Overwatch 2 Stadium developers discuss balance, bans and new heroes

In a recent Overwatch 2 Reddit AMA, the developers of the game’s new Stadium mode answered the community’s burning questions.

The most popular topics were finally addressed, including the possibility of a draft mode, a rough roadmap for future hero additions and more.

There were a lot of questions asked, but here are the biggest highlights from the Overwatch 2 Stadium Reddit AMA.

Stadium has only been out for a short while, but since its launch on April 22nd, Blizzard has been quick to act on community feedback. The Overwatch 2 Stadium Reddit AMA saw 11 developers take to the comment section, which saw over 500 questions and answers posted.

When asked about the possibility of bringing the recently introduced draft system to Stadium, developers shared that it is something they are looking into.

In the AMA Conor Kou, Senior System Designer at Blizzard Entertainment, said: “We definitely know something like a hero pick/ban system could be a positive addition to Stadium. It has a lot of interesting implications for team compositions and the meta. It is something we’re interested to explore.”

However, other developers added that it was still early days, especially as the new mode has only debuted with 17 heroes. As more of the best characters are added, there may be a higher chance of hero bans being added.

In the AMA Daniel Duffin, Test Analyst at Blizzard Entertainment, said: “Hero bans are still a new system in Overwatch, and we felt it would be too limiting with Stadium’s current roster. We may revisit Hero bans for Stadium in the future, when the cast is much larger.”

Given the rather limited pool of heroes available, the question of when, and which, characters will be added was often brought up in the Overwatch 2 Stadium Reddit AMA. With Freja’s recent introduction in Season 16, many anticipate when we will be able to see the bounty hunter in the new mode – and potentially Aqua when he is scheduled to arrive in Season 18.

In the AMA, Duffin said: “The current plan is to add new heroes to Stadium [in] the mid season after they release. For existing heroes, there are many factors that determine which heroes enter the stadium. While hero popularity is one, gameplay is generally considered first. Kind of like how DVA was introduced into Overwatch at the same time Mei was.

“It’s important to maintain healthy game balance when introducing new choices. We hope to get everyone eventually, but the live game isn’t always the best measurement of who should be next, because Stadium’s gameplay balance is very different from other live modes.”

Balance was also a contentious topic during the Overwatch 2 Stadium Reddit AMA, with many highlighting the dominance of Soldier 76 and Juno. With Freja’s domination in the standard game modes, there has also been increasing concern from the community.

During the AMA Kou said: “We’re going to be making adjustments to both Soldier76 and Juno this week in a balance hotfix, as well as some updates to some other heroes.

“We’re committed to making quick balance updates, especially when something is feeling really out of bounds. There’s a lot of stuff going on in Stadium, and we know we didn’t get everything feeling just right yet. The good news is that we have many knobs to turn that can shake up the balance of the mode.”

For further details on other topics discussed, you can view the curated list of the most popular questions during the Overwatch 2 Stadium AMA. These include potentially bringing Stadium to custom games, and comments surrounding the games’ ranked system and matchmaking. Unfortunately, there was no mention of plans to create an esports scene for Stadium.