Map Pool in Overwatch 2 to be removed in season 4

Throughout this week, many Overwatch 2 developer blogs have been posted highlighting what we can expect from Season 3, which will debut on February 7.

Aaron Keller, the game’s director, closed out the week by reflecting on some lingering issues that fans have raised. In the most recent “DIRECTOR’S TAKE” blog, Keller discussed concerns about Overwatch 2’s maps.

Map clusters are eliminated in season 4

The best news for players is that map clusters, a controversial addition to the game’s sequel, will be removed in Season 4.

Aaron Keller commented:

“Map Pools are going away starting in season 4. We aimed to provide a bit of freshness each season and concentrate the number of maps that people were playing. However, player sentiment around map pools was pretty low.”

Along with map pools, specific maps were removed each season to produce a more focused selection. This aimed to help players get used to the maps and understand them better for competitive play. However, it seems things didn’t work out that way in practice.

On the other hand, Aaron comments:

“You were right. We were wrong.”

This represents the hopes of thousands of Overwatch 2 players who consistently rely on being right when they criticize the game.

Keller said there are not enough maps in the game to support map groups’ use fully. However, he mentions that in the distant future, it could return if Overwatch 2 has additional maps to employ.

“If we were to bring them back, they would probably rotate at a faster rate, potentially every week.”

Map frequency

Players have criticized the development team for the frequency of maps. Users believe that some maps appear more frequently than others.

Keller comments:

“We don’t have any special code that prefers one map over another. However, it’s not entirely random.”

“We have been looking into this based off of player reports, and, there is a detail of the matchmaking system that does elevate Push maps a bit.”

Since there aren’t many Push maps, they tend to pop up more frequently. With that admission, the conspiracy theorists got a slight edge, but Keller claimed that this would be “mitigated” in a later season.

Problems with appearance points

The problem with spawn points, especially on Escort or Hybrid maps, is another adjustment that will be made in the future. In most games since Overwatch was released, if a player dies when the opposing team takes a spawn point, there is a chance that the player will respawn in the old spawn spot. The team is looking into this issue for improvements in the upcoming season.

Players have also complained that recent events, such as the current Battle for Olympus, placed too much emphasis on event-specific modes.

Aaron commented:

“We’re shifting direction to include more challenges that let you play the way you prefer while still introducing event game modes. Some of the event challenges will reflect these changes in Season 3.”

Header: Blizzard