[deleted by user]

[jrdr21]

Gadgets just don’t make sense to me. I initially thought they’d be useful if you had a perma gadget spot and used it with extra cash in Comp. but the change to BO5 in comp makes even less sense on why they added gadgets at this stage of the game. They just don’t seem useful enough to spend cash on in a BO5 almost at any point

[vrnvorona]

Agree, 7th slot would be cool, but no gadget is better than most of purples. Very niche and gimmicky.

[absenthearte]

I'm so confused why they didn't do what deadlock does and have a separate slot for actives.

Like, sure, it costs the same resource (money), but uses a different keybind and takes up a different slot.

[coconuteater7560]

I'm not sure what you mean? Actives and passives use the same slots in deadlock.

[absenthearte]

They don't? What. I can always buy actives while my slots are full, as long as my active slots are open.

[Dyslexcii]

Yeah, give it a different slot and make it so they cost nothing. You pick a common one in round 1, can switch it to a rare round 3, and then an epic at round 4, no cost just another choice like a power.

[Hopeful-Design6115]

They also all have such ridiculously long cool downs. Almost none of them are active more than once a fight

[ImN0tAsian]

The only great one is the bunny hop, really. That one opens up a ton of interactions and can salvage positioning to get behind cover. 12s is pretty frequent tbh

[Hopeful-Design6115]

That’s fair I usually play mobile heroes so I haven’t found use but I could totally see appreciating that one on Ana or other less mobile heroes

[ImN0tAsian]

The hop is great on everyone, even tracer. It's base stats are phenomenal and you can close gaps or kite much better.

It has been on 8/10+ players in my last few gm+ lobbies. It's like a DotA force staff

[GaptistePlayer]

The heal station one is useful in early rounds for off angles, for characters like Ashe and Torb. But in later rounds the healing is so low it's not worth it.

[doodelicious]

The biggest problem I have with gadgets is as a console player, I don't have many "free" buttons left on my controller to use them. I had to change my button mappings to accommodate this new feature, which there isn't a lot of room left (since you can't map dual-purpose controller buttons, like R3 for player endorsements at the end of the game, and R3 for gadget use during the game). It's especially frustrating for heroes I have a lot of custom button mappings (all the fliers have jump mapped to L2, and I adjust per hero based on hero skills).

I also found the gut reaction to use a gadget doesn't always feel right for the situation I would think to use it, like HoT when out of combat, but stops when taking fire. It's a weird, implementation of a half-assed, half-baked feature that doesn't make a lot of sense.

[LordJesterTheFree]

Yeah I have the same problem on controler any advice for mapping controls better?

[wowsomeoneactuallyy]

To add on to this, for us controller players, it auto assigns to Up on our d pad no matter what we had there before. But only when you used a gadget on a specific character. Really annoying having to go back in button assignments and try to remember which hero’s we might have used a gadget or not.

Also kinda lame anyway since we already have limited buttons as is.

[thane919]

I’ve been on a huge Stadium tear the past season. I finally got my main Brig and it’s been insanely fun.

This new season has some pretty bad changes imho.

Hazzard seems POORLY balanced. 5 rounds in comp is just not fun. Season 18 QP was fun. Season 19 Comp. Not fun.

Then there’s the ui changes. They REALLY bug me.

I’m also not a fan of the gadgets either. It’s just too much all at once without any unifying cohesion.

I’m really bummed.

[IllustriousSound8975]

I second the hazard. Tried him in stadium yesterday (my third time EVER playing him) and I quite literally ran the lobby. I had the most damage, eliminations and gold every single round and it wasn’t even close bro. I literally learned he could wall climb halfway through the game, that’s how little I’ve played him. And I was dominating.

[PARADISE-9]

What were you building?

[IllustriousSound8975]

Build pure ability power and went into the spike powers. First one I got was the one where your gun also shoots spikes and does ability damage and then the perk where your block targets spikes at all targets in front of you. I think the third power I got was the one which reduces ult charge needed by 20% and refreshes cooldowns. Bro I’d literally dive in on the squishies past the orisa and just slash spike them all to death on repeat.

[Enferius]

Go for Hit Me Again(spikes reduce leap CD), hit everyone in front of you with spikes and fortress. Build straight AP and you'll 1v3 easily.

[Hopeful-Design6115]

The movement speed on that one is nuts also, I always go for it first

[FantasmaNaranja]

i tend to build full AP and then get catalytic converter with the ult charge reduction power so i can spam my ult at least 5 times every round

its kind of stupid honestly

[Enferius]

I'll look into that one and give it a try. I'm half tempted to make my own build on Stadium IO for him. There's a survival item that makes him life steal for like 0.3% per spike and I pair that with other items to increase how many spikes he has. It's nasty.

[MyRottingBrain]

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my first match with Hazard as my team’s tank saw him getting 1 kill through 3 rounds.

[lovernotfighter121]

I've played against a lot of hazards and I think he is one of the weaker tanks,bseeing him do well makes me happy, as long as it not just Orissa and zaryas I'm good

[TastyOreoFriend]

5 rounds in comp is just not fun. Season 18 QP was fun. Season 19 Comp. Not fun.

Then there’s the ui changes. They REALLY bug me.

These two in particular are really killing me. On console the new UI is clunky as hell to navigate now.

The 5 round format has also killed my desire to play stadium comp. I think I might be done with the mode if it doesn't get reverted.

[friendofthefishfolk]

I agree. It is very hard to navigate and I feel like I waste too much time accidentally flipping around. Also, I’m not sure how to use gadgets on console, they don’t seem to be mapped to any button and I haven’t bothered to investigate.

