Blizzard has decided to look for a different way to decide draws for “Overwatch” which means that future matches will no longer be decided on “Sudden Death” mode. The controversial feature will reportedly be taken out soon.
“Overwatch” is a resort that suddenly pops up when the game ends in a tie. The “Sudden Death” feature comes into play where the attacker and defender are determined via coin flip according to Kotaku.
While “Sudden Death” mode on “Overwatch” seems like a reasonable way to handle draws, such has reportedly drawn dissatisfaction among players in season 2. Knowing the displeasure surrounding the recourse during “Competitive Mode”, Blizzard plans to remove the feature altogether.
Unjust advantage
“Overwatch” game director Jeff Kaplan made the announcement via the game forums and explained that they are now looking at alternative as far as settling future game situations. Gamers reason that the manner of determining who attacks and who defends are unfair because both are fundamentally different positions. An example is the maps in use, something that could offer advantages on certain scenarios.
“Right now we’re exploring ways to allow for matches that would otherwise result in Sudden Death to instead resolve in a draw where neither team wins or loses. In that situation, our goal would be to make sure the match still felt rewarding for both teams, and that players could walk away feeling like it was time well invested,” Kaplan said via the Battle.net forums.
Iterated timing
Aside from the maps, there is another complaint among gamers and this has to do with timing. Following the recent “Overwatch” patch, Blizzard made some changes on “Sudden Death” timing.
With the exception of the “Hollywood” map on “Overwatch”, timing on the other maps have been shortened from 1 minute to 45 seconds to either 1 minute to 30 seconds and so on. “Numbani” was the only map saw an increase of 1 minute to 50 seconds.
The “Overwatch” Sudden Death mode is something that cannot be immediately taken out. Blizzard has made short-term changes like reducing timers so the complete removal of that feature may not immediately take effect.
