she has had mad potential

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How is Hanzo’s better? The radius on that thing is like 6 meters and tells you nothing unless they move through the exact area you have it placed in. The most likely area for them to go through is the choke, but by then you’ll already see everyone anyway. Additionally, as soon as they go there, you won’t have time to rotate your tanks if necessary. Sombra, on the other hand, can tell you their entire team comp and where they’re going right out of the door without putting herself in any danger.

It’s not a 5v6. Sombra engages at the same time your team does. In fact, she will engage from an alternate angle, which is even better. She has translocator to escape, and assuming an enemy flanker didn’t get lucky and find it somehow, you have a safe and easy retreat.

3 Likes
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Sombra, on the other hand, can tell you their entire team comp and where they’re going right out of the door without putting herself in any danger.

Overwatch’s maps are so linear that it really doesn’t take a Sombra to figure that out.
Once again, this isn’t Rainbow Six, where people hold tight angles and where position is everything. Those callouts aren’t that helpful.

5 Likes
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With infinite invisibility, Sombra is far better for scouting. She doesn’t have any downtime whatsoever if she doesn’t take damage and can lurk in the backline of a team where a Widow or Hanzo can’t get see.
In the stats for the new Sombra, she has more elims but less damage implying that the team is working with her more. This does fit into the scouting idea that the team will jump on whatever she finds instead of her having to take the target out herself.

2 Likes
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Her place in the pros is scouting since the top1% actually can communicate properly. That is literally it though, plus she is being ran because she counters Lucio hard.

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Positioning and sightlines ARE everything in Overwatch. In fact, I’d argue that it’s by far the most important thing in the entire game (well, in the competitive scene at least). I highly suggest watching Wizard Hyeong’s video on the subject.

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I’ll give it a watch.

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So far to be bottom of the barrel bucket list sad excuse why would you choose her make everyone else look good role.

I seriously never fear one. Besides Mei has a blast just running about searching for a hiding passive dps.

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…i don’t mean to be rude but when you are silver or bronze things are much different,

again maybe at super low teir but she is working her way into high level play with a lot of communication and coordination.

try to be open minded about these aspects of them game from a learning perspective, and this will help you improve over time, tho it may not be super useful for you now.

1 Like
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Okay…I don’t play comp and most players stray from it.

So regardless of rank and your statement. Her effectiveness is determined mostly through quickplay.

If the presence of a hero is almost null and void and majority if her gamrplay is passive or running like a chicken or just dead in general its bad.

She has always had too muc utility in a lone wolf style environment where teamwork and coordination are a rare commodity.

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just, and perhaps your the 1000th customer. new players come into a thread like this ( guy is asking about a rising meta pick how and when to use her) and you and other newer players in other treads in similar make a very bold often negative statement about a hero or aspect of the game that they have little to no expertise on.

i dont wanna come off as just dont talk either that is not at all what i mean, but instead of saying she is not good i just play mei and kill her. maybe ask questions about why she is good or talk about interactions you have in your games.

and again sorry just like starting to bugg me is all hapend maybe one to many times today.

1 Like
19

I’m glad Sombra is seeing more pro play, but I think this will go exactly like last time she got buffed. Everything that made Sombra bad before, still hasn’t changed. More often it seems it’s not the scouting that’s especially valuable, but the position of the opponents that’s poor. Sombra also seems to be picked to make Hammond more valuable or to counter him and Doomfist, rather then getting picked because she’s good on her own merit. Once we get out of the experimental phase of the play-offs, I don’t see Sombra as being a high value pick. She will only become easier to predict, and her low damage will become more apparent.

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remember she has been good twice before then nerffed out of meta, it wasnt amatter of people just moving on.

once when her packs gave ult charge she was queen of 2 cp deference at a time, then came her re work where she could hack everything and again she was meta.
so they added an interrupt to her hack.

she walks such a thin line they need to be very careful with her

1 Like