Make no mistake, Blizzard is in triage mode with Overwatch 2. Season-by-season announcements come and go with steady regularity, but behind the scenes the game is attempting to reinvent itself on the fly, rowing away from its much-canceled original concept and toward an uncertain future of mini-events.

Season 6 will be the first major touchstone for the new model, so epic that it has its own subtitle. Overwatch 2: Invasion will feature story missions, new heroes, new modes, and more, but aside from the specifics, the important thing is whether Blizzard can make this feel like an event or "another season"

Fan unease with the Battle Pass model has been ever present since its launch, and Blizzard continues to make adjustments (for example, in Season 5, unlocking the Pass tiers tells a story, and rewards include cosmetics themed to that season). And while Season 5 adds four new modes, Blizzard's focus is on Ranked, a new 5vs5 mini-season mode:

"Internally, we're closely watching your reactions to this mode," "Overwatch 2" director Aaron Keller's new blog post. This is a different type of competition and rating than our normal ranked mode. If this mode proves to be popular, it may open the door to other types of team-based competition (such as internal tournament systems and modes), and may force us to take a harder look at how we handle grouping restrictions in our current system."

Keller then addresses a perennial topic for any competitive shooter: matches that feel completely one-sided, for which players are to blame, and what developers believe is really happening.

"So ...... stomp," Keller writes. Stomp can happen in any game, and it happens in "Overwatch. When stomping happens, it is easy to blame the matchmaker. The match felt unfair, so it must be because the opposing team was much better or worse than your team. But this is not always the case. We are collecting data and unfair matches tend to happen at the same rate, regardless of the quality of the match. Even in matches where the difference in skill between players is one division or less."

Keller asks readers if they have ever played a match at the controls, been beaten in the first round, and turned around and won in the second round: and as a reader, I can tell you that I have had exactly that experience over and over again in Overwatch matches.

Directors tend to think that matchmaking is wrong, why is this happening, oh humanity ...... and he admits that he tends to think in the first round.

"The point of this example is that I believe there are mechanics in 'Overwatch' that contribute to matches being this way," Keller wrote. For example, the game has a snowball effect of ultrasonic charges that are very difficult to stop." When a team wins a battle, it usually generates more ult, but it can position itself for the next battle and unite without staggering as much as the loser.

All of the above means that, at least in control, a reset between each round will put both teams back on the same playing field. However, in the rounds themselves, early advantages are easy to build and difficult to overcome due to the nature of Overwatch as a team shooter that controls its environment.

"We are continually working on matchmakers, but the biggest benefit to the perceived competitiveness of Overwatch is to look at our core mechanics and game modes and make adjustments here," Keller concluded. More on this topic later."

I don't know if the complaints about matchmaking have been particularly loud lately, but Keller's point seems quite valid. The momentum he describes can be keenly felt during a round of overwatch. If you lose too many flags early on, your entire team will be scattered and disoriented, while the enemy attacks at will. This feels like the behavior the game assumes. But as Keller's signature suggests, Blizzard may be thinking about how well it works, because the game is "a game of the mind.