While Overwatch 2 and Warcraft Rumble don’t have any overlap in terms of gameplay styles, they both have gotten some recent headlines that are worth reporting, so we’re pulling them together here. Also they’re both games made by Blizzard, so that’s another reason for the shared space. Also Bree told me to put them together. Try not to think too hard about it.
We’ll begin with OW2, which talks about updates coming for Season 10 specifically for matchmaking and leaving. Competitive matchmaking in Season 10 will allow for “wide groups” to be formed that let friends with significant spreads between their personal ranks team up together and enter the competitive queue, with matchmaking seeking out other wide groups to play against.
Blizzard notes that this new feature could make for longer queue times as a result, and players will likely see little to no change in their skill progression depending on the wide group formed, but the studio hopes this feature will encourage players to not form alternate accounts in order to play with friends.
Season 10 will also see additional infractions levied against players who ragequit in the middle of unranked and ranked play: Unranked players who leave within the last 20 games played will be hit with a suspension from queuing that can last as long as 48 hours, and ranked players will get hit with increasing lockouts from competitive play for repeated leaving that can build up to a full season ban.
The post does point out that these penalties will apply to players whether they deliberately leave a game or suffer connection errors, and Blizzard appears to be making a hardline stance on the matter, as its solutions for players who are experiencing spotty internet are to either avoid competitive play until connection issues are resolved or to contact support.
As for Rumble, the latest patch is mostly fixated on bug squashing, with fixes for portions of the campaign, Arclight Surge, the UI, and PvP. The final note in the list also alludes to a “mysterious island” appearing, so there’s likely something new to see while playing the mobile title on top of all of the fixes.
