Players who work their way up the rankings in Overwatch with a rating of over 4000 land in the Grandmaster tier. Blizzard is planning a major change for these players starting from Season 16.
This is what will change: Starting from Season 16, Grandmaster players will only be able to team up in groups of a maximum of two players, meaning they will play “Duo” matches.
This change applies to all players whose Season Rating (SR) is over 4000 in the current season. It affects only a small percentage of players.
The change will take effect between today, April 30, and the next day after Season 15 ends and Season 16 begins.
What is the purpose of the change? The Principal Designer of Overwatch, Scott Mercer, has written a post on the official Overwatch forum discussing the reasons for the change:
- there is a matchmaking system in Overwatch that aims to have group sizes compete evenly against each other
- in the Grandmaster tier, there are often too few players for equally sized groups
- this makes it more difficult to ensure fair games in this tier
- the change is intended to help in this regard
Some fans have also found another, more pragmatic reason. This change makes “boosting” more difficult or even impossible.
Through “boosting,” weaker players, often for payment, can be “pulled up” by Grandmasters in their group to win games and receive an SR that does not correspond to their skill level.
A different type of “boosting” would be to have a professional directly play on an account. Such practices are penalized with prison sentences in countries like Korea. But the change by Blizzard helps here as well since the matches will generally be fairer, and Grandmasters cannot simply overwhelm opponents on unfamiliar accounts in the higher tier.
How do Grandmasters react? Most players are welcoming the change, even those affected. Professional player Jake “JAKE” Lyon from the Overwatch League is pleased about it:
No more 3-player stacking in Grandmaster PogChamp
Jake via Twitter
When asked why this is good, Jake replied that teams of three or more players in the already small player pool of Grandmasters leads to imbalances in game balance. They would therefore often be one-sided.
What do you think about the change?
Another new feature is the Workshop in Overwatch, which has already produced many crazy game modes:
