BlizzCon 2016: Overwatch - What’s New Panel Recap

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BlizzCon 2016: Overwatch - What’s New Panel Recap

With BlizzCon coming to close just over a week ago, we wanted to take a moment to recap all of the exciting Overwatch news that was shared during the Opening Ceremony and our ‘What’s New’ panel.

Sombra

Overwatch's newest offense hero, Sombra, was revealed during the BlizzCon 2016 Opening Ceremony. During the panel, we dived a bit deeper into her origins and in-game abilities. Check out the videos below or head over to the Sombra Hero Page for more details.

Animated Short: “Infiltration”
Sombra Origin Short
Introducing Sombra

Arcade

If you’re looking for a new way to play, the Arcade is for you. This is where you’ll find seasonal events, weekly brawls, and other fun game modes. Best of all, by playing and winning matches in the Arcade, you can earn up to three free loot boxes a week.

Here are some examples of the play modes you might find in the Arcade:

  • Mystery Duel

Face off in a best of 9, 1v1 match-up, where both you and your opponent play as the same randomly selected hero. A new hero will be assigned for each round, so you’ll want to practice with every class and character!

  • 3v3 Elimination

A best of 5, 3v3 battle, where hero picks are locked once the game begins and players don’t respawn. The first team to eliminate all of their opponents wins each round.

  • Mystery Heroes

This fan-favorite brawl is a standard Quick Play match with a twist. Heroes are randomly assigned at the beginning of a match and whenever you respawn.

  • No Limits

Like Competitive matches, heroes will soon be limited to one per team in Quick Play. But if you’re keen to play a standard match with no hero limits, this brawl is the place to do just that.

  • All Brawls

In this mode you’ll experience a random brawl each round. You’ll need to be versatile as you take on past brawls, as well as new ones such as “This is Ilios”, where heroes collide on Ilios: The Well and can only play as Lucio or Roadhog!

New Map – Ecopoint: Antarctica

Travel to the Overwatch research center where climatologist Mei-Ling Zhou spent years cryogenically frozen. This new arena-style map will be home to the Mystery Duel and 3v3 Elimination game modes mentioned in the Arcade section above.

Sombra, the Arcade, and Ecopoint: Antarctica are all available to test on the PTR right now - for more details check out the PTR Patch Notes

New Control Map – Oasis

We were also introduced to a new control map currently in development and planned for release next year. After securing the point, players will need to keep an eye on the sky—Oasis is the first map to feature jump pads, allowing heroes to launch themselves into the air and wreak havoc from above!

We’ll have more details on all these features and more soon, so stay tuned.