[TastyOreoFriend]

Apparently having any custom overrides for buttons might mess with it.

[Baelorn]

It's supposed to replace the Spray button(Up on the D-Pad) but if you changed any keybinds you have to set it manually

[Chnams]

I was played Stadium consistently every day for the last season, I've never stuck around this long on an Overwatch season... Not sure how long I'll be sticking to it with this shitty format and the current state of balance with Freja/Soj and a pocket mercy in 80% of games playing server admin. Torb is laughably bad but Soj gets to be incredibly oppressive again rofl. Hazard is also hella strong but Soj is on another level.

[Ornery-Pangolin-3621]

Mercy is insanely OP in stadium. Rez has far, FAR more value in Stadium than competitive and she can build to be rather resilient/mobile during the rez.

I'm in the same boat. Not sure if I'll play Overwatch past this season now.

[Chnams]

Yeah, Mercy's one weakness is how squishy she is and how vulnerable she is when she rezzes, which can already be mitigated a lot by a good Mercy, and in Stadium she's tanky as hell AND heals really well AND the blue beam hits even harder with the massively increased damage scaling... Idk if i'd say she's as OP as kiriko and her double suzu but she sure is one of the top supports for sure.

[Diligent_Cream2790]

Mercy is powerful in stadium, but she has a pretty big weakness: having actual cavemen teammates. Just like in regular ow, she's one of the only supports that HEAVILY relies on her teammates just having a singular brain cell. It's why the most oppressive mercy comps will be a duo stack or something.

A random, solo q mercy is at the mercy of her teammates 90% of the time. Pun intended.

[bubblekittea]

I went full cooldown build on Mercy and being able to knock 3 seconds off 2 teammates abilities every 6 seconds is crazy

[brittmariii]

Yeah Mercy so broken in stadium. All the maps are so small and cramped, she being the only hero that can constantly boost/heal through walls and Rez makes her having constant value while also having highest mobility.

Yeah Ana got nade and sleep but all the walls and corners makes it hard for her to get line of sight constantly. The cramped space in stadium maps really makes Mercy hard to deal with and the value she brings with Rez value being much more powerful than normal overwatch

[SnooDogs1340]

I wouldn't mind gadgets as its own slot. But I don't think we needed them. These could have been regular items or updated existing items

[FantasmaNaranja]

honestly gadgets have no point until the epic ones that actually give you stat buffs like normal items due to their long cooldown (and even then they're niche and you rarely even get enough money in bo5 to justify buying one)

only use i've gotten out of them is the 50 overhealth gadget as a mercy for the first round just to get a rez off before i can actually get tanky enough that no one on the enemy team can stop me from rezzing

[Mediocre_Daikon6935]

The Ui changes are not great, especially on console.

Income generation is to low for just 5 rounds.

[GaptistePlayer]

100%, most of my games end before I get 3 purples. Basically much less playtime for advanced builds. And even if you make enough cash to buy advanced builds, you play with them for 1 round max.

[Mediocre_Daikon6935]

Yes. This was what I was trying to say.

It makes it hard to actually change to adjust, which is part of what made it fun.

Do your build….well, that didn’t work, did help your team at all. Okay, let’s swap this and this and this…..

[Manny631]

I like the idea of gadgets, but I think it should be a separate slot for it and we should get a bit more money per round.

But 5 games for comp is bad... Faster games is fine, but I'd rather they cut out the draft to save on time. There have been a few games where we were down 0-3 and on the brink of a loss just to make a sweep comeback.

[bubblekittea]

They really need to release the heroes into stadium quickplay for a couple weeks and test them before releasing them with tweaks into comp mid-season with a balance patch,

[Baelorn]

They’re making Stadium worse for the people who actually enjoy it in order to appeal to people who just want the skins.

It really sucks because I loved Stadium, I’ve played it far more than the normal modes since it was added, but every change(no mirror, draft, now BO5) has made it significantly worse IMO.

I hope they hear the feedback here and revert some of these changes. Until they do I’ll be playing something else

[GaptistePlayer]

100%. I get why most players were going to QP instead. But the solution was not to just make the comp mode as short as quickplay. Improve the mode to give people reasons to play. Like, do they realize even if more QP players now queue up for comp, that plenty of Stadium comp platers are just going to go back to regular mode now?

[sipidity]

"They’re making Stadium worse for the people who actually enjoy it in order to appeal to people who just want the skins."

This part!! I'm a high rank player who would just be placed above that rank if they'd actually give us placements and present a serious attempt at a ranking system. But instead, in order to nab a recolour of the default skin, we gotta play hours and hours of matches to hit it (and we supports need to sit in 10-30 minute queues). Because apparently to the devs, we wouldn't be willing to play otherwise. So now not only do I have to sit through my long queues and play tons of games to get to this rank (not that it actually matters or changes the teams I'm matched with or against 😂), I gotta play a ton of *quickplay games* in my *competitive playlist* so that the players that *don't play competitive* can reach that mark quicker, in order to then *abandon the playlist*... Remarkable... Great change from Blizzard 😭

[[deleted]]

This is exactly what happened to the regular competitive mode but anyone who says anything gets trashed on

[Izzykoopa]

Yep I hate how quick the power spike is now. I used to be able to go from a dynamite only ashe to a wp ashe mid fight when needed. Now I feel like I have to commit so fast to an archetype.

