Overwatch is getting another mode! It will partially replace and absorb Brawl, and also provide a whole lot more!
Blizzard's games are all very different, and yet very similar at the same time. Each game gets the same kind of dedication to the gameplay and art, but certain features can also be spotted multiple times. Recently, one of those features has been a dedicated wonky gamemode, often called Brawl or Arena.
While Overwatch had a Brawl gamemode at release, it never did fulfill its potential (except for the Lucioball and Dr. Junkenstein modes). Soon, you will get access to Arcade mode in Overwatch that hopes to raise the ceiling in all regards. It will have a variety of different variants:
- 1v1 Mystery Duel
- 3v3 Elimination
- 6v6 Mystery Heroes
- 6v6 All Brawls
- 6v6 No Limits
- A whole new map exclusive to Arcade
- New Brawl Modes
Let’s go through the modes and see what they all do:
1v1 Mystery Duel
As the name suggests, this is a 1v1 mode. You go 1v1 with someone, best of 9 rounds, with the same random hero. May the best player win. Finally a place to challenge your friends or that cocky teammate/opponent you met in another match.
3v3 Elimination
This one is also pretty self explanatory, yet holds a lot of depth. Teams of 3 go head to head in elimination rounds Bo5. You can do this with friends or solo queue up, and have the freedom to pick whatever hero you want. However, the new hero limit is still in place meaning you can only have 1 hero per team. No 3 Bastions guys, sorry. There will be no hero switching per round and no respawning within a round, which is a new dynamic in Overwatch and should provide a lot of tense moments for the players and teammates spectating.
6v6 Mystery Heroes
Those of you who played a lot of Brawls before will recognize the term 'Mystery Heroes'. This used to be a Brawl Mode where you play a normal game but the hero that you play is picked for you and is switched every time you die. This makes building up ultimate’s more difficult and survival paramount. Now, this gamemode will be permanently available, for the times you just don't know what to play.
6v6 All Brawls
This mode cycles through all the original brawl modes, as well as some new ones. This will be the meat and potatoes of the Arcade mode. If you want to Rule the Skies then go here, if you want to play any of the brawl modes that you already have (except the seasonal ones) then go here. You queue up and the mode cycles through the modes as you play, its like mode roulette. You don’t know what you are going to get. Perfect for variation.
6v6 No Limits
It was announced that Quick Play will soon get the Hero Limit implemented as well. So, you are going to have to go to Arcade mode to play as more than 1 hero on a team, in this gamemode. You can solo queue this if you don’t like the changes that Blizzard made to Quick Play. Or if you are with your friends and don’t want to lose Volskaya Industries defence (6 Torbjorn), or play any other combination.
This will be just like Quick Play is now.
A New Map
Accompanying this Arcade mode will be new, smaller maps build for the different gamemodes like 3v3 and 1v1. The first new map is called Ecopoint: Antarctica and, unsurprisingly is Mei’s home base, where she gets to experiment with her icy technology.
Here you can see the names of what are presumably other Overwatch heroes, who could potentially be released later on. The biggest thing of note for this new map is that it seems to be exclusive to the Arcade Mode. Meaning it will be played on the 1v1, 3v3, and perhaps the 6v6 modes. But will NOT be in normal rotation, as far as we know.
Another note, this Arcade Mode will become active in PTR next week. You can start trying this out there, and it will make its way to the rest of Overwatch shortly after that. On top of the rest of these changes, Blizzard will keep adding more brawls. Not a lot of word on what those modes will be just yet, besides word of a Reinhardt and Lucio mode, and one that focuses on the Well round of Ilios exclusively.
If you are looking to get more rewards for your game time, you are going to want to play Arcade mode a bunch. For every 3 wins in Arcade you get a new loot box which is valid up to 9 wins and resets every week. That's 3 easy lootboxes every week, for those of you who like saving them or like to get a lot of them during Seasonal Events.
You can expect updates and more to the news coming out of Blizzcon from us shortly.
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