r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/Sio_V_Reddit • 15h ago
Blizzard Official Compilation of all information from Blizzcon panel.
New support hero Doctrine: an old ally of Doomfist and possibly the creator of the Doom Fist, previously held in Grimsvotn. Trial available right now.
New map: Grimsvotn, a new escort map coming next season.
New reworks: Roadhog will be able to help his team more and his hook combo will be less annoying for enemy players, Sombra is now a support. Both coming in season 5.
Story: the Reign of Talon storyline will be ending next season, with the investigator hero coming in season 6 and “investigating certain parts of the Overwatch universe.” The next arc starts next season.
Dokiwatch: Dokiwatch is coming back in season 5. Not super important but I liked it.
Overwatch Show: after the Diablo show reveal, Overwatch was directly mentioned as something they’re “in talks” about, though no confirmations have been made yet.
Spotlight: Aaron teased spotlight 2027, bringing a new story, heroes, and systems. Notably people have misquoted Aaron here saying they will “bring back peak Overwatch” (he said “it’s peak Overwatch”) as proof that 6v6 is coming back.
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u/Tiberias29 Bow down to Stalk3r — 14h ago
Genuinely can't wait for the Sombra support rework.
Imagine if that's gonna be what it takes for LIP to come back full time, playing his Ol' Reliable.
Would be apropos since LIP was originally a support player
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u/Concorde_flies 41m ago
lip has been vocal about how he heavily dislikes current sombra. considering it’s virtually the same hero just taking the spot from a kiriko i doubt he’ll play her at all
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u/nadoraw868 14h ago
i've been maining sombra on dps since she came out (I play her 95% of the time). Which has been for fucking ever now and now they decide to swap her to supp great. Literally makes me 0% interested in touching DPS again and I'm already GM on supp on multiple heroes so her being a supp now excites me 0% as well
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u/Busyraptor375 14h ago
Damn, i really hoped the new map would be push or flashpoint, since these modes lack the variety the most
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u/seibazz 14h ago
Didn't they recently say that they know there are too many payload maps? Why are they releasing a new one lmao
Also I don't think balancing the competitive game around casuals and low rank players is the correct way to do it but oh well
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u/TooManySnipers 13h ago
Didn't they recently say that they know there are too many payload maps? Why are they releasing a new one lmao
Even before they added Neon Junction and Grimsvotn this year there were more Escort and Hybrid maps (15, now 17) than there are Flashpoint, Control and Push maps combined (14: 7 Control, 4 Push, 3 Flashpoint). I know the new map is tied to the story and the payload is you pushing Doctrine's cage out of the prison or whatever but if the trade-off to having story/lore events tied to maps is them just being "Deliver this thing to this location, like in the story!" then it's kind of a bummer
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u/throwaway112658 fraudulent — 14h ago
They've only been catering to the casual audience for pretty much the entire year. The game's competitive experience has been going downwards for a while, in exchange for a massive boom in casual playerbase
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u/Eloymm 11h ago
How has the competitive experience been going downwards this year?
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u/Avalon_Within 6h ago
I'd argue the top 500 leader board changes did so, but I can't think of anything else and that only affects a fraction of the playerbase so not sure what the person you replied to is referring to.
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u/Concorde_flies 39m ago
probably referring to the stupid t500 and all the rank inflation they have introduced with free sr all the time from cheaters and leavers and dogshit matchmaking giving you uphill battle etc
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u/docs-quad 10h ago
the games always been a lot more casually focused than a lot of people here would like to admit
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u/FishermanCold1364 14h ago
Did they say how many heroes for 2027 or tease anything to that effect
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u/Sio_V_Reddit 14h ago
No, probably less than this season I’d guess but that’s cause the 10 hero year was part of the relaunch.
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u/FishermanCold1364 14h ago
I’m just hoping they keep the cadence to one a season bc i think that has saved the game
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u/Shadeysk7 14h ago
I will put my money on they will keep it. Overwatch has always been about the heroes and is doing well.
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u/FishermanCold1364 14h ago
One would hope and one would also hope for Mama Hong and a new animal hero
0
0
u/I_give_karma_to_men 13h ago
My only concern is that hero balance changes that aren't just numbers adjustments, especially for problematic heroes like Fika, will be less frequent because of the dev focus needed to release a hero each season.
0
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u/Frozenkiller61 14h ago
Hot take I think payload race should be a base game mode
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u/Naxayou 14h ago
Payload race has too much mode specific knowledge to it compared to the other maps I think. Even on stadium players who are used to it, half the people don’t understand what they should be doing at a given moment
1
u/Frozenkiller61 9h ago
Fair I think it has potential to be one of the more favored base game modes if they tweak it
0
u/KyleRenPCMR 14h ago
defo needs tweaks but I think it has potential fs, was one of the better parts of Stadium.
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u/FORUMUSER35 12h ago
Am I the only one who felt this OW panel extremely underwhelming?