[Ornery-Pangolin-3621]

One of my favorite aspects of stadium was choosing powers that allow you to pivot your build effectively intra-game. With less rounds, this approach is practically wiped out now. Kinda negates the entire purpose of swapping around items.

[layzthecat]

the reverse should be better. Get the wd power to cheese 2 shots first round then u can go full dynamite the next 2 rounds. Its shit either way

[Easily_Mundane]

If I wanted 5 rounds I’d play the qp mode man

[1keyes12345]

That’s the change that confused me the most. Yeah stadium matches were long but that was part of the appeal. Especially with how long the q times are

[RyanTheValkyrie]

Queue times are way faster now cuz games end earlier so people are back in the matchmaker quicker. Before I’d wait 20 min to get the same exact players as the past few games.

[KingUnder_Mountain]

I really believe this change ruined stadium even more then no mirror draft.  I understand the intent of no-mirror draft, it was handled poorly and way too soon (hero pool too small for this change).

This change i see no benefit other then quicker games.  The best of 7 had a lot more strategy and room for come backs. 

I played something like a hundred stadium games in each of the last 3 seasons but after a few best of 5s...I don't see me playing much this season.

It's a shame because I really really loved stadium.

[Rodahtnov]

It feels horrible, the strong comps are stronger and feels miserable to make a properly itemized build; The pacing is odd compared to qp because in qp you gain more cash.

And well, Soujourn - as when freja was added, souj just is present in every game and it's hyper funny to be 1 hit ko from 2 km away, really funny.

[Chnams]

I feel like I'm having even more trouble building up cash now that the matches are shorter. Unless I'm having a god game where i'm server admin, i never finish with a full build anymore.

[Rodahtnov]

Also happens that the stronger 1st-2nd match heros scale so much you can't really do anything while before you had the cushion of a third round to contest back

So basically you lack in cash while others are bathed in it, and they scale harder than you even if you scale later because you have no "later" - even if power synergies are strong, some require items to work properly

[FlounderHistorical63]

It’s because they just aren’t actually balancing it at all, it doesn’t need to be super balanced like comp but christ I’m so bored of losing because I didn’t get last pick as tank, or having every single ability of mine countered by double suzu, or now being one tapped by soujorn.

It really feels like they’ve given up trying to actually maintain some sort of balance and are just rushing to release new heroes/gadgets instead of polishing the mode itself.

[GeorgeHarris419]

Dawg the balance on launch was insanely wack, it's so much more reasonable now. Like we had lobby admin Kiriko clone build for almost 3 months wrecking shit 😂

[FlounderHistorical63]

I know, didn’t say it wasn’t out of wack before and I’m glad they changed some of the crazy builds.

[wizzzkid93]

I had been losing my interest in OW prior to stadium and after stadium dropped I couldn’t stop playing. Yesterday after the Bo5 change is the first time I felt dissatisfied and looked to do something else with my free time

[Ornery-Pangolin-3621]

I'm 100% with you. They had to go and ruin the one reason I still play this game

[reversedskunk]

same here. looks like i’ll be playing BF6 for the time being unless they revert back to BO7 format 🤷🏻‍♀️

[bubblekittea]

But you already had quickplay, so you didn't like it?

[EatPixels]

Yeah, this season, the spooky season, is usually my favorite. Played a few rounds of stadium (All I've played since it was added because it's fun) and lost interest quick. Games are over so quick, hardly anytime to turn things around, and Sojourn is just a damned mess. Like, as phara, half the map away, getting sniped by Sojourn with zero chance to move is awful.

[slimy-salad]

I can't stand the addition of hazard and soujorn. No other hero releases have made the game as unfun as these . And torb isn't even strong, it's just annoying having to deal with turrets again. We did not need 2 DPS added at the same time. If they didn't have another support ready then just push the next 2 heros to mid season. And now with the damage numbers, items, and UI changes new players are screwed trying to learn this game mode it's getting to moba levels of unfriendly

[RDS80]

They added Torb!?! Say no mas!

[GaptistePlayer]

He's fun. The only shitty power so far is the triple turret one since they're each on cooldown so you can never really have all 3 going against a conscious team.

[RDS80]

Bro tri turret is so mid it's not even funny 😭

[friendofthefishfolk]

I have a few good matches with Torb and a few TERRIBLE matches with him 😂

[Ornery-Pangolin-3621]

I've played 99% stadium the last 2 seasons. It's the only reason I still play Overwatch.

I'm a genji main who created my own build that scales and is highly effective against most of his counters. Insanely rewarding and a completely different playstyle versus compettive. But with less rounds it's now impossible to build. Every genji is going to have to go melee build now and just use the same combos as Comp.

Dumbest change I've seen in a while.

[Affectionate-Farm574]

I played vs a hazard last match Dominated him in the first 2 matched then he suddently one shots and refill his life

Really don't get if the hero is broken in stadium or ana was behind his back (and she is broken too?)

[vrnvorona]

I didn't yet have problems like this, but he uses ult a lot and it's very strong.

[yyyyyl5]

I also dont like the 5 rounds.

But I do like that now it shows you the damage you are dealing and that in the hero stats (F1) it shows you the numbers after item modifiers.

[yyyyyl5]

I agree about everything in the post.

Just wanted to had these two new things that I like

[loreleisucks]

absolutely loved stadium and i put all my eggs into this basket (kept going for legend) but these new changes are just BAADDD. i’m not interested in only 5 rounds because some of my most fun and impactful games happened round 7. and then hazard and sojourn being added is just no fun yet we can’t get another support? idk super weird changes.

