Overwatch Director Addresses Sudden Death Complaints in Competitive Play

Jeff Kaplan discusses Sudden Death and its future at length.

Posted By | On 23rd, Jun. 2016

Overwatch

Overwatch’s highly anticipated Competitive Play mode is currently only available on Blizzard’s Public Test Region servers but it’s garnering quite the amount of criticism. This is due to its Sudden Death rounds which (a) award victory to the attacker that can capture the first checkpoint and (b) decides who attacks with a coin flip. With attackers receiving quite the advantage in some situations, there have been a myriad of complaints about the system as a whole.

Game director Jeff Kaplan took to the official forums to address this, noting that while the occurrence of Sudden Death for Assault had been reduced, it was still too high for the team’s liking in Escort and Hybrid maps.

For the short-term, Kaplan said, “Based on this data and your feedback, here are a few changes we’re looking to make immediately to Competitive Play: Initial match time for Assault, Escort, and Hybrid maps will be reduced from 5 minutes to 4 minutes. Sudden Death Timer will be reduced from 2m00s to 1m45s.”

He also noted that in the long-term, there will be a “time bank” mechanic for Hybrid and Escort to reduce the occurrence of Sudden Death. You can read Kaplan’s full response on Sudden Death itself – which he believes is currently “very good, and is actually much more balanced (and I’m looking at real stats here) than players are exaggerating it to be.”

However, Kaplan also noted that, “We’re very open to changing and tweaking this system, but we’re also realizing that Sudden Death mechanics, in whatever format we might use, all have problems and we may be in a situation where we won’t be able to please the majority of our competitive players.” This includes eliminating Sudden Death and the Coin Flip in the long run though it most certainly won’t be in this season.


Amazing Articles You Might Want To Check Out!

Share Your Thoughts Below  (Always follow our comments policy!)



Keep On Reading!

Wuthering Waves Launches on May 22nd for PC, iOS and Android

Wuthering Waves Launches on May 22nd for PC, iOS and Android

The free-to-play open-world action RPG takes place in a post-apocalyptic world and features fast-paced combat ...

Cyberpunk 2077 Free Trial is Out Now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5

Cyberpunk 2077 Free Trial is Out Now on Xbox Series X/S, PS5

The trial offers five hours of game time and won't be on PC players for "technical reasons." It also only incl...

Rise of the Ronin Guide – All Bond Missions and How to Unlock Them

Rise of the Ronin Guide – All Bond Missions and How to Unlock Them

Bonding with allies can provide many benefits in the open-world action RPG. Here are all the Bond Missions and...

Helldivers 2 – LAS-99 Quasar Cannon, MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun Stratagems Now Available

Helldivers 2 – LAS-99 Quasar Cannon, MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun Stratagems Now Available

The new weapons arrive just in time to help players battle the Automatons, though the Quasar Cannon may be sit...

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is UK’s Biggest Game Launch of 2024 So Far

Dragon’s Dogma 2 is UK’s Biggest Game Launch of 2024 So Far

Capcom's open world action RPG has got off to an impressive start in the region, outdoing Final Fantasy 7 Rebi...

Grand Theft Auto 6 Delay Reports Are “Overblown”, it’s Claimed

Grand Theft Auto 6 Delay Reports Are “Overblown”, it’s Claimed

Journalist Jason Schreier says there's "no indication that anything significant has changed" where the game's ...