There’s little that’s flashy about the way Orisa is played. Like Reinhardt, she’s a main tank; compositions are built around her. When an Orisa player is doing well, it’s easy for her to fade into the background—shields constantly in the correct spot, weakening enemies for her teammates to finish off.
It can be hard to notice when an Orisa player is great, too. But London Spitfire tank player Hong “Gesture” Jae-hui is a great Orisa player, as evidenced by London’s Overwatch League quarterfinals match against Los Angeles Gladiators on July 14. London swept Los Angeles during their Saturday matches and advanced to the Overwatch League semifinals, and it was Gesture that consistently set up his team for excellent engagements. Gesture didn’t play Orisa for the entire series—he often swapped between Orisa, Winston, and Reinhardt—but when he did, he ensured his teammates were primed for success.
There was no one big, exciting moment that made Gesture’s Orisa play outstanding. Like Shanghai Dragons’ off-tank player Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon, Gesture’s seemingly small decisions throughout each map often tip the scale in London’s favor.
Often Gesture’s high impact is in coordination with a Roadhog or Hanzo player. Using Orisa’s Halt! ability, which is essentially a tiny version of Zarya’s Graviton Surge, Gesture is able to pull Los Angeles’ players around the map. The crowd control ability is important to use in conjunction with other abilities, and London’s communication allows Gesture and his teammates to land these combinations consistently.
On Dorado, this meant pulling Los Angeles players from around corners to ensure that Roadhog player Choi “Bdosin” Seung-tae could land hook shots. Gesture shot the Halt! bubble just above the enemy Orisa’s shield to pull a number of Los Angeles players into hook range for Bdosin. London took out the Los Angeles Orisa shield as the Halt! landed, right when Bdosin plucked their Orisa from the group and took her out.
A one-off move like this isn’t all that impressive in itself, but it’s the consistency with which Gesture is able to land these maneuvers that makes his Orisa play outstanding. The Dorado push didn’t immediately lead to the second capture point. Indeed, it’s an Orisa combination from Gesture again that ended up giving London the advantage.
A perfectly placed Halt! orb is again what pulled an enemy player, this time Ted “silkthread” Wang on Hanzo—right into London’s own Hanzo ultimate. This maneuver became important once again when the team moved over to Junkertown. Repeatedly throughout the map, Gesture was able to pull Los Angeles players into perfect positioning for his team to capitalize on, whether it was into a Roadhog hook, a D.Va bomb, or Hanzo’s ultimate.
Gesture is the one that nailed these Halt! shots, a skill that requires positioning and timing, but we can’t give him all the credit. Communication in these instances in essential. Without it, these moments would have fallen short. But Gesture’s impact on Orisa can’t be ignored. He’s a player that’s shown consistency on tank heroes. Winston is, of course, his best and most-played hero, but he’s easily a top-tier Orisa, too. Orisa’s usefulness is often tied to certain maps and points of maps, but it’s her foundation of small yet important plays that change games.
We’ll likely see Gesture back on Orisa (and Reinhardt and Winston) when London faces Los Angeles Valiant on July 18 at 9pm CT in the Overwatch League semifinals.
