Two teams will enter the Stadium but only one will emerge victorious in the ultimate contest of skill, strategy, and determination. Stadium is unlike anything you've ever played in Overwatch 2, and it will take everything you’ve got to come out on top. Starting this week, we’ll go over what it takes to conquer the competition and claim victory in every match.
- Part 1 - Get Ready to Battle!
- Part 2 - Coming Soon
- Part 3 - Coming Soon
- Part 4 - Coming Soon
What is Stadium?
Stadium is the new best-of-7, multi-round way to play Overwatch 2, where two teams of five face off in magnificent arenas as they purchase upgraded items and powers to radically transform their Heroes—all experienced through our new third-person camera.
At launch, Stadium will feature 17 heroes, with more being added every season. At the start of each game, you’ll choose the Hero you want to play for the entire match, within a 1 Tank, 2 Damage, 2 Support composition. Following each round, you’ll first upgrade your Hero with Powers, ability-changing modifiers that can completely change how your hero is played. Then you’ll spend Stadium Cash, a new scoring currency used to purchase upgrades to your Hero’s kit in the Armory. With Items and Powers gained throughout the entire match, you’ll be in control of your uniquely built hero throughout the entire game.
Get Your Gear in the Armory
Before each round, you’ll have a short amount of time to equip Items and Powers in the Armory, while planning a strategy with your team. Here is where you’ll spend Stadium Cash to buy items to buff your Hero, but at the start of the first, third, fifth, and seventh rounds you’ll equip Powers for free.
Items are power-ups that can supplement a Hero’s weapons, abilities or overall survivability. Items come in three rarities—Common, Rare, and Epic—and while most can be equipped by every hero, some items will be exclusive for just your specific hero. At any given time, you can equip up to six different Items. When you need more cash or need to free up a slot, you can sell your equipped Items for their full value, then buy and equip new ones.
Powers are transformative modifiers that grant unique passives, modifiers, or whole new abilities. Equipping the right Powers together can create unique strategies that completely change how your Hero is played. Like Reinhardt sending lava across the arena with his Firestrike, or Kiriko being able to clone herself and leaving opponents seeing double. Powers don’t cost you Stadium Cash to equip, but once you equip a Power, it cannot be removed, so plan carefully.
If you don’t know which Items or Powers to pick at first, the game will suggest two different Example Builds for your Hero. These will include recommended Items and Powers that focus on a unique strategy or key part of your Hero’s gameplay kit. You can follow these, or use them as guides as you start coming up with your own innovative Builds. We’ll be detailing more on Items and Powers, as well as key strategies for planning your Hero Builds in an upcoming blog.
Raking in the Stadium Cash
At the start of every game, you begin with 3,500 Stadium Cash, and you’ll earn more as you progress through the match. The better your performance, the more Stadium Cash you’ll earn. If you find that your team is falling behind, bounties can appear for opponents who are threats to your team. Eliminating a bounty target will grant you a portion of that bounty based on how much you contributed to the elimination of that opponent. The more Stadium Cash you have, the more versatile your selection of powerful Items will be.
Battle in Arenas around the World
Stadium offers nine different maps using Control, Push, or Clash core game modes, but with special rules in each. Some maps will be familiar destinations, while others will be brand-new arenas to brawl in. Over time, more maps and game modes will be added to Stadium, keeping how and where you play fresh.
- Clash will use the three objective points and will play until a team wins two of those objective points.
- Control will play one round, and the capture progress is faster.
- Push will be played on new and modified maps on a smaller scale with about half the distance to push your barricade in comparison to the full game mode.
A Whole New Perspective
Stadium is a complex game mode, and you’ll need to be able to know what is going on around you. There may be times when lava will spray across the walkways, multiple biotic orbs will fly across the area, or a giant death ray from orbit will come crashing down on you from behind. This is why Stadium, by default, uses a third-person perspective view as you play.
You’ll have the ability to tune and adjust your viewing experience in the new Stadium settings in your Game Options. Including adjusting your field of view, using special UI to show when you are reloading or when your line-of-sight is blocked, and more. Or if you prefer, you can always switch back to the traditional first-person view.
Climbing the Ranks
Stadium uses its own unique competitive ranking system, separate from Competitive Play. Due to the addition of new Heroes, abilities, Powers, and balance changes, at the start of every Season, ranks will be reset with everyone starting at the bottom of the Rookie League. You will climb up to higher Divisions and Leagues as you win games of Stadium. Each League will become more difficult as the risk of losing progress increases.
Stadium will feature unique and exclusive rewards from Competitive Play including all new Epic skins for select Heroes every season by climbing to the Elite Rank for each role. You’ll also earn Competitive Points to unlock Weapon Variants.
To celebrate the launch of Stadium in Season 16, compete in the inaugural season to earn the exclusive All-Stars Juno Epic skin when you reach the All-Star League in any role. There’s even more to learn about Stadium’s ranked mode, and we’ll cover that in a future blog later this week. Until then, shoot for the stars and prove you’re the ultimate competitor in the Stadium.
The Competition is About to Begin
We can’t wait to see you in the Stadium, and we’ll have a lot more to share all week long. Check back tomorrow for an update on how Stadium has developed since when we first announced it during the Overwatch 2 Spotlight, thanks in part to the great feedback and learnings we gained from recent closed alpha playtests.
Until then, time to start making your gameplan with your friends—we’ll see you in the Stadium on April 22.