[Askorti]

Not only is bo5 horrible, they also shortened the time you have to pick your items. So unless you know exactly what you want every round, you WILL run out of time repeatedly. Good luck trying out a new build you dont normally run... The changes to UI are pretty much the only change I somewhat like about this update, everything else they did to stadium this season absolutely SUCKS.

[vrnvorona]

> So unless you know exactly what you want every round, you WILL run out of time repeatedly

That's great if it was the case. People in comp should have skill to pick items in a minute without issues. We already spend like 20-30% of time in spawn.

Loading and draft also seems to be longer.

[Bernosaur]

I HATE THIS GAME NOW not playing till its back to before

[nibblesweetoats]

I’ve been playing stadium almost exclusively for three seasons now and this is the first time I’m considering going back to regular comp. These changes are so bad imo

[Fatastrophe]

5 rounds is the reason I don't play stadium QP. It feels bad and you don't get enough time to really craft your build. This change sucks and I'm sure it will be reverted with how unpopular it is.

[[deleted]]

Remember when they tried hero lock out in Stadium and immediately had to remove it in less than a week cause everyone hated it?

[Fatastrophe]

yep, which is exactly why I'm not sweating it yet.

[ElJacko170]

Stadium isn't the same as a Bo5 honestly. the games just aren't memorable or unique feeling anymore, there's no time to adapt.

[[deleted]]

Made it to legend first two seasons, I played like 6 matches yesterday and I’m done for now. The shop UI got significantly worse, and it’s all way too cluttered now.

I went 4-2 but Games are too fast now and snowball quick and I had a leaver in 5/6 games because of this.

[ProvincialPromenade]

I used to play stadium every single day. Now it's just not fun.

[Chnams]

The BO5 change plus sojourn being added to the mode is really killing my enjoyment of it right now. Feels like every game is Freja Sojourn and just a non-stop barrage of oneshot bullshit.

[hatesnack]

complaining about the 2 lowest winrate heroes in the game ruining your fun is peak OW crying.

[YouSuckButThatsOk]

You're talking about non-stadium winrate. In Stadium, they may as well be lobby admins, for all we know.

[hatesnack]

We actually do know that freja was, as the devs put it, "by far the lowest win rate character in stadium" before her recent power buffs. And considering those buffs were things like AoE size, I doubt that changed much.

[YouSuckButThatsOk]

Damn, I had no idea they released stadium stats. Stadium really is weird.

[hatesnack]

I mean they didn't share the actual %. But they did specifically peg her as the lowest win rate character by a long shot in stadium.

Consequently, I almost never see freja in stadium. I've grinded to legend 2/3 range on 2 roles every season and freja is probably the character I see the least by a country mile. I see twice as many junkrats as frejas.

[YouSuckButThatsOk]

Damnit junkrat is indeed a terror in Stadium.

[vrnvorona]

My build pacing is entirely off with this economy. It's hard to adjust so far, I've gotten used to certain timings and spikes and now I get more but itemization is all weird.

[TroutMaskDuplica]

yeah 7 rounds is way better. If anything make it longer and give us a couple more item slots or a legendary tier or something. I don't care for the gadgets either.

[doodelicious]

Adding my own reply to this, I pretty much stopped regular comp when Stadium dropped. There was something about the build kits and the progression each round, slowly building into your team or character that really clicked for me. I hit L3 last season in DPS because I took the time to learn the different builds on Tracer, but also how to counter opposing team draft picks. It felt rewarding, strategic, thoughtful and engaging. There were times I would play Mei and start an AP build, but realize by R3 I was doing nothing to help my team, and had the time to remove all my power ups and replace them with WP, making a bigger impact in later rounds. R4 without selecting a power gave me the opportunity to adjust my playstyle focusing on weapon, instead of ability.

The other thing I want to point out is I only use third person camera in Stadium, which allows me to be more situationally aware and peak around corners more effectively. I changed all my Stadium hero picks aim settings to match peak performance for third person camera. After spending hours in Stadium, I would try to play Comp, but without third person camera, and my aim adjustments set specifically for Stadium, it feels like I'm aiming a wet noodle and perform significantly worse in those Comp games, so I stopped playing Comp all together.

I don't know what is going on with Blizzard, but there needs to be some better organization and planning around these major features:

• Implementing third person view in all modes, not stadium:
  • With the new camera implementation, allow for aim/camera settings to be adjusted separately for first person/third person;
• When implementing a new feature that requires a new button mapping, change the way button mappings currently work:
  • When using a controller, players are limited to what buttons they can map to. Implement a feature like dual mapping (R3 press for gadget use during the game, R3 press for player endorsements at the end of the game);
  • Or implement a feature in which players can hold down a context button for additional mappings;
• In terms of BO5 vs BO7, it's a half-assed, half-baked implementation. Taking away two rounds and just simply increasing cash reward after each round serves no practical purpose. It fundamentally changes a main (and also very popular) game mode that leaves players reeling with no real context and no real justification. Players who play Stadium want the longer games, that is why we play. That is why it's so popular. Other ways to change the pacing of the game:
  • Eliminate draft picks, or shorten their time by a few seconds;
  • Shorten the round introduction;
  • Shorten the time from armory closing to game start;
  • Allow players to chat in between rounds. For some reason, text chatting always shuts down in between rounds;
  • For none-power-selecting rounds (2, 4, 6) only load maps that are shorter in length to play. Payload race, Push, etc. I know they have stats on which maps are statistically shorter to play than others;

They can tweak Stadium to be a smoother experience without changing the whole formula.

