It seems like we’ve been waiting years for Overwatch 2 to drop, but with the end of the 2021 Overwatch League Season we have a date, kind of. The 2022 Overwatch League season is going to be played on an early build of Overwatch 2. It was an exciting announcement for a lot of people, but thanks to the biggest change in the game it’s also a time of either uncertainty or retirement for others.
When Overwatch 2 drops, the PvP side of the game is going to see the biggest change in the team format dropping from 6v6 to 5v5. The Off-Tank position is being eliminated completely and all heroes that are currently regarded as off-tanks will go through an extensive rework to become main tank materials themselves.
Game director Aaron Keller explained part of the decision to go in this direction back in May during a livestream, “We feel like this is the next step in the way that Overwatch ought to be played. If you think about it, there is a lot going on in an Overwatch map. It is incredibly fast paced. We have always tried to make our combat easy to read and very understandable, and even with all of the work that we’ve put into that, sometimes it’s just hard to track what 11 other players are doing on the battlefield. Removing two of those simplifies everything, and it allows players to understand everything that’s happening around them, and to be able to make better choices.”
Overwatch has always been a complicated game to follow, so there’s truth in his words and a lot of players have already voiced excitement at the prospect. But, if you’re an Off-Tank player, at worse you just lost your job and at best, as a tank player of any type your competition for job security just doubled.
This change does bring Overwatch more in-line with most other major esports that have team sizes of 5. Plus, from what we’ve seen of other Hero changes such as with Sombra and Bastion, two DPS heroes, all heroes are going through a significant re-work just like the tanks are.
Regardless of what other changes lie in store, Overwatch 2 to a certain extent is going to be like playing a whole new game for a while as everyone relearns the game.
Feature Photo courtesy of Activision/Blizzard