Today marks the 10th season of Overwatch’s competitive play. While it has seen many tweaks to progression over its course, season 10 does nothing so drastic. The past few seasons have remained constant in regards to progression, but this season sees Brigitte join the fray. Here’s what to look for in the coming season.
Overwatch’s 27th hero unleashed
Brigitte is finally joining competitive play. As season nine ended, many wondered what effect Brigitte would have on competitive play. Many still do, although there is a consensus that she will shake up compositions. The dominating structure of 2-2-2 may finally begin to wind down, as Brigitte will allow her to fill the tanky/support role she was designed to. She’s also made a living on harassing Tracer’s and Winston’s that attempt to get a jump on a team’s back-line. Her stun is the most useful tool in these situations, and makes quick works of squishy targets. With focus fire, even a tankier character will feel the wrath of Brigitte. Her ability to provide armor to scale back some damage, and to provide area healing while dealing damage will see many compositions experiment to find the right fit.
With Brigitte being launched competitively before the start of Overwatch League’s stage four, it remains to be seen if she’ll be played on the big stage. If she is eligible, many will look to see how top tier teams and players utilize her. Her addition may be the bane of some players, but she may give Overwatch the jolt it has been looking for recently.
Scatter Remains
Although the new Hanzo rework has been on the PTR for a week or so now, it hasn’t made the jump to the live servers. If this rework follows suit with the introduction of Brigitte, we will be stuck with scatter arrow for another competitive season. However, since Hanzo is an older character, perhaps Blizzard allows his rework to make its way to the competitive scene. Either way, scatter arrows reign is ending, and all who love it should enjoy using it one last time.
If you don’t know, scatter arrow is being replaced with an ability called storm arrows. This ability reduces Hanzo’s arrow damage slightly, but allows him to fire six arrows in rapid succession. These arrows are also fully pulled back to allow for high damage. They can burn through tankier foes’ health bars, especially with critical hits. He’ll also be gaining a new mobility ability. Lunge allows for Hanzo to leap horizontally in the air, and increases his range of movement. This allows for Hanzo to move from higher locations easier, and to clear further distances or flank faster. Combined with storm arrows, Hanzo looks like a blast to play.
Rialto joining quick play map pool
Although new payload map Rialto will not be coming to competitive play, it will go live this week in Overwatch. Players in all the other types of play will be able on the new map, which is a welcome addition. Blizzardworld is still a fresh map, so the continuous adding of maps to the map pool has been great work by Blizzard. New maps add new and different strategies to each player, and each new type is a welcome addition. Competitive players can look forward to using this season to sharpen their skills on Rialto for the upcoming eleventh season.
Symmetra Rework coming along
Symmetra’s rework and change to defense hero is progressing nicely. Her abilities will be swapped, as her ultimate will be a movable, 5000 hp shield, while her teleporter becomes a regular ability. She’ll also be able to create reduced turrets, and her primary fire will no longer lock on. A lot of previous issues players had with Symmetra and the way she plays is being addressed nicely by Blizzard, and the rework seems to be progressing nicely. By the time season eleven rolls around for competitive play, look for Symmetra to be a completely different hero.
And that covers it! Not a whole lot is changing to this competitive season, but adding in a new hero is certainly going to change a lot of ways players will tackle maps. Look for the cries of Brigitte being unfair or unplayable to quickly follow the beginning of the season. Most of all, get out there and have fun climbing the ladder once more!
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Featured Image courtesy of Overwatch League and Blizzard