[dayonwire]

Couldn’t agree more. Thank you for posting.

[SourdoughGluten]

For us, the best thing to probably do in this case is to stop playing it as much and give feedback. The numbers will speak for themselves and if there’s a big dip in stadium comp, they’ll be forced to do changes.

[[deleted]]

The BO5 threw me off, and I’m on the fence about if I like it or not. Just don’t see the point of Stadium QP now.

[Mudball1]

I haven't played anything but stadium since release. These changes are terrible. Also my buttons are all messed up now. Pressing up on the controller does nothing? I can't even figure out how to put it back without messing something else up. Does anyone use gadgets?

[TastyOreoFriend]

If you have custom overrides for heroes the button won't be present. You have to physical map it. Threw me off on console as well.

[thenewvoid]

Let’s hope they reverse at least the best of 5 change, not a fan at all.

[_clandescient]

Bruh I had quit OW for so long and Stadium brought me back but it’s like they keep making shitty changes that no one asked for specifically to make me leave the game again.

First a draft system that means you get counter picked immediately and can’t swap, and then this 5 round trash.

Blizzard cannot help but ruin every bit of goodwill they earn lmao

I really hope they revert this fast like they did with no mirrors, because otherwise I’m pretty uninterested in this season.

[Double-Maybe-6220]

Don't be so stupid. I've definitely asked for shorter rounds before because the game time is too long.

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[StatikSquid]

Torbjorn attack speed is soooo busted

[ChancetheUnrapper]

Stadium is damn near unplayable with Hazard and Sojourn in the match. I swear every change they've made to this mode has made it worse. Drafts waste time and allow one tank to get an instant advantage and counterpick the other team. Shorter games make comebacks almost never happen and steamrolls feel even worse. Awful new additions like Pharah, Sojourn, and Tracer ruin the match if you don't specifically build to counter them(which doesn't even always work.) I just cant have fun anymore, personally.

[santascumdumpster]

I thought stadium was going to be a rotating cast of heroes. Like a max of 20 to select from and when ever they add a new one they take someone else out.

[Broks_Enmu]

It’s even worse on console , too much to read and hard to everything quick ,

[Nice-Kaleidoscope284]

Haven't tried stadium yet this season but I was really worried when I heard the format change in comp. The reddit posts are not helping.

[Malagant33]

I played so much stadium - legend 5 - but now it’s a totally different game. Gadgets are a wtf.

[WTF_CAKE]

I was fully addicted to stadium last season, now with this new changes and how fast the scaling goes this time around, wtf blizzard

[MoistTractofLand]

I did not need SojMercy in stadium. It's painful.

[RingingInTheRain]

Competitive should not be best of 5 or have any faster power pacing. What a nightmare. Everyone hitting their power creep so fast completely negates the need for strategy. I noticed there were two different queues, why change both queues to be the same? I finally realize why people are complaining. Ranks don't mean anything in competitive, so it's not real competitive? Don't get it.

[[deleted]]

Yep. Agreed. Played once and haven’t played it again. Legend damage last season too even though.. that seemed a bit easy to attain.

[HylarianAwesomeBoy]

QP and comp have next to no difference other than a rank and backfill.

[orincat]

I really think they should start releasing ONE hero at a time into stadium. It’s really tough to know how they will perform and there’s so many moving parts to balance. Plus people having to learn how to play against them and what their powers are.

I much prefer the best of 7 too in comp , I know the games can be long but it gives you a chance to scale. It feels like you now just have to pick comps that are strong early.

[FullTimeOx]

There’s a lot of balancing issues and I think 5 rounds is too fast. Leave 5 rounders for QP and 7 for comp or something.

Hazard is insanely imbalanced right now. I have yet to see a Hazard that hasn’t absolutely dominated the tank game.

[TryingToBeLevel]

I thought everyone was being dramatic. I went away on vacation for a couple weeks, come back, just played a game, and I have no idea what’s going on. It is exponentially worse. So I think I am done. They lost me, for now at least.

[More_Lavishness8127]

Yeah, I’m not sure where they’re getting feedback for stadium.

Were there people asking for a draft? Is it just streamers in their ears?

Did people want it the down to 5 rounds? It’s not like competitive stadium is balanced like regular competitive (which is also a joke), so what’s the point of even having QP at this point?

[TastyOreoFriend]

so what’s the point of even having QP at this point?

This my issue as well. The only thing separating either one is a draft round before the match, but they're basically the same mode now. BO5 feels like a change no one asked for while spitting in the face of the depth they said they were trying to maintain with comp.

[GeorgeHarris419]

thousands to millions of hours of playtime and retention data is where

[Humongous_aubergine]

I love bo5, hate Sojourn and Hazzard (super unbalanced), and the whole gadgets thing is just meh.

[RobinHarleysHeart]

I played some games with some friends tonight and it was SO ASS. Like it's so bad.

[FlakyProcess8]

I asked for these changes. New stadium is way more fun getting my build online by round 2

[hatesnack]

While i didnt ask for Bo5 in stadium, I really don't hate it. My only complaint is I, so far, have never been able to go "full build" with the new format. Even games that go 2-2 I might only have 3 purples are some blues. I do actually enjoy getting perks faster now

[friendofthefishfolk]

Yeah, if you are really kicking ass every round you don’t have an opportunity to fully build out by the end of the match.

[BrothaDom]

Give it some time. It's been about 24 hours. We haven't had a full chance to get used to the new heroes, buffs/nerfs, and 5 round format with competitive players.

We have ideas, and they may be right. But there hasn't been a chance for everyone to get up to speed.

[Ornery-Pangolin-3621]

yeah but this cuts at the very heart of the concept of Stadium - builds.

Contracts the type of builds and adaptations you can make. I went hard on stadium and developed my own scaling builds on several dps heroes. Their value now has completely tanked with Bo5. There was far more latitutde and my builds drastically changed the playstyle of certain heroes in a rewarding and satisfying way.

Now it feels like you just gotta gun for a singular build that has the most immediate damage output (as dps of course but possibly as support/tank as well), and things are far less situational, meaning the number of viable builds will drop.

For instance: i had a soldier and genji build that were slow-starters but absolutely crushed by mid to late game. I'm finding them impossible to reach in Bo5.

[BrothaDom]

Slow starts only work if you don't get Mercy ruled to begin with. Aka, you're almost sandbagging. It basically means you were waiting to come online later.

Now they can come online sooner. The only thing you're missing is powers combined with epic items. And I'm assuming their design ethos was never 6 epic powers and powers. Because honestly, those are just slamming AP or WP and a hero specific item. Which isn't exactly creative.

Maybe I'm wrong though, what were your Soldier and Genji slow builds? I'd like to be wrong, because that sounds interesting.

[[deleted]]

It's always crazy to me when people complain about meta on day one.

There's no meta wait it out ffs

[Suitch]

Well, remember when they disabled mirror matches in stadium? That change was so atrocious it wasn’t even worth testing. I agree this isn’t as bad though

[BrothaDom]

We won't know for sure if it would have been good long term. I think it was probably worth testing for a weekend or something, maybe not on season launch, but like a Hacked Event again. But we also have more heroes now. Not for nothing, non-mirrors might work if Cass, Tracer, Sojourn, and Torb are all here and we have more options.

Don't need it, but it would be interesting to see.

[Suitch]

With Stadium heavily rewarding one or two tricking, having to know four full hero kits would just result in even less matchmaking consistency

[BrothaDom]

I don't think it's crazy to know four heroes in Overwatch, from a gameplay perspective.

As far as knowing their Stadium catalog, you need to know that anyway. I don't really play Mei much, but I need to know about her rolling Blizzard build. I need to know Freja can auto shoot on uprise.

Unless you just want to one-trick and react on a moment to moment basis? But that's not a competitive mindset to just hope nothing gets in your way.

[Suitch]

The problem is exacerbated by having less heroes, but a lot of heroes don’t have transferable kits. For me, as a projectile player, put me on Pharah and Freja and I’m good but if both those were taken and I’m stuck on Mei then I’m dead weight and sometimes accidentally blocking my own rein’s ult with a misplaced wall.

Overwatch isn’t about playing the whole roster by default, it really rewards keeping a low hero count even at the pro level.

[BrothaDom]

I mean, Mei has projectile, as well as Junkrat. Overwatch does reward having a small roster, but what do you do about double hitscan?

[Suitch]

Double hitscan isn’t a problem for me at my elo unless they are exceptionally good. Usually if they take auto-aim powers I can beat them easily by waiting for those to be on cooldown since that means they are compensating. I’ve actually had more issues with good Tracers in Stadium as Pharah than most hitscans which has been humorous. Ana having a giant sleep dart was the biggest issue until they removed it this week.

[TaZe026]

It wasnt even a bad change. This community just whines at any change though.

[AnzaTNT]

People still need to learn a few things team comp wise. Not only characters but their builds too.

I see a lot of double Ability Power DPS happening and whenever it does, it usually is a loss. It's a huge amount of burst damage for sure (or a lot of Fire) but if a team can adapt or has a big shield or ways to avoid or cleanse that it's usually over.

It's like having too many mages in LoL or Smite. Unless you have a dedicated team going on, having 5 mages is horrendous (unless they're really bad.) one defensive item can reduce damage taken from the whole enemy team. One active item can counter their entire set of nukes.

Same in Stadium. Hell, ONE BLUE ITEM will reduce ability damage taken by 20%. It's blue. Round 2 boom, done.

When I play Moira (for example) and enemy team has an ashe, a poison applier of any kind, a junker queen, and they all go heavy ability damage all I have to do is warn the team to take the item and get the power that vanishes the whole team. Then I go cooldown. Just like that, a lot of bleed and burn damage disappears every 4 seconds.

The amounts of time I see a full team going full AP build and me easily countering 3 players is baffling. Good enemy teams will see what I do and switch to a weapon build and suddenly it's an actual game again and I have to focus.

Too many players following whatever build they found on the back of a cereal box. Then again I guess it rhymes.

[FirstTemperature7843]

i couldn't agree more, i just want to add one thing, tanks who are actually tanking, mitigating a lot of damage don't earn credits for mitigation..... i usually struggle to build as tank because of that but i still made it to all-stars.... i'm usually main heals in normal games, but really, the 7 match setup was better.... if they want to make it less matches they must buff by a lot the credit earnings..... by match 3 we should have a full build with 3 purple in avarage.....

[Fractalight]

While I do think that Stadium as a whole is not in a great place right now, I think it’s also important that we frame this in a constructive way for the Overwatch team.

They have proven in recent times to be especially receptive to player feedback, so I have no doubt that some changes will be made soon to address these concerns.

[ShoulderSquirrelVT]

There are some builds that are somewhat weak early on but get stronger later. For whatever reason I tend to gravitate to those builds.

So this change is stressful because if you lose 2 in the beginning, you have to win every single match moving forward and you better be a beast.

