The numbers represent the time remaining on the clock for the NYXL, that way it should be easy to follow along no matter which VoD Source you use.
Video Version:
The main thing that’s noteworthy about Fusion’s composition is the Ana Pick. Other alternatives would have been Mercy or Lucio, however, Mercy only makes sense if you run your own Widowmaker, and while Lucio can give you more cart presence, the amount of Nade Opportunities an Ana can get is really high, especially during the second phase of this map. Playing in this Ana is Fusions Win Condition. The general Strategy behind running a strong healer like Ana is that you set up fixed corners to play around. This is important because Ana lacks Mobility, so once you leave her line of sight, it is very difficult for her to change her own position to heal you. This is further amplified by the fact that Widowmaker is almost guaranteed to be picked by the attacking team on Gibraltar, who again manages to shut down a lot of Positions for an Ana. So what the Fusion need to do in order to win, is play around the Sightlines of their Ana, and abuse chokes for large Antinades and subsequent engages.
3:46
As we can see right here the Philadelphia Fusion are holding very far back. The platform that Widowmakers current path would lead to is called Island, and that is normally the default setup location for a defending Dive Comp, as it allows you to rotate anywhere on the map. But knowing that New York are likely running a Widowmaker, playing Island is impossible, as that position would make it impossible for the Ana to both hide from the attacking Widowmaker and be able to heal her team. This is why Fusion is setting itself up near the back and pretty much allows New York to push for free at this time, they don’t want to take any unfavorable Trades.
3:21
New York has been pushing very slowly, they put their D.va on the Payload to ensure progress, while the rest of the team tries to scout information and take positions. We can also see how New Yorks D.va used the Payload as Cover, which confirms that she wasn’t really setting up for a Dive, but rather just wanted to apply Cart Pressure.
3:19
And here we can see Fusions first major Mistake. Fusion’s Winston took control of Tarp, with his primary intention being to shut down New York's Widowmaker. This was actually a pretty big mess up. In order to win the Fusion have to stretch our their engagements for as long as possible, and that’s because of the way Health Economy works.
Healing per Second and Damage per Second both scale with time, as the name implies. The longer the fight, there more Damage you will deal, the longer the fight, the more healing is going to get done. But there is one important mechanic that needs to be understood first, Burst Damage. Burst damage throws this equation out the window, as it cannot be healed. Burst damage is so fast that it becomes mechanically impossible to counteract said damage with any Healing. One example would be Widowmaker one-shotting an opponent, the damage per second is infinite, and no matter how much healing you have, you can’t really use it at all.
So how does this apply to the current game? With Fusion running a very Heal Heavy comp, Zenyatta Ana, it is important that they drag their fights out as long as possible. That way they can abuse Ana’s Cooldowns and her insane healing. New York, on the other hand, wants the fights to be over as quickly as possible. While the Mercy can technically heal a bunch too, doing so will split her from the Widowmaker. Widowmaker is one of those picks at the moment that outside of a Widow vs Widow Duel only really shines if Damage Boosted, very similar to a Junkrat or a McCree, the synergy is insane.
So all of this means that Fusion wants to draw out the fight for as long as possible. One way New York can finish this fight extremely quickly is by getting a numbers advantage thanks to Widowmaker Picks. The damage boosted Widowmaker is the main source of Burst Damage for New York, so shutting her down means that the Fusion will win the war of attrition against New York. That’s also why the entirety of Fusion is set up inside of the Server Room, it is one of the few places that a Widowmaker doesn’t have easy sightlines into. Not only that, but the Server room would be the next location a Widowmaker would want to rotate too after exhausting Island, which is the platform she is currently standing in. So Fusion’s plan was to stretch out the Fight, make Widowmaker useless, and waste New York's time while out trading them on the Payload. Or at least in Theory. As we can see Fusion’s Winston doesn’t exactly annoy the Widowmaker for too long, having to use his Jump very early to disengage, pretty much relieving New York's Widowmaker of any Pressure.
Now the question is, why wouldn’t Fusion send their D.va to annoy the Widowmaker? The extra armor and mobility would help her keep out the Widowmaker for longer, correct? That is true, however, Fusion aren’t playing with a Lucio. They have 2 supports that need enormous amounts of protection as they don’t possess any innate mobility. A Winston simply can’t offer that protection. D.va has a Defense Matrix that is harder to play around than a Winston Barrier, D.va has more Armor so she can bodyblock for longer, and D.va has her Boosters which can knock enemies away. So Winston was the only character that could really contest the Widowmaker.
3:15
Fusion’s Winston is forced to fall back into the Server room to join his team. This is problematic because they are all huddled up in that little room, and with a Dive Comp, you want to take as much space as possible. Being all squished into that room does make it easier for Ana to heal them all up, but right now they need to give New York an insane amount of space because they don’t have the Health and especially Cooldowns to take any space for themselves.
3:11
As EQO rotates to Tarp Fusion are actually in a very good setup to take the space. EQO’s Positioning here is fantastic, it allows Fusion’s Frontline to dive in as soon as they are ready, and he is going to be able to follow up.
3:10
And that’s exactly what Fusion ends up doing. Now that Fusion’s Winston has his cooldowns back and is fully healed up, he takes the opportunity to dive onto the tarp and retake space. They need to be careful about New York Counter diving however, Fusion is diving Lucio Mercy and Widowmaker here, which means that Tracer D.va and Winston are still roaming around, potentially setting up to fight the rest of Fusions Backline in the server room Winston just jumped out of. So we are essentially fighting 2 fights at once, but Fusion is taking out 3 of New York’s roster while only investing 2 players, allowing a separate 4v3 to take place that puts them at a pretty big advantage. Fusion’s Frontline doesn’t actually want to kill anyone here, their main Job is to waste time.
3:07
Eventually, New York’s Backline is forced to fall back. New York’s Frontline decides against pushing into Fusion’s backline, they have control of the Mega Healthpack and fighting an Ana and D.va in an enclosed area can turn out to be not that good, especially in a 3v4.
So they end up making the correct decision by counter diving Fusion’s Frontline.
3:03
Fusion’s Winston ends up overstaying way too hard. He's pushing up too much so his Ana couldn’t get a clear LoS on her Winston. Eventually Winston takes too much damage and is forced to fall back, this allows Fusion’s Ana to actually heal him, but in that process he is forced to use his Barrier, which is really really bad. Overall the value he has been getting out of his barriers has been abysmal. He never really proactively uses them, he doesn’t use them to really take space, he uses them more to cover up his overextensions.
2:56
This mistake eventually costs him his life, and this really didn’t need to happen. If he played around his Ana’s Line of Sight and realized when to fall back he could have regrouped with his team and prepare another engage.
2:54
Luckily Carpe made up for it by securing a pick on JJonak. I assume that JJonak was feeling a little too safe after seeing Fusion’s Genji and Winston falling back, which allowed Carpe to catch him off guard. The Fusion are in a situation now where they have to commit fully. Without their Winston they don’t have a real frontline anymore, which means that New York would ideally want to push right into Fusion to create space for their Widowmaker. Fusion however realizes that that would be their death sentence, so despite them losing their Main Tank they make the smart choice of pushing in full steam ahead, taking the fight right in front of the Widowmaker and making it more difficult for her to be effective.
2:48
This works pretty much perfectly. Fusion wasted their Nanoboost though, I would assume that Neptuno didn’t anticipate them getting 3 picks without using Blade, EQO however made the correct choice of not using up his Dragonblade too. Using the Nanoboost however is going to be a decision they will regret later.
2:25
This phase is worth mentioning. New York’s Tracer is positioning herself on the highground for multiple reasons. On one hand it makes it a lot easier for her to follow up on any dive opportunities her Front Line gets, but the main reason is scouting. Setting up on the Highground allows Tracer to scout ahead for information that she can then use to tell her Frontline what they should do. The main type on information right now would be locations, just figuring out how Fusion set themselves up so that they don’t end up getting attacked from an exposed angle.
And there we go, Fusion’s next mistake. Winston just had to use his Leap to take control of Tarp(Blue). At this point this is all the information New York needs. They know that the rest of Fusion is still in the Server room, and they know that a Winston is split off from them on top of Tarp, so he can’t really counterdive.
2:24
This is very important to note. This Infra-Sight by New York’s Widowmaker was actually incredibly huge. Without it Tracer could have only seen the Winston, but with the Infra Sight New York was capable of seeing how Genji and Tracer were also nowhere near their Backline. This gave them the confidence for their following play.
2:23
Knowing that Winston has used his Jump, New York’s Tracer immediately jumps in and tries to force out the Winston Barrier. Sadly he wasn’t successful, but this really just shows how much New York is fishing for advantages. If Winston had actually used his Barrier here, that would give New York and even bigger advantage!
2:20
New York is the best team in the League for a reason, as they immediately capitalize and rotate straight into the Server room to catch Fusion’s backline off guard.
2:18
This situation was very messy so I want to clear it up a little. A Winston Player needs to ensure 3 things before diving in. He needs his Armor, he needs his Leap and he needs his Barrier. Bonus Points for also having a Harmony Orb. He just got his Leap, Tracer wasn’t successful in getting his Barrier out, so that’s check. But the main issue at this point is his health. A Winston at half HP is pretty much a dead Winston. New York’s Frontline has a much bigger advantage here. They are healthy, used their Cooldowns perfectly, and New York's Winston jumped behind Fusion’s backline to ensure that their Escape Route is cut off. he also placed his bubble behind Fusion’s backline, so that if New York decides to push up to react to a potential disengage on Fusion’s side, they will be able to continue using the Barrier and get it’s fullest value out of it.
So long story short, New York Set themselves up, they scouted information using Widow’s Ultimate and saw that Fusion was split and that their Winston just used his leap, and they decided to immediately jump on Fusion’s Backline. At this point Fusion’s Frontline is already broken, so it becomes almost impossible for Fusion to win this fight after their Winston was shot to Half HP before he could even really counterengage. I think this beautifully showcases Widowmakers Synergy with Dive, even a team with poor communication can come up with some really great on the spot strategies and engages if they can see all the information they want just by staring through walls!
After that New York end up taking the point very quickly, simply cleaning up.
I guess there are multiple things to take away from this. Fusion’s Winston Player seems to struggle a lot, giving New York to many opportunities to punish him. Dive is all about Information, Cooldowns and Value, and all of that needs to be communicated. Dive in terms of difficulty is the pinnacle of Overwatch, no other composition is as fast paced and difficult to plan and execute as dive, it is very dynamic and is very different from more Tank heavy compositions that rely a lot more on Ult Economy, whereas dive is more complex. A lot of thought and setup goes into every single engage seen on screen, and the smallest of details are easy to oversee if you watch the matches live, but once you look at them in detail you can truly appreciate how much practice actually went into this.