Overwatch 2’s Season 13 is set to receive a new change that tweaks the counter-swapping experience, and here’s everything you need to know about it.
While the ability to swap heroes in the middle of the match is one of the things that make Overwatch 2 stand out as a competitive game, the experience can truly feel like playing rock-paper-scissors – especially for tanks.
For a while now, players have been begging for changes to counter-swapping due to how unfun it can be. Well, in the next season, devs will be adding a new change when it comes to this, as confirmed in a blog post detailing the Season 13 retail patch notes.
Starting from the next season, swapping your hero will hide your selection on the enemy scoreboard for 15 seconds.
Counterswapping deterred in #Overwatch2 🛡️Swapping your hero now hides your selection on the enemy scoreboard for 15 seconds, preventing enemies from immediately counter-picking in response to your choice. pic.twitter.com/5bVTHRcff3
— Overwatch Cavalry (@OWCavalry) October 14, 2024
According to the developers’ comments, this change “adds more friction to counter-swapping,” especially in “extreme cases.” For example, like how two players from opposite teams would just keep tabs on their scoreboard and rapidly switch their heroes in spawn to counter one another.
As far as reaction goes, so far, the community isn’t too happy with it as it doesn’t exactly solve the counter-swap problem, mainly because if you’ve played the game long enough, you already know the enemy team will counter you if you’re doing well. Not only that, but you’d also already have an idea of what heroes they’d switch to.
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“This is pointless, we’ve been in this loop of rock-paper-scissors for so long that you can literally guess what the enemy is gonna go to deal with your x tank pick,” commented one user in an X post announcing the update.
“I picked Winston!, Jeez, I wonder what the other tank will swap to when he dies!” to which another replied with: “Second I go Zarya I can almost guarantee Rein is gonna be there at mach speed.”
One user was convinced that this would just give value to whoever counterswaps first, punishing the person who’s swapping “because they have to.” They added, “The first life after a counter-swap is free kills/value now unless you just predict swap.”
Meanwhile, some players suggested that the delay should be even longer than 15 seconds for more impact. Either way, Season 13 is fast approaching, and already, there are a ton of new additions players can look forward to.