Blizzard Entertainment will bring monumental changes to Overwatch 2’s competitive environment with the release of Season 17. The devs dedicated enormous overhauls to two of the most beloved Flashpoint maps, Suravasa and New Junk City, and adding a new battleground along with enhanced player choice in map voting, revealed in a recent Overwatch2 2 Developer Live Stream.
The main concern of Suravasa and New Junk City redesigns is maximizing the flow of actions and enhancing players’ legibility in these spaces. The creators aimed to remove unneeded geometry and visual blockages that inhibited exploration and discovery in the earlier games, Senior Level Designer Jorge Murillo says. Slowing down strategy is intentional and aimed at delivering enhanced travel routes between objective holds, allowing smoother travel and more regular combat encounters.”.
New paths on the flanks have been incorporated to provide room for added tactical flexibility, introduced with some restraint not to inadvertently overestimate long-range combat to an unwanted degree. The objective is to provide room for fluid team combat utilizing the dynamics of the game mode to keep skirmishes object-oriented without causing impassable choke points. There will be sufficient cover and strategic withdrawal points to maintain the tactical depth Overwatch 2 players are accustomed to. Other than these significant alterations to known maps, Season 17 brings with it Aatlis, a completely new Flashpoint map, to join the rotation, along with the current roster.
Other than these fundamental changes to known maps, Season 17 brings Esperança and Samoa to the level pool for Stadium mode, further enabling players more choices for a diverse competitive experience. One of the most highly anticipated features includes adding a map voting system for Competitive and Quick Play playlists.
The feature enables all players to vote on which map to play prior to a match. This shift not only provides the community with more agency over their local gameplay but also provides Blizzard with positive feedback on what the players like that can inform future maps and shifts. These sweeping changes constitute additional investment in making the Overwatch 2 experience more engaging for players in terms of player investment and strategy depth.
