Thousands Petition Overwatch League To Include New Hanzo in Stage 4
Could Jeff Kaplan be the next Hanzo skin?
Thousands of Overwatch League fans have signed a petition to encourage the Overwatch League to play Stage 4 on the game’s most recent patch.
The petition comes in the wake of the news that the upcoming stage would be played on a patch that doesn’t include the new version of Hanzo.
Hanzo, who has long been a hero of some contention, recently got a major update to his kit. Most significantly his most problematic ability, Scatter Shot, was replaced with a new rapid-fire ability, Storm Shot, and a new horizontal leap was added to his skill set.
In combination with some more minor tweaks, the new Hanzo is widely considered a more powerful and interesting hero than his previous self.
For those hoping to see what he might be capable of in the hands of the most skilled players in the world, however, there’s expected to be a delay, as it was recently revealed that Hanzo would appear in his original form for Stage 4 of the Overwatch League.
For many fans, however, the prospect of seeing an entire five-week stage played on a patch that was obsolete before the stage even started isn’t particularly exciting. So much so, in fact, that over 8,000 have signed a petition to play the stage on the more up-to-date patch.
The sentiment is one shared by Overwatch streamer and analyst Jayne, who often breaks down Overwatch League matches with VoD reviews on his personal stream. During a recent stream, Jayne criticized the decision to play Stage 4 on an outdated patch.
The Overwatch League is played on a tournament realm that is only updated between stages, to ensure the entirety of a stage is played under the same conditions. However, the tournament realm isn’t always brought entirely in line with the live servers, occasionally leaving out major changes or additions for which pro’s won’t have had time to adjust.
No official announcement has yet been made about the patch that Stage 4 will be played on, with the information that the new Hanzo would be left out coming instead from leaks. It remains to be seen if the league will be moved by fan response.
