Overwatch is about to undergo some huge in-game changes, most notably related to its competitive season.
Overwatch Patch 1.45 will completely change how esports games will work going forward.
With Overwatch Season 21 hitting PC and consoles on March 5, all eyes are on the current feature that was implemented into the PTR – Hero Pools. The Hero Pool aims to shuffle the meta on a weekly basis, blocking certain heroes. With this change about to hit live servers soon, those who frequently play ranked might not be able to play how they used to (looking at you, every single main ever). So, your one-tricks out there probably need to hit the training room soon.
Overwatch Update 1.45 was aimed for the Public Test Realm (PTR) in a blog post by Blizzard Entertainment on Wednesday, February 5, for PC users first. Eventually, it was rolled out onto the main servers, including for console players. Some of the general changes from the blog post include:
- The Game Mode selector in the Career Profile is now sorted more logically to make it easier to use.
- A group leader may not use the Leave as Group option while a competitive game is currently in progress.
- The initial Assemble Heroes timer for games using the Assault, Hybrid, Control, and Payload game modes has been reduced from 40 to 35 seconds.
- Mei’s Ice Wall now has a visual damaged state when under half health
- Updated the interactions between all stuns (Flashbang, Earthshatter, Freeze, Sleep, Accretion) to be more consistent.
An important thing to note within the article is that the Hero Poolmay not stay as it is for the entire season, as Blizzard community manager for Overwatch Josh Nash said:
“It is important to note that Hero Pools is a new feature that may not last past this initial season. Throughout the season, we will be adjusting the types of Hero Pools available. In addition, it is possible we will also adjust the frequency with which they change.” - Josh Nash
The Hero Pools in Overwatch will essentially block particular characters from being selected on a week-by-week basis for ranked competitive mode only. Of course, this will also be affecting the upcoming Overwatch League that will be starting on February 8 (go, team!) so we need to see how things develop once it hits the live servers and how the professional players will take it. For now, get ready for some big changes.
