Back when Blizzard first launched Overwatch, team compositions were 6v6, meaning that each time comprised two healers, two damage, and two tanks. With the release of Overwatch 2, though, Tanks had been reduced to a singular role, and 5v5 has been the new norm.
What’s curious is that Blizzard is planning on returning to the 6v6 format soon, and fans wonder if it could become the norm again.
6v6 in Season 14 of Overwatch 2
In a recent announcement from the developer team this season, multiple tests of the 6v6 format will be conducted to see how the players will treat the change. The announcement reads:
“These format tests are all about understanding if we can make the core game even stronger. Every day, millions of players jump into the core 5v5 format and the last thing we want is to negatively impact that experience. The exciting thing about these tests is the potential to introduce something that could appeal to another group of players, ones that might have felt uncertain about the move to 5v5 when Overwatch 2 launched.”
Min 1 Max 3
Anyone who is playing Overwatch 2 now knows that the game is pretty strict when it comes to the role queue, and getting into games means that you have to play whatever the game assigns to you—resulting in a lot of players hogging the damage role or getting stuck playing a healer/tank endlessly.
With this upcoming test, though, the developers are said to be trying a variation of the Open Queue, which they refer to as Min 1 Max 3. This means players need at least one of each role, but they can’t have more than three.
A second test is expected to be released mid-Season 14. It will be the classic 2-2-2 format that players had worked with before, but there should be expected nerfs for the tanks, which have been beefed up ever since the game switched to the 5v5 format.
2-2-2 in the Old Days
During the first Overwatch, it was considered a massive problem for some players that there had to be two tanks in each team because it just resulted in players having to constantly take down barriers to progress.
When OW2 was announced, the tanks were all reworked to make them more survivable on the battlefield while at the same time giving them more offensive power. Entire skill sets had been revamped (like with Orisa), and some heroes were even moved from the damage roll into the tank (Doomfist).
Could it be Permanent?
For now, Blizzard isn’t making any promises but is saying that they’ll be watching very closely when this new 2-2-2 mode comes out for everyone. Changes would have to depend on player reception, and it’s possible that the 5v5 mode and 6v6 mode could exist simultaneously.
The announcement reads, “Is there a world where both 5v5 and 6v6 exist permanently in Overwatch 2? If you had asked me a few months ago, I would have said no. As we’ve discussed Overwatch 2’s future in light of making the game that our players want to play, we know our players can want more than one experience, and it would be something we'd need to consider moving forward.”
Compared to the previous versions of OW though, it’s very easy to say that there is certainly a lot less freedom when it comes to picking characters nowadays. Sure, the teams were better-balanced, but there’s just a high chance players will be stuck to one role for a whole before they can try out any other part.
Overwatch 2 is now playable for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4|5, Nintendo Switch, and PC.