Anything new is exciting for Overwatch League pros, Dallas Fuel assistant coach Kim “Rascal” Dong-jun said the team was deprived of new content for over two years after Activision Blizzard redirected resources to Overwatch 2, which now has an early access release date of Oct. 4.
That news came Sunday, and more information flooded the ecosystem Thursday in a trailer for the new tank hero, Junker Queen, plus a revamped ranked system and game director Aaron Keller’s promise of “putting out more content than we ever have before,” which was reported by The Washington Post.
Oh, and there will be a free-to-play model. This should help Overwatch 2 contend with other triple-AAA studios that release live-service content like Warzone, Apex Legends and Fortnite -- all free to play.
That didn’t come to Kim without concerns.
“I’ve played all of those games. The only concern I have is that if the game becomes free, that means that anyone can participate,” Kim said via interpreter. “That can also increase the chance for cheaters and hackers to get access to their game as well. I think that’s the only problem that may arrive in the future.
“Otherwise, it’s pretty good.”
Cheaters will exist in any video game. A free-to-play model, which has tons of pros like building an extensive player base and more eyes on the Overwatch League, also opens the door for hacking. Overwatch 2 will need a stable, consistent anti-cheat software. Warzone had a serious cheating problem that allowed players to create unlimited accounts and hack on all of them.
This would be important especially for the competitive integrity of the competitive mode Overwatch 2 will have. The mode was missing from the Overwatch 2 beta, which made it hard for the Dallas Fuel and every other Overwatch League team to practice for competition.
“There’s really no way to practice currently besides scrims. Given that Overwatch 1 comp games are very different in the sense of the current patch and flow of the game itself,” Fuel DPS star Kim “Sp9rk1e” Yeong-han said via interpreter.
“We’ve been trying our best to create our own Discord server to create that kind of ranked environment in the current beta that we play. But if the future beta has a comp mode, I think that would be very beneficial for us.”
Overwatch 2′s upcoming plans appear as multiple steps in the right direction. Now, Activision Blizzard is tasked with sticking the landing.
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