Players have left a lot of helpful feedback on the battleground rotation introduced at the end of last year and the hero rotation introduced in early March. This feedback helped us understand what you like and what seems to be inconsistent or unclear, and based on this feedback, changes have been made to both systems that will take effect from next week.
Unified rotation of heroes
Since adding hero rotation to competitive play, we've received a lot of helpful feedback from players who helped us realize that the system did a good job and did indeed change the metagame on a weekly basis. However, we also learned that some aspects of the system are incomprehensible to the players: you asked why certain heroes or roles change every week, and why the number of available heroes is not the same. The fact that the rosters were different in the same week in competitive play and the Overwatch League also confused players who were following league matches.
To fix this, starting April 13, we're introducing a single rotation of heroes, which will ensure that the Overwatch League and competitive play will be as close to each other as possible, and the game experience will logically complement the audience. How will it work?
To determine the rotation of heroes for the week, we analyze the statistics of heroes that have appeared in high-level competitive play over the previous two weeks. Heroes whose presence on the battlefield has exceeded a certain threshold are more likely to be removed from the rotation: the more often they appear on the battlefield, the more chances that we will not see them next week. Thus, one tank, two attacking heroes and one support hero will be randomly removed from the rotation. For two weeks in a row, the same heroes will not be deleted.
On Sunday, at the conclusion of the Overwatch League matches, we will be announcing the hero roster for next week, valid for both competitive play and the Overwatch League. The rotation takes effect on Monday morning.
This process will take place every week until the end of the Overwatch League regular season; During the weeks when there are no Overwatch League matches, the same data will be used to determine the rotation, and you will see the current roster of heroes on Monday morning.
Canceling the rotation of battlegrounds
Since we introduced Battlegrounds to competitive play, there have been a lot of feedback from the community about the system that we have reviewed and reviewed. We originally added battleground lists for two purposes.
In the short term, we wanted to reduce the number of matches at Paris and Lunar Colony Horizon. Many commented that these battlegrounds are worth improving, and we would like to improve them with future updates. We're currently reviewing Paris and want to change the layout of the battlefield to make it more fun to play.
Overall, we wanted the competitive seasons to be a little more different from each other, so that each one has its own charm.
However, many asked us to rotate the battlegrounds more often than once every two months at the beginning of the competitive season: someone suggested changing the list once a month, someone once every two weeks or even once a week. But, if the rotation is carried out more often, the competitive seasons will not have the "charm" that we talked about; in addition, players may not notice the absence or appearance of any battlefields at all if we shorten the time interval.
To make competitive play more accessible, we will be canceling battleground rotation starting April 14th. Instead, competitive play will feature all battlegrounds except Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony. We will add them to the general list after some refinement.
We always listen to community feedback and are ready to make changes to make Overwatch more fun. Please don't forget to share your impressions with us! These changes are coming to the game very soon, and we can't wait to know what you think of them.
See you soon on the battlefields!
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