It's time for Jeff Kaplan's new Overwatch Developer Update. The main theme of this video is the Competitive Open Queue, which used to be in available in Arcade games only.
Competitive Open Queue
This game mode works very differently all over the world. If in South Korea, it's the second most popular Arcade mode, in North America the Competitive Open Queue is less popular than the Mystery Heroes for example.
Competitive Open Queue will be back in mid-June, for a relatively short period of time. At the beginning of July and the beginning of Season 23, the game mode will switch from Arcade to Competitive. Attention, the game will remain adapted and balanced for the Role Lock.
There are several reasons for this return. In addition to the success of the game mode, this new type of competitive game has allowed a reduction of the waiting time in Competitive Game Queue.
Experimental mode
Experimental mode will be back with some balance changes. One of the main ones will concern Bastion and should make it more viable. Many changes are also planned for Support heroes. Ana's healing will be reduced, while Mercy should receive a buff. Zenyatta's Orb of Discord is returning to its former state, and many changes are being tested for Moira. Junkrat and other heroes should also be modified.
Hero Pool
Already announced by Scott Mercer, Jeff Kaplan explained again all the changes applied to Hero Pools and the fact that they will no longer apply in Competitive Game if the SR of a game is below 3,500.
When the OWL is played, the Hero Pool will be calculated on its data. Otherwise, it will be calculated based on the data of the best players.
Original content by Jean-Vincent "Durvil" Cannata.
This week Hero Pool only affects the Overwatch League. Tracer, Mei, Moira and Orisa won't be available during the competition matches.
