The 5th Overwatch Season Returns On May 5th

By  //  March 30, 2022

With the news of the acquisition of Blizzard Entertainment – Overwatch’s parent company still rife, Blizzard has announced that Overwatch will be back for its 5th season on May 5th. For the last four seasons, Overwatch has changed the video gaming sector so much that it’s one of the most popular titles alongside the likes of CS: GO and Dota 2.

Moreover, in the esports betting scene, Overwatch is also ranked among the top options on lots of online bookies, including the likes of GG Casino.

Better still, from what industry insiders are saying, the 5th season of Overwatch will also serve as a sneak peek for the looming sequel of the game, Overwatch 2. For now, however, besides an incredible visual revamp, not much has officially been revealed about Overwatch’s second installment. So, what should you expect in the 5th Overwatch season? Take a seat as we dig deeper into Blizzard’s announcement of the upcoming season of one of its most revered releases.

Changes Introduced in the Upcoming Overwatch Season

From Blizzard’s recent announcements, Overwatch’s 5th season will bring a slew of exciting changes with various implications of how players will play the game. They include: 

■ Tanks

First and foremost, teams will be offered one tank instead of two. This means players will have to be quite careful with their gameplay as tanks serve as protectors for the teams.

■ 5 vs. 5

There will be a decrease in the number of teammates on each team in the PvP (player versus player) mode. Overwatch season five will be teams of five versus five instead of six versus six, as was the case in the previous seasons. 

■ 24-Game season

To make the level of competition more electrifying, Blizzard has increased the number of games in Overwatch 5 by 50%. So, instead of the usual 16, the number of games in the upcoming season has been bumped to 24.

■ Assault Out, Push In

Assault game mode, which did particularly poorly among the masses, has been dropped. In its place comes a new game mode called “Push.” It consists of a robot and a barricade that each team will fight to gain control over. In Push mode, the robot will go in the direction of the enemy spawn, causing the barricades to be pushed. 

In Push mode, each team’s goal will be to push the robot and the barricade to the end, and your team wins if it gets to the end first. If the clock runs out before either of the teams reaches the end, the team that will have advanced the furthest will win.

Structural Set-Up of Overwatch Season 5

When it comes to the general structural setup of the game, not much has changed in Overwatch season 5. The game still takes up a playoff setup similar to other national sports leagues like the NBA. Teams are divided into two mini-leagues comprising teams with close geographical proximity. 

The East will have 7 teams, with the West having 13 teams. The top 6 teams from the West will make the playoffs, while the top 3 from the East will make the playoffs. However, there has been one slight change, though, as far as the conference arrangement is concerned – New York has been moved back to the West. From the structure, Eastern teams will play each other once while those in the West will play each other twice.

The tournament structure that proved to be immensely popular in 2020 and 2021 has made it to yet another year. In the lead-up to the finals, there will be four tournaments. They will be; Kick-off clash, Midseason madness, Summer showdown, with the countdown cup taking the precursor role to the finals. The Overwatch season 5 will also include six seeding matches per tournament.

Another thing that hasn’t changed much in the structure is the points system. Again, teams will have to battle it out for the points, but this time around, points will be based on a comparison of wins in qualifying matches for tournaments against the overall successes of the regular season. And besides offering the incentive of money, the tournaments bring in extra points that will be vital in playoff qualification.

Can Blizzard Ride Out the Blizzard?

It has been a tough couple of months for Blizard. Last July, Blizard was sued by the California Department of fair employment and Housing. Investigations brought to light stories of alleged harassment of women in the workplace. These allegations saw the resignation of several bigwigs in Blizzard, including President J. Allen Brack. Additionally, things got so bad that Blizard hid its logo as a developer from the Call of Duty: Vanguard trailer due to the bad press around it. 

All these, coupled with multiple lawsuits from investors, have cast doubt over the release of Overwatch 2. Thankfully, the announcement of Overwatch season 5 seems to have started to sort of calm the storm that Blizzard is still fighting to navigate. However, as Microsoft’s historic $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard continues to take root, it will be interesting to see how things unfold.