Overwatch 2’s upcoming Season 10 will remove competitive mode’s grouping restrictions, allowing players to team up regardless of skill levels. The change comes as competitive play has overtaken quick play as the most popular way to play Blizzard’s hero shooter sequel.
Competitive mode saw a significant boost in Season 9, making up 45% of total playtime versus quick play’s 30%. Blizzard attributed this shift to well-received gameplay tweaks like hero balance changes and the new self-healing ability.
Encouraged by competitive’s growth, developers plan to lift grouping limitations in Season 10. Currently, competitive restricts teams to players of similar skill. The new system will instead match groups against opposition with comparable averages. Blizzard hopes this preserves integrity while letting friends play together.
Additionally, players will soon view match history and ranked progress scorecards. Role-specific titles and visible skill ranges will provide more ranked transparency. Blizzard is also exploring improvements to the elite Top 500 tier, potentially for Season 10.
The changes follow Overwatch 2’s experimental Hacked event that sped up matches. While deemed successful, Blizzard faced criticism for disrupting quick play. Future disruptive Hacked tests will run separately from standard modes and for shorter periods.
By reacting to player feedback and usage data, Blizzard aims to refine Overwatch 2’s competitive and casual experiences alike. As ranked play grows more prominent, upcoming seasons will focus on enhancing its competitiveness while preserving its accessibility.
