Новая эра Overwatch

The new era of Overwatch is coming! With introduction of the fixed roles concept the entire gameplay idea is drastically changing.

From the very beginning, flexibility was the most important thing in Overwatch. Being able to play as many heroes as possible was honored and adapting smartly was the key to success. Sometimes you needed to play "World of Tanks" to force into the checkpoint, sometimes the lighter but deadlier composition was needed. Now it is all limited.

This decision is a death sentence to all flex players. It makes no sense to practice different positions both in regular pub games and in Overwatch League. On top of that, fixed roles cross out all those decisions when Blizzard introduced hybrid heroes. We are not talking about Brigitte alone, to some extent this also applies to Wrecking Ball and Baptiste.

By introducing the 2-2-2 system, Blizzard showed that previous game development strategy led to nowhere. However, their new path is also really rough. There are 30 heroes currently in Overwatch, yet there are only seven tanks and seven supports. Can you think of many viable compositions? To be honest, I don't.

To adress this problem Blizzard should increase the amount of heroes over the short period of time. But with that, several serious issues come as well. First of all, each current hero has some unique mechanic. With fast flow of new heroes we risk to lose their identity. Secondly, new heroes mean new bugs, so the gameplay quality may suffer.

Because the situation is quite dire all the laughs about OWL players changing their seating order in case of switching roles is a drop in the sea. League players and club would be the first to give up on flex roles. Also, it may be more comfortable for viewers to know the exact seating order. Finally, these laughs are nothing in front of Overwatch death menace.

Despite the fact that many players wanted role queue, these changes can kill the game. This may lead to a couple of viable meta strats and GOATS would feel like that greener grass from the past.

What is good, though, is the timing of changes. Huge part of Overwatch League season has already passed so fixed roles would not affect that big amount of games. If it doesn't work out though, Blizzard will be able to reverse their decision and think of something else for the new season. (I am strongly in favor of "ban" idea). 

The only obvious thing is that game developers couldn't wait any longer and had to come up with some solution. Desperate times need desperate measures. The main question is, are those measures enough to fix the problems which originate from the core of the game. If this works out, we will play Overwatch 2-2-2.0 whether we want it or not.

Author's opinion may not reflect the position of WePlay!

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