THE META

Esports competitions play a vital role in defining the ‘meta,’ or optimal strategy, for playing video games. As a meta solidifies, it impacts players in both esports and those who play the game recreationally, limiting their options and their approaches to play. Using rhetorical analysis of the first season and a half of the Overwatch League and examples from traditional sports, this essay argues that metas and the desire for optimization structures video games in a manner that is notable and important in considerations of game design and esports play.