Overwatch 2's Stadium should become the main competitive mode

Transcript

Welcome to Quick Play, a podcast about Overwatch, Marvel Rivals, and other live services. I'm Anthony Shelton. 

I want to know your opinion on this when it comes to Overwatch. I've been playing Overwatch Stadium since day one. I can't stop playing it. It feels like when Overwatch first came out. I've hit Pro 1 twice, and I keep getting bad teams. I think I'm decent enough to have an opinion on this, but I'm curious to know what you think. What do you think about Stadium becoming the main competitive mode of Overwatch? Now, I'm thinking: leave traditional Competitive behind. Keep it as a mode–don't want to get rid of it–but the bulk of airtime goes to Stadium. It's that good. 

Stadium requires more thought. It's got a lot more depth. I can't count the number of times I've played Stadium and I still optimize my first starting three perks. I feel like if I don't do that, I could hurt my chances for more money in the early game and or hurt my team. Sometimes it doesn't matter because our team is so good or so bad, but I can't afford not to hit that tab button and see what the other team's comp is and try to play around that. So it's one of those modes where not only do you have to know how to play Overwatch, you have to know how to build your hero for what's needed. You need to build around what's needed for your team. You need to build around what the enemy team is doing. And on top of those two things, your playstyle changes based on your build. 

I use Moira and I tend to spec into abilities orb Moira right now, but depending on what the enemy team is doing or depending on what my team needs, I might need to spec into attack Moira. And that requires me to play more flank. I tend to play more in the back line like a traditional support, like a Zenyatta. I've spent hundreds of hours on Zenyatta. So I'm providing healing and I'm providing attack from the back line as Moira. I can play a flanking, get into the back line, escape, harass other team [kind of] Moira, but that’s not my true bag. That's not the way I traditionally play, but if that's what the team needs and that's how I need to adjust.

When I play Rein[hardt] on tanks, I really like just going in and swinging on people. Like, this is the mode where that power fantasy can be fulfilled. So I go in and swing and y'all want a shield? That's fine. Use me as your shield supports. Heal me. But sometimes I need a more conservative Rein because the enemy team is—they're not coming to me and they keep backing up and allowing me to come to them. And so I need my other team. I need my team. So shoot through my shield and provide a little bit more attack that way. So I have to play a little more of a balancing game. 

In that way, that's what this mode provides. That's what Stadium does. It’s so much more deeper and interesting and fun to watch. What are people going to choose? What are they going to build? And then how are they going to execute in the regular game–what you would traditionally know as Overwatch. 

What I think is great about Stadium is that it has more interesting comebacks too. If a team is down, good builds and good play can bring things back. Now, you've probably been through this situation, right? A team starts slow. Maybe you start slow because of choices, not bad choices, but you know, your hero is not one that ramps early, but has a really good ramp later. And if you're able to ramp, you're able to snowball. That's what Stadium provides. 

A couple of days ago, it was me, my brother, and a friend. The friend, brand new player. Literally has not played Overwatch before, doesn't know the heroes, doesn't know the characters, doesn't really know anything about it. For some reason my brother thought it was a great idea to drop that friend into playing Stadium. So they've played a couple of times already. This is my first time playing with them. We're down 3-0 in a game. Team is straight up bullying us. So I got this brand new player on our squad. I'm a tank. The new player is playing as Mercy. This person doesn't even know what the difference is between the heal beam and the attack beam. Just knows, like, blue beam might be attack. So that's what I'm going to use. So I give one simple instruction. Heal me or the Soldier [76] and we'll be fine. You're going to be helpful. People are going to stop yelling at you in the chat. I promise you we'll be fine. Just use the yellow beam. Don't use the blue. Nope. Don't use the blue beam. Don't need it. Just use the yellow one.

I'm playing Reinhardt. I started specking into the hammer. 25% damage here, 20% attack speed there. I eventually get it up to 45% damage and 30% attack speed. I kid you not. The new player followed directions. Healed me or healed the Soldier. That was it. And not only did we come back, we stomped the other team every single round. That's the fun of Stadium. Those kind of swings don't happen like that in comp very often. In Stadium, I've had that happen quite a few times, both in my favor and not in my favor. It's not just about who's got the better build. That matters. But it is also about, you know what? Our team isn't playing that well, but if we can at least start playing mediocre, we might have a chance because our builds are good. And that's exactly what happened. But also, the other team didn't adjust. If the other team would have adjusted, probably would have lost. But they didn't. That's the back and forth fun of Stadium. It's not just. Two teams coming at each other and you're making positional adjustments. You're making team adjustments. It's all of those things on top of what are you choosing for your build? It's a level of depth that's really interesting and satisfying. 

Now consider this: Marvel rivals can't compete with Stadium. Right? Marvel Rivals was birthed from Overwatch. It's so much like old Overwatch. I'd say Marvel Rivals wouldn't even exist if Overwatch didn't exist. NetEase can't do what Overwatch is doing with Stadium. They're already entrenched because they're not even a year old yet. I don't think so. They already got season three, four, and five somewhere in the pipeline. Season three is coming up pretty soon. They can't make a pivot like that and be like, oh, look at what's happening on the Stadium. People are loving that. Let's do that too. Nope. 

So Stadium is fresh and new. It takes from Counter-Strike, yes, obviously, but it's a fresh take on a 10-year-old hero shooter formula. And it's just more interesting. Again, that depth is Marvel Rivals is literally going through the same growing pains as Overwatch. The current argument is, should we have role queue? Blizzard's like, been there, done that. Come play this new thing we got. So if Overwatch wants to start breaking away from Marvel Rivals again, Stadium should be where the focus is. Make it the primary mode. This is what separates you now from the game that seems to be doing what you did a little bit better. You can't compete with that. They can't compete with Stadium. 

So tell me what you're thinking. Should Overwatch make Stadium the main competitive mode? Don't just say yes or no. Tell me what you're thinking. Tell us what you're thinking. Find me on Bluesky or TikTok. My name is Anthony Shelton. That's it for Quick Play. Talk to you later.