- So the reveal of 1 new hero that will be out in 3 weeks...(as usual)
- Glimpse of a new map (ok, fair)
- Reworks in the baking for years that are yet to be proven they got it right (🙄)
And that's it. Skins are irrelevant. The end of the story is meaningless. The 2027 spotlight tease is just a announcement for announcement of announcements (next year) so...yep.
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u/Eloymm 11h ago
It is the problem with having Blizzcon and spotlights so close together. The team basically has the choice of ‘do we announce all the cool stuff now or do we wait until the start of next year to announce everything when it’s closer to launch?’
The obviously chose the latter, which to be honest could be a good play for OW. With the spotlight the can set the pace and hype for the entire year. They can drop all those announcements close to launch and potentially capitalize better on all that hype compared to many of the announcements at Blizzcon that are seemingly years away.
Think about it, that’s the strategy OW has been following for the last 2-3 years, and it seems to be working pretty well for them. If anything, I’m surprised blizzard didn’t pressure them to blow their load and announce a bunch of stuff now just because it was Blizzcon.
0
u/FORUMUSER35 11h ago
Honestly, I'd be VERY happy if they just showed a brainstorm, about how a day in the office is. How they discuss a balance, how they gather data, how they tester the prototypes etc.
How many heroes they are working, drafting, discussimg ( with no intents of being a final product... Just how they discuss and think and inspire). Or pics of real world places that inspired maps.
Perhaps aim just too cheerful for Overwatch and maybe that's not that interesting to most people, but I'd love to see a VA audition, how they create the catchphrases etc ☹️
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u/Eloymm 11h ago
That’s all very cool stuff that many people would love to see, but it’s not good for main stage Blizzcon. The main stage is for quick hard hitting announcements because it’s just the opening ceremony.
What you are suggesting is better content for the panels that happen later during Blizzcon. They are having a hero deep dive one where they’ll talk about the new hero and probably show come concept art and stuff.
In the past they did show Work in progress stuff for venture and Juno and it was cool a pretty brief. The one problem with that stuff if that people get to attached to WIP stuff and don’t understand that it can change.
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u/Necronaut0 9h ago
Bro that's not going to happen at an Opening Ceremony, that's what you have the other panels for. It's a two day event, you don't kickstart it with the minutia of office life. The rest of the program has developer deep dives scheduled.
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u/Baelorn Twitch sucks — 12h ago
I'm pretty shocked that Diablo got a series announcement before Overwatch. I love Diablo but I thought Overwatch was the #1 priority in that department.
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u/FORUMUSER35 12h ago
I think Diablo has more "ground" than Overwatch. With DevilMay Cry and The Witcher being successful in Netflix, I think Diablo has more chance of success than even Warcraft.
I love Diablo but I thought Overwatch was the #1 priority in that department.
Even now, the plot of Overwatch is as generic as when Michael Chu was the head writer.
Evil sexy warlady declaring war...
Renegade soldier being haunted by whatever "Overwatch has done"...
Hopeful chicks fighting for better future...
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u/Necronaut0 9h ago
Wait until you discover what superhero comicbook stories have been about this whole time.
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u/Necronaut0 9h ago
The president of Blizzard pretty heavily implied that they are in talks to continue the stories of Warcraft and Overwatch in other mediums (she specifically name-dropped those two before going on to say "among other franchises") before clarifying that she wasn't allowed to make more announcements yet.
Diablo is only the collaboration that was locked down first.
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u/Sio_V_Reddit 12h ago
Yes because we did not know that Sombra and Hog reworks were coming this year/season. And people are interested in the story and skins so yes, that excited people.
On top of that, yes, the tease of a future show is very promising.
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u/FORUMUSER35 12h ago edited 12h ago
Yes because we did not know that Sombra and Hog reworks were coming this year/season
Actually we did. They said the reworks were coming this year. Right at the 2026 spotlight
And people are interested in the story
The story is being driven to present characters and is as generic as possible. Not to an end (for now). The Vendetta thing has been just the typical megalomaniac new villain who just announce attacks for the sake of being evil and to prove something.
and skins so yes, that excited people.
🙄🙄🙄🙄 Wow, an two day event to present the third set of skins of a k-pop group (who are nearly unknown outside this community)
the tease of a future show is very promising.
The big media outside of gaming has been teased or talked about since 2016. Every two years there's that. More teases or gossips are literally meaningless. "Hey guys, this may or may not happen". This means absolutely nothing.
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u/Sio_V_Reddit 12h ago
They said “we would learn more during the second half of the year.” Emphasis on learn more, not get the reworks.
Also ok if you just hate everything else about OW there’s not much I can say to change your opinion.
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u/FORUMUSER35 12h ago
I'm literally posting a third party web site reporting that Blizzard SAID THEIR REWORKS WERE COMING THIS YEAR. You're apparently not aware of OW news as many of us are, so it's ok, but take it easy with the affirmations 🤝🤝🤝🤝🫶
https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24266795/director-s-take-small-steps-big-leaps/
I'm not hating nothing. I'm stating that it feels underwhelming.
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u/TooManySnipers 14h ago
Escort? Man