What do you do when you lose nearly half you player base to another game? Well release another season and try to get them back! Blizzard has released a new trailer for its upcoming Overwatch 2 Season 16 titled “Stadium” which is set to arrive on April 22nd. The next season will introduce a number of new features including a best of mode that lasts seven rounds, new heroes, the return of competitive play mode featuring hero bans, and more.
Enter the Stadium!
Blizzard’s development team has been hard at work in releasing updates for “Stadium” since the start of the week. They (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) are already to expansive to cover in complete detail but here are some highlights.
- Stadium is a best-of-7 rounds event where two teams of five compete in arenas where they can purchase various upgrades and powers.
- Introduces new 3rd person view
- New Damage Hero – Freja, a relentless bounty hunter armed with a Revdraw Crossbow capable of rapid-fire shots along with a Bola Shot to ensare multiple enemies
- Upcoming heroes include: DokiWatch and Juno
- Upcoming Skin: Merciful Magitech Mythic Weapon Skin
- Has 17 heroes at launch
- Stadium Cash begins at 3,500, more earned after each round regardless of win/lose
- Nine maps
- New Hero Builds
- New Mercy Rule
- 12 Powers to pick from
- Most items are available for multiple heroes
- Seven Stadium Leagues featuring five skill divisions
- Gains and losses based on internal matchmaking ratings which are adjusted post matches
- Juno All Star Skin unlocked after reaching All-Star rank in any role
- “Stadium: Initiation. Jump in and complete challenges for a variety of rewards including Name Cards, Player Icons, an Epic Loot Box, a Legendary Loot Box, an exclusive Rookie Soldier: 76 Epic skin, plus Battle Pass XP bonuses to kick off your progression through the Season 16 Battle Pass.“
- Hero Bans in Competitive mode:
- The team with the most votes for one Hero will be considered the “first” team, and their most voted Hero will be guaranteed to be banned. If both teams are tied for the most votes for a single Hero, the first team is decided randomly.
- The other team becomes the “second” team, and both of their bans happen next. If the Heroes they voted to ban were not the first team’s most voted Hero, then their most and second most voted Heroes will be banned.
- If the second team’s most or second most voted Hero was also the first team’s most voted Hero, then the second team’s third most voted Hero is used instead.
- Finally, the second most voted Hero on the first team will be banned, with the same caveat the second team had when banning their Heroes.
- In cases where the number of votes for a Hero are tied, the Hero that was voted by the most players in the lobby (not the total number of votes) for is banned.
- If Heroes are still tied, ties are broken randomly.
- No more than two Heroes in each role can be banned. If two Heroes in the same role have already been banned and a team’s next most voted Hero is in the same role, those votes are ignored and this team’s next most voted Hero in a different role is banned instead.