The combined fury of angry Overwatch players forced Blizzard to reverse a change it made less than 72 hours ago: 'We’re grateful to everyone who tried it out and shared feedback'

Countless Reddit threads and social media posts piled up this week strongly criticizing Blizzard's decision to add a MOBA-style draft system to Overwatch 2's popular Stadium mode. Specifically, players were against the removal of mirror matchups where both teams can play as the same heroes.

The response in the last few days, following the launch of the new season, has been so overwhelmingly negative that Blizzard has abandoned the system less than 72 hours after implementing it. The draft mode will stay, but mirror matchups are allowed again.

"We’re grateful to everyone who tried it out and shared feedback," game director Aaron Keller wrote on X. "As a team, one of our goals is to make the game that you want to play. This involves listening, responding, and taking those desires into account."

Keller says the team is "still invested in creating new and unique features" but acknowledges that "not everything is just right each time." "That doesn't mean we'll stop trying to innovate," he added, "but that we'll adapt and iterate as quickly as we can when something doesn't land the way we want."

What was pitched as a system to help you strategically pick your heroes in a mode where you can't swap mid-match quickly became a reason for people to not play it all. Players argued that Stadium's limited hero pool (compared to normal OW modes) didn't support such a severe restriction on your hero picks. It also seemed to defeat the purpose of the mode in the first place, which is to use a set of unique powers and items to build your character over the course of a match.

MOBAs like League of Legends—where drafting is a common feature—work because they have over a hundred heroes to choose from. The point is to keep teams from playing the exact same heroes every single match once a popular meta forms. Stadium, however, only has 21 heroes available.

"We have six supports. SIX. You can lose access to half your role before you even get a turn," Reddit user Pizzabro200 wrote.

"There is nothing to be gained from drafts," Reddit user anarchistbuzzwords said. "It only serves to force counter picking and prevent you from playing the hero you went in wanting to play."

By removing the mirror matchup restriction, counter-picking heroes is now optional—which is, frankly, how it should've been in the first place. Not everyone wants to make pivotal decisions on the hero selection screen, especially in a mode all about adapting on the fly.

To Blizzard's credit, it's repeatedly said Stadium will be a mode full of experiments. It's been steadfast in regularly tweaking and replacing various aspects of the mode since it launched. Even if drafts were a miss, it's at least nice that we didn't have to put up with them for an entire season, and that it was willing to flip the switch in the same week it introduced it.

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