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Australia

We Chatted To A Couple Of Aussie Overwatch Pros About Their Least Favourite Hero To Play And It Surprisingly Isn't Symmetra

Symmetra may be next to useless on the competitive world stage but the pros absolutely love her.

With its ragtag roster of 28 (and counting) playable heroes, all of whom have unique movesets and well-developed personalities, it’s to be expected that some Overwatch characters are more beloved by players than others.

But if you were to ask any casual player who their least favourite hero to play is, chances are that you’ll get Symmetra as an answer.

While the character herself is super cool, it’s her moveset that gives her this unfortunate reputation. She doesn’t dish out enough consistent damage with her turrets and weapon to be a danger to the other team, she definitely isn’t buff enough to be a front-line tank, and she doesn’t do any healing so she’s useless as a support character.

Excluding the occasional amazing Play of the Game, Symmetra’s usefulness in 90% of Overwatch matches ranges from nothing to “there was a Symmetra?”

But while the casual Overwatch crowd aren’t particularly big fans of playing Symmetra in general, it’s a sentiment that appears to have trickled up towards the professional leagues.

In the time the Overwatch League kicked off its inaugural season in January to its dramatic conclusion in July, seeing a pro player use Symmetra in a match was rarer than seeing Bigfoot.

So with that in mind, I asked a couple of Aussie Overwatch pros – Team Australia’s general manager and coach Andrew “Rqt” Haws, and Team Australia member Ashley “Trill” Powell – ahead of the Overwatch World Cup the big question we all want to know: what is their least favourite hero to play and why is it Symmetra?

Surprisingly, their answer isn’t Symmetra (who is actually Rqt’s favourite character to play).

Rqt and Trill both unanimously agree that their least favourite hero to play is actually stealthy Mexican hacker, Sombra.

“She is just so oppressive in this meta (a phrase referring to the strongest current strategy in the game)”, says Rqt. “Her EMP is fine and all, you can play around the [ability], you can counter it with Lucio’s ultimate ability, but it’s just her hacking ability that’s so frustrating.

“Good teams are really good at stopping Sombra from getting behind and that’s expected at a high level, like D.Va is constantly shooting at choke points behind you, you [Sombra] will still eventually get behind and they’ll hack who they want to hack and that person usually dies.”

For Trill, who is a tank player for Team Australia, playing against Sombra is just nightmare.

“As a tank player, there’s nothing I can do about it,” he explains. “She has permanent invisibility now, which means she can behind your whole team without you knowing.

“And her hack ability is just so quick now and so obnoxious. You get hacked and it’s like ‘oh, I can’t do anything’ and you have to rely on the rest of your team to help you.”

Facing Sombra isn’t the biggest worry Rqt and Trill have to think about though. Australia are through to the quarter-finals of the Overwatch World Cup, the biggest Overwatch event in the world.

However, the boys from Down Under are facing a tough battle because they were drawn against the reigning champions and heavy favourites, South Korea. That being said, the team are relishing their role as underdogs.

“It’s a bit unfortunate we got drafted against Korea, but we’re still optimistic, we’re still practicing, and we’re still taking it super serious,” says Rqt.

“There’s a lot of practice going on, players are really motivated, we’re not going to be ‘we’re just gonna give up, Korea’s going to beat us’, we’re confident.

“We’re the underdogs and everyone expects Korea to win, and I think that’s the best place to be.”

Based on what’s been happening on the Overwatch stage in the lead-up to the World Cup quarter-finals, there’s a far bigger chance that Australia will beat South Korea than seeing someone whip out a Symmetra in the middle of a match.

And I have a feeling those odds are something Rqt and Trill are more than happy to accept going into Australia’s World Cup match against South Korea. Sorry Symmetra.