Overwatch 2 devs testing game-changing Group Respawn feature in Season 7

Overwatch 2 developers at Blizzard are testing a new game-changing feature in Season 7 known as Group Respawn. Here’s how it works.

We’ve all been there. You’re struggling to get a solid teamfight and flip the momentum of a given match in Overwatch 2. Despite your best efforts on the mic or in team chat, your allies still just won’t group up.

There’s arguably nothing worse than losing a match while teammates are off on their own adventures, struggling to understand the crucial concept of grouping up. Well, Blizzard is now looking to make this struggle a thing of the past.

With the Season 7 update came a brand new feature known as Group Respawn. Moving forward, at least in Quick Play to start, players will be grouped together much more frequently, theoretically paving the way for more balanced teamfights across the board.

As outlined in the Season 7 patch notes, Group Respawn is currently in effect across all non-Competitive game modes. It functions as follows:

• Heroes who die within 5 seconds of each other will respawn together, resulting in some players having either a slightly longer or shorter queue than the standard 10 seconds.
• Heroes who die more than 5 seconds from another player eliminated will still respawn in 10 seconds on their own.

In short, should you die in close proximity to other teammates, you’ll now respawn at the exact same time. Rather than having to sit around your spawn room if you’re early or catch up with your allies if you’re late, this should make grouping easier than ever.

“We think that team fights are some of the most enjoyable moments in our game, but we’ve all been in matches where team cohesion–or lack thereof–makes these moments a rarity,” devs admitