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The Overwatch community is at odds with the biggest change in Overwatch 2‘s PvP. Blizzard's decision to reduce the number of players per team from six to five has caused quite a stir. The decision came in, as the devs explained it, as a way to balance Tanks. The new team composition loses the second Tank, leaving us with one Tank, two DPS, and two Supports.
“Tanks can be problematic,” Overwatch director Aaron Keller says. “A DPS hero is simple—they're shooting. But a tank has abilities that can be noisy, or when stacked with other tanks can cause problems for other teams to try to overcome and counter.” Blizzard also says that having ten players, instead of six, simplifies the game and will vastly improve the experience of players. Keeping track of eleven players, they say, can become overwhelming. Reducing that number to just nine should make things much more manageable.
https://twitter.com/shiosetsu/status/1395465120403316736
Naturally, the change in Overwatch 2‘s PvP format will also change a lot of things in the game. The devs created the new maps with the 5v5 format in mind, making drastic changes in their layouts. Meanwhile, Tanks will also receive changes in their skill sets and abilities to make them more impactful on their own.
Off-Tanks fear for their jobs because of the PvP Changes
As with any change, there will be some friction. There are fans who have shown their displeasure with these changes to Overwatch 2 PvP. Some showed their willingness to try the change, giving the change the benefit of the doubt. Team Fusion's Gael “Poko” Gouzerch jokingly tweets as a response: “Any fellow tank player scared for their job?” While the joke may seem funny and relatable, the problem is a real one for many offtank pro players. Playing as an Off-Tank has a lot of differences from playing as a Main Tank, and if teams will only need one tank in a team, then it might be Off-Tanks getting the axe.
Any fellow tank player scared for their job ?
— Poko (@poko) May 20, 2021
Atlanta Reign's Blake “Gator” Scott also showed some apprehension on the changes. “Imagine spending 5 years to perfect your role,” tweets Gator. “Just for it to be deleted.”
Imagine spending 5 years to perfect your role…..Just for it to be deleted while knowing your role does not translate to another your expected to give all you got till the end of season (:
— M80Gator (@g8r) May 20, 2021
San Francisco Shock's Main Tank Matthew “super” DeLisi chimes in as well, saying that he can't tell yet if the Overwatch 2 PVP game will be good for the game, but says that coordinating with the Offtank is one of the most fun things he's done in the game.
As for whether or not 5v5 is good for the game, I won't pretend to know the answer. But coordinating with a tank, building synergy and dominating is probably one of the most fun things I've done in a game
— Matthew DeLisi (@supertf) May 20, 2021
Tangentially, South Korean parliament currently tackles the proposed “HOTS Law“, named after Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm. The proposed Law will prevent publishers and developers to unilaterally cancel events without informing the community. Maybe the HOTS Law should expand its reach to include unilaterally destroying an entire role in a game. If not, then perhaps South Korea can follow up with an “OW Law” in the future.
Overwatch 2 PVP changes is all about money?
Finally, there are those who doubt whether this move was for balancing gameplay reasons, or for something else entirely. Coach Justin “Jayne” Conroy speculates that the Overwatch 2 PVP changes are all about saving money in the Overwatch League.
https://twitter.com/EnvyJayne/status/1395462312522289152
Caster Andrew “ZP” Rush rebukes Jayne's speculations, saying that OWL is just a drop in the bucket relative to the bigger Overwatch ecosystem.
You're an absolute dumbass if you think that a primary game design choice for Overwatch 2 – the greater game played by millions – was influenced at all to "save money in OWL."
OWL is a drop in the bucket relative to the far larger OW ecosystem.
— Andrew Rush (@TempoZP) May 20, 2021
What do you think about the changes in the Overwatch 2 PVP format? Will you be playing this new competitive format? Or will you be queueing for Overwatch 6v6 Classic instead?
