A couple of weeks ago, at the start of Overwatch 2 Season 19, the devs made a bold decision to change the format of Stadium, the most recent third-person addition, and a new favourite for many players.
Stadium’s competitive format changed from best-of-seven to best-of-five, the structure that Stadium Quick Play has had and continues to have. But just two weeks into this update, and the devs have gone back to best-of-seven.
“We are reverting the format of Ranked Stadium back to best of 7,” the recent patch notes say. “This is a direct result of both player feedback and internal data. Best of 7 provides players with more space to let their builds breathe and, of course, make those incredible comebacks. Thank you for all of the thoughtful feedback.”
The initial change was done as a bit of an experiment. The devs wanted to see if switching the structure up could solve complaints from players that, past round five, matches would snowball with powers and items becoming too strong for players to handle.
And it did just that. Not only were Stadium games faster with the best-of-five format, but with less time for teams to purchase tonnes of expensive items, it also meant that skill played more of a part in deciding the outcome of a game. I really liked the change, as it made matches more palatable, even if it did mean that at least one person per match would get confused about whether we were playing in Competitive or Quick Play.
But not everyone enjoyed the change as much as I did. “Best-of-five takes away the competitiveness out of Stadium and waters the game mode down,” a player says on the Overwatch subreddit. “Best-of-five Competitive has no strategy to it and honestly feels rushed.”
I can see where some players like this are coming from. At the end of the day, it just boils down to preference, and the community seems quite evenly split between best-of-seven vs best-of-five—it’s 2022 all over again.
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