Overwatch League’s first stage of Season Two will be played on current PTR patch
Blizzard EntertainmentThe Overwatch League, in a major change from last season, will start Season Two by playing the game on the patch that’s currently on the PTR.
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During the League’s first season, teams would play on an older version of the game than the one that was currently live on servers.
The League’s reasoning was to allow teams and players to get used to new changes – but it attracted a fair amount of criticism from fans.
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As I mentioned during the pro PUGs last week, our goal is better align Overwatch League patches with what is live in the game. Stage 1 of @Overwatchleague 2019 Season will be played on the patch currently on the PTR.
— Nate Nanzer (@natenanzer) January 17, 2019
Now, after last week’s pro Pickup Games hosted by Dallas Fuel Assistant Coach Justin ‘Jayne‘ Conroy, Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer announced that the upcoming Stage One of OWL will be played with the patch currently on the PTR.
Nanzer did mention during last week’s streams that he wanted to get the League’s patches more in line with what was in the game, and it looks like he followed through.
The change in the patch isn’t the only one for the new season; with eight new expansion teams, the League has also changed what days on which matches will take place. In Season Two, matches will be held on Thursday through Sunday, instead of Wednesday through Saturday as played in the Inaugural Season.
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The patch currently on the PTR takes the damage reduction provided by armor down from -5 to -3, making tanks and any other characters who use armor a little easier to kill.
It also buffs Reaper’s Life steal passive to regenerate 50 percent of damage dealt, instead of only 30, and increases the cooldown of D.Va’s Defense Matrix from one second to two.
Finally, Brigitte’s ultimate ability Rally, got capped with a 30 second maximum.
Overwatch League’s second season gets going on Thursday, February 14 when the Philadelphia Fusion take on the London Spitfire in a rematch of last year’s finals as the first match of 2019.
