Hey, Bronze players, you can finally team up with your Grandmaster friend in Overwatch 2’s Competitive Play.
Season 10 of OW2 will change the grouping mechanics for Competitive Play, allowing all ranks to group with all ranks, in what Blizzard is calling “Competitive Wide Groups,” as it announced in a new Developer Update video today. This pertains to groups that include players that are more than five divisions apart.
There are some serious caveats to this grouping, though. Blizzard says to expect longer queue times because of specific matchmaking, like attempting to match parties against similar ones. The example given was that a Platinum tank and Bronze support will attempt to match with another Platinum tank and Bronze support.
Blizzard also said that the wider your group is, the less the ranks will change after a match. The company thinks the change will see a decrease in smurf accounts, too, since many players make alternate accounts to play with their friends in different ranks.
Wide groups will only play against other wide groups, and “matches will be sillier,” but the addition of being able to play with friends is the focal point of this update to how matchmaking works.
The ability to avoid players is also changing in season 10, with an increase of up to 10 such slots, and the feature to pin players on your list. This is to mitigate the change that newer avoided players will be the least likely to be avoided, and they players will replace older ones that are unpinned.
Blizzard also confirmed harsher penalties for leavers, removing chat functionality for disruptive chat behavior, and more. All of the new features can be seen in the Developer Update video, and will be implemented in-game when season 10 releases on April 16.
