July 16th Overwatch Patch Notes: Summer Games, Subtitles and a Shorter Competitive Season?

Overwatch’s latest patch notes have been released, bringing with them the 2019 Summer Games, subtitles, updates to the workshop and the usual bug fixes. The complete patch notes can be found in the announcement made on the Play Overwatch website. However, to present it in shorter terms, here’s what the patch notes introduce:

Patch 1.38.0.2 Key Takeaways

• Summer Games 2019: The next seasonal event in the OW calendar includes a series of weekly mini-challenges that unlock the three epic skins that have been rolled out. Speaking of rolling out, Copa Lucioball also returns this season. This Arcade mode not only give players competitive points towards golden weapons but it also gives extra Arcade lootboxes to help players unlock any of the four new Legendary skins.
• Subtitles: Players can now choose between 3 additive levels of subtitling: Critical Gameplay, Critical Gameplay + Conversations, and Everything. These options can help to improve the gameplay experience for players that are deaf or hard of hearing, and also for players who enjoy reading closed captions. They also, however, can give an edge in detecting the voice lines that typically go along with ultimate abilities, so there is also a strategic element to using them.
• Workshop Updates: The devs have added the ability for scripters to measure the server performance of the current game instance. This will mean the most to dedicated workshop users like Darwin, who could provide a breakdown of what these changes mean for workshop users.
• Bug Fixes: The most notable bug fix is fixing the issue that could cause players who have selected a hero during the Hero Select Phase to have their hero deselected when the Setup Phase begins. There are several other bugs surrounding aim assist and spectating but the one mentioned will be most notable.

Not Included in the Patch Notes: Shorter Competitive Season?

Reddit user u/Zedriodor also made note that the current competitive season looks to only last 27 days. There is not any mention of this in the patch, nor have the developers made any sort of statement in regards to whether it is a bug or an intentional move. However, with the rumored OWL 2-2-2 role lock likely being announced on July 18, this could be an indication that Season 17 will be the final competitive season where players can play outside of the role lock. In any case, this will be something players want to keep an eye on in the next few weeks.

Image Clipped from Overwatch

The Game Haus will continue to monitor this and will continue to provide updates on all of the other exciting news surrounding the 2020 OWL season. 

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