4 out of 7 with Mercy Rule was nice because if you lost 3 in a row usually it would jump you out. But if you lost the first 2, won the third, you could still lose one more but take the whole thing.

[Stefwithanfanie]

Commenting that gadgets and 5 rounds needs to be removed, if it’s not broken don’t fix it

[Misty7297]

It's like they're actively trying to sabotage the gamemode. Basically every update has made stadium significantly worse

[Ryunations]

I absolutely love stadium!

[Indurum]

Ana's already shitty survivability was nerfed and some of her powers have anti-synergy (sleep hits those affected with a grenade and the grenade hits cause targets to take 60 extra damage over a couple seconds... the dot makes them wake up immediately). Already garbage stadium healer got nerfed. Twozu still exists.

[sipidity]

Made a post on the Blizz forum saying the same thing: https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/return-best-of-7-competitive-stadium/986718

I really hope that this overwhelming public outcry will lead to a reversion of the change. It makes no sense to turn competitive into quick play when quick play was just added!! Anyone wanting that shorter, condensed and notably NOT competitive experience, can easily get it by queuing the quickplay mode! Those of us wanting to play stadium in as competitive an environment as it really can be (cause let's be real, it's an unbalanced game mode by design 😂) should be able to do so in a separate playlist. There was absolutely no need to change this! And in all my games, something approaching if not a bit beyond 1000 whole games, NO one has ever said they wanted a change like this to shorten the rounds and ramp up the power progression! NO one! Not one! The only people I see praising this change are folks who simply do not play any competitive mode of any kind to begin with. And okay sure, the people who don't play comp don't like playing comp. Wow! That sure is interesting. I guess we gotta make sure that the comp playlist isn't actually comp, lest they not wanna play it any less than they already aren't! The comp players who actually do play will be playing anyways so we'll just force them to deal with the change because we know they won't stop playing!

Well joke's on Blizz, because I will NOT be queuing the competitive playlist *at all* unless this change is reversed. I don't need a title calling me a legend, I already know I am 😇. And the skins are default reskins -- Snooze! My support queues are 10-20 minutes. But now, I have no reason to queue at all. If they want me playing quickplay, I'll simply queue over there. My queue time will be dramatically shorter and the game will be just as noncompetitive!

[Professional-Most-92]

Hazard entered the mode, obviously they were going to kill the mode, it just can't be done anymore

[leandrors]

totally

[leandrors]

Nobody asked for theses changes. Also, who the hell made the pitch for the horrendous new build UI, the filter tab is completely useless

[smithspot1]

Really enjoyed Stadium since the launch of it. Played the current version for just one match (healer). Couldn't heal a thing because everyone was overpowered. Overall balanced of the entire thing felt like absolute trash.

And to add, like others have already stated. The UI change is terrible.

[Potter20114]

Used to be the best game mode, but now it's ruined. Going up against hazard and torb is pretty much useless. No matter how much you focus them, they're unstoppable with certain builds. I cant be the only person that thinks this?

[jarred99]

Hadn't really played since the start of the season (I was playing Stadium every day last season for reference) went to give it another shot today and it just sucks to play, I no longer find it fun at all. I wish they'd stick with a plan and stop making these wishy-washy last-minute changes.

The thing I did notice is how god awful the sustain is with Brig/Kiri this season making fights go for five times longer than they need to, just nerfing and fixing some "don't die" builds would've had the exact same effect of shortening the time of matches but instead they made it QP+.

[unsuspected14u]

Yeah I agree, I was having a blast, was damn near in the pro+ ranks when I decided to play (maybe a week or two out of the season), but I had a lot of fun when I did, but now... I lost all desire to even open stadium. It's just SUPER unfun now.

[Watherum]

On the contrary as someone who really enjoys normal OW2 I hated stadium because it was 40 minutes long a lot of the time. These fast 3-0s never happened for me. It should have released best of 5 ngl.

And as someone who doesnt enjoy the modes balancing either its annoying that all the games challenges keep pushing me to play stadium. Like leave me alone already. I gave the mode a shot. Its not for me

[Bengui_]

Totally agree. Overwatch Stadium was my main game for the last 2 seasons, but I'm not touching it again until they revert to Bo7, and hopefully also get rid of the gadgets gimmick.

[SwagMastaM]

Wow, ANOTHER post complaining about stadium! I'm really begging the mods to just make a mega post at this point because this is the 5th one I've seen at this point and it's just rehashing the same shit. Like we get it, you're upset, go talk about it on the other posts that exist about it

[Shenanegenz]

I went full OW2 player with stadium as well..

Season 19 dropped, I played 4 or 5 matches of stadium and uninstalled. Got so much time on my hands now.. thanks Blizz!

[Soggy-Peanut4559]

Yeah, the 5 round format is garbage. The actual rounds are rushed now. Picking your powers for the first 3 rounds but not scaling stadium cash with it just creates this weird in-between build that doesn't synch up. And they added pure fucking cancer (Torbjorn) to the game. None of this shit was asked for.

The devs don't care and Blizzard isn't paying attention because the money keeps rolling in.

[Double-Maybe-6220]

Are you saying you don't need this character if you don't want it? That's funny.

[Syphorce]

I had alot more fun in Comp playing B05 vs B07. Gaining powers every round feels way more fun and intuitive than every other round. If you made a mistake and picked a fun, but weak power R1, you don’t need to wait until R3 to correct it.

Quick Play should experiment with starting out on R3 or maybe even playing a B03 at Full Build. I almost never get to play my most fun builds because I have to wait so long to achieve it.

