Overwatch League pro demonstrates ‘powerful’ Sombra tactic

Guangzhou Charge DPS Ou ‘Eileen’ Yiliang pulled off an epic stealth flank in the Overwatch League without needing to use Sombra’s invisibility.

During the Overwatch League Stage 3 match between Guangzhou Charge and Chengdu Hunters, Charge DPS Eileen made it into the enemy back line by somewhat unconventional means.

While Sombra is designed as a flanker thanks to her invisibility, Eileen didn’t need to rely on the ability for stealth in a game on Volskaya industries. After the Charge defended the second capture point to send the Hunters back to the spawn room, Eileen pushed up and simply waited.

Overwatch League fan u/dapsoul captured the moment from both Eileen and the Hunters’ perspective, using the new OWL Replays system and dubbing the clip with audio from the Avengers: Infinity War scene in which Drax claims to have mastered the art of standing so still he can become invisible.

While the edit does make a joke of the play, there are lessons to be learned from it. Eileen takes advantage of the fact that the enemy wouldn’t expect a player to be pushed so far up, the fact that he was off to an angle and elevated, and that players are more likely to notice movement than a stationary character, to remain “hidden.”

In doing so, he was able to avoid using his invisibility, not only saving the cooldown but also avoiding the audio cue that breaking stealth usually gives the enemy, making it more likely that he could attack and then escape without being caught.

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Though it’s always possible that the Hunters could simply have noticed, Sombra’s translocator makes the play fairly safe. By taking advantage of the enemies’ focus and expectations, Eileen was able to gain a little bit of ultimate charge for free, if nothing else.

It’s this consideration not just of what is technically possible, but how the expectations of the opponents can be manipulated, that can give players a slight edge even without having to pull off anything overtly spectacular.