Frightening Skins, Free Agency & Free to Play? - This Week In Overwatch
Halloween Terror Returns to Overwatch
On Tuesday, Halloween returned to Overwatch! For the sixth time since its inception, the Halloween Terror event is live for players to enjoy…if they dare.
This year of frights is headlined by eight new skins (5 legendary and 3 epic), sure to strike fear in the heart of any who oppose them. You can expect some truly ghoulish surprises in your loot boxes for the next three weeks. From Satyr Lucio to a Roadhog skin that might give you nightmares, definitely get on and start grinding
Along with the cosmetic updates, Halloween Terror also means the return of Junkenstein’s Revenge! In this PvE mode, players must stand bravely in front of the gates of Eichenwalde, fighting seemingly endless waves of Dr. Junkenstein’s Zomnic bots and other horrors he has up his sleeve.
If you’re looking to rise above the faint of heart, make sure to boot up Overwatch before November 2nd and experience the spookiest event of the year!
-Kyler Apgar
OWL Free Agency Has Begun
Across the league roster turnover is churning and some of the league’s biggest names and mainstays are changing places or retiring. Some of the most notable changes are three separate western teams dropping all but one player; Toronto (Heesu), San Francisco (Viol2t), Florida (Yaki).
Even one of the league’s most popular players, Super, didn’t escape the SF shock’s sweeping changes.
To add to that, overwatch league legends like Gesture, Birdring, Smurf and our very own Closer have started to retire.
While we don’t know exactly what to expect for Overwatch 2, know this: there will be plenty of new and familiar faces in different places next season. One of the first major dominos fall was Toronto landing former Shock flex support Twilight. I for one can’t wait to see what’s next.
All Free Agency updates can be seen here.
-Jake Brodsky
Will Overwatch 2 be Free to Play?
As the release of Overwatch 2 slowly creeps nearer, players are itching for any clues they can find that will reveal details of the game at launch. Recently, the rating of Overwatch 2 has come into focus, raising questions about the future of loot boxes and if Blizzard is gearing up for OW2 to incorporate a free-to-play model.
On Twitter, Connor Knudsen (@GoopyKnoopy) noted that the official German Overwatch account revealed Overwatch 2 will be rated 12+, compared to its predecessor that was rated 16+. On its face, this may seem like splitting hairs. However, with the controversy surrounding children’s access to loot boxes blazing through the EU, it’s not a stretch to assume that this rating may be indicative of a more inclusive financial model.
The battle pass option is something that has been widely adopted by developers across the globe, with some of the most popular games in the world utilizing the model. The battle pass was first introduced during Fortnite’s second season. This enabled Epic Games to sustain Fortnite on the free-to-play model, while also giving players the opportunity to opt-in to the battle pass and earn exclusive content. With the expectation that OW2 will be moving away from loot boxes, it’s not much of a stretch to consider that Blizzard may adopt the much more palatable option of the battle pass.
This then begs the question if OW2 will follow in the steps of games like Fortnite, Warzone, Apex Legends, Pokemon Unite, and all the other behemoths that have adopted the free-to-play, optional battle pass model. We will certainly be watching closely.
-Kyler Apgar
Overwatch 2 Developers Host AMA
One of the most notable changes being considered is swapping Doomfist from DPS to a tank role, given how important his crowd control abilities are to his kit.
This is something we've been experimenting with, and talking a lot about. No hero has moved roles yet though, but we've started testing Doomfist as a tank (as previously mentioned)
Doomfist's kit is full of crowd control effects and mobility, which makes it difficult to tune and balance him as a DPS in OW2. As a Tank though, he can keep those key properties to his kit since those can fit nicely into a Tank role (mostly the crowd control stuff).
A number of the other topics discussed included proposed changing to Mei and Brig’s kits and what the developers thought of the pro feedback after recent playtests.
They were particularly surprised by just how powerful the new Sombra rework was, noting that she hadn’t taken over any of their internal playtests as she did in pro play. As a response, the devs said they’ve already begun nerfing and tweaking her kit. They also responded to the feedback on Zarya’s bubbles, particularly how’s the new joint cool down feature made her feel less powerful in this new game because of the extended recharge time if a player uses both.
I think there is a good amount of iteration to still be done with Zarya. I think Josh already touched on some Zarya stuff in another thread but I would definitely say she is not set in stone. She was always going to be a bit tricky to tweak in this 5v5 environment and im sure she'll see some more changes over time.
-Jake Brodsky