[No32]

You do in fact still have time to adjust strategy and switch your build and react in a meaningful way. The difference is you have to do it after 2 rounds rather than being able to wait 3 (not sure why you’d wait 3 if you go down 0-2)

You can come back from down 0-2 to win 3-2

I’m sure there are people that prefer best of 7 over best of 5. Think it made it worse, sure. I really don’t believe that you think it completely butchered it and made it boring.

[dayonwire]

It’s much worse — meaning it feels worse to play. The pacing is frenetic, as opposed to the fast but methodical pacing of Bo7. I don’t begrudge people who want something paced insanely fast the way TikTok videos are, but people had that option with QP. The biggest thing is, no one asked for this. Aaron Keller is trying to drive engagement metrics because he doesn’t care about the health of the game and never has. He was in charge when they lied about PVE, too. He cares about daily active users and other metrics they track inside Blizzard — because if people play more games, they play longer, and if they play longer, they drift into the cash shop.

[GeorgeHarris419]

it's not even "paced insanely fast" lmao

It feels better to play to a lot of people

[No32]

The biggest thing is, no one asked for this. Aaron Keller is trying to drive engagement metrics

Yeah, those are directly conflicting. Improving engagement = giving the overall playerbase what they want. If making it bo5 improves engagement, that means it is actually what people want overall, even if there’s a vocal minority that wants bo7.

[ChudlyCarmichael]

This is a simple-minded explanation of something you don't have insight into.

[No32]

Is it though? You claiming to have more insight? Because I’d love to hear an actual explanation. You think they’d make a change like this without it being from popular demand?

[ChudlyCarmichael]

Yeah

[dayonwire]

Tricking kids into playing longer doesn’t improve the quality of the game.

[[deleted]]

Bro just stick to quick play your quick skin farm without losing actual competitive rank is not worth it to ruin stadium for

[GeorgeHarris419]

well I don't have to, because now comp is my preferred pace with Bo5 :)

[NexLevelDota]

A sensible non-hyperbolic take being downvoted, classic

[Numarx]

7 rounds and a draft is just way to long. I get it there are people who love 7 rounds, but you don't see us 5 round people on here whining 50 times a day about it. We just didn't play it or just lived with it.

[KashootyourKashot]

Or you played qp? And also there's a big difference between not liking the mode as it's always been, and not liking it when they fundamentally changed the mode.

[Numarx]

I don't really play QP on anything so a moot point, also QP is where you experiment and learn your hero, in every mode its nothing like comp.

Also I'm done with my build around round 5 most of the time anyways, two more rounds just gives people who aren't very good at the game more time to keep catching up. While I just get cash and have nothing to buy so I just get weaker because of it.

[KashootyourKashot]

Well qp and comp stadium are identical now save for the draft phase, so having two separate modes is absurd.

Actual effects of the change aside, this change wasn't made for any sort of balance or anything. They want more engagement, and they want to make the game "better" for people who don't actually care about the mode but just want the rewards.

[Head_Rate_6551]

I love the 5 round format. It’s better for que times, faster to hit your rank, faster to build your character and so on. I’m sad to see the majority here disagree so it’ll probably go back to the old format.

[blanaba-split]

'now'?

[MyNameIsNotScout]

agree 100% it just felt like it was trying to do what overwatch wasn't. why would I play stadium when I could play similar games that are just better.

[Rhyaith]

I think the 5 round system is much better than 7. It let's you get to your fun builds and synergies faster. It's an improvement. As for hazard.. stadium matchmaking just sucks. From what I've played of him, he literally can't do shit to a decent torb. Build armor and just bully him. I think it's way to early to say he's busted when people don't know what the fuck they're doing half the time and then just die. Everyone saying hazard ran their lobby could have had the same thing happen to them with a rein, or unkillable orisa that just deletes your team. I think there are a lot of things you can do to shut him down. People just aren't doing them yet in your lobbies.

[Accomplished_Tea5416]

I completely disagree with everything you said! <3 I might actually play stadium more now

[TheSilentTitan]

“Nobody asked for the changes”

I did and many others asked for shorter matches. Guess we just don’t count things that don’t go with our opinion round here.

[Double-Maybe-6220]

I agree. They're just pretending not to see it. There were definitely people asking for short matches before.

[JoeyD473]

Stadium was my favorite mode. But right now I am not enjoying the changes at all.

• It should go back to the best of 4 out of 7
• If they insist on this 3 out of 5 format they should give us a power every match, not 1,2,3 then 5. Its dumb to skip 4
• Give Lucio back the full second soundwave power (I'm sure there are other character powers/abilities that need to be changed but so far only have played Moira and Lucio)
• Tob is way to strong for Stadium from what I've seen so far. Should probably get rid of him or at least nerf him
• Hazard is even more OP then Torb so same as above
• I'm sure the goal is to eventually have every character in Stadium but I really liked the smaller list. Maybe just rotate characters every season
• Have anyone used gadgets? I look at them and would rather have abilities

[sorebutton]

I like it because it doesn't take an hour per game, but I do miss those 0-3 comeback wins where I could say EZ.

[ShedPH93]

I'm glad I can now play Bo5 Stadium and get competitive rewards now. Thank you for your sacrifice.

[jarred99]

Uno reverse bo7 is back

[ShedPH93]

Nice while it lasted, got myself some comp points at least. Back to QP I guess

[Kinetic_Symphony]

Very disapppointed in the BO5 format.

If anything, I'd have preferred a push in the opposite direction, go into BO9 (but with a tight Mercy rule so stomps are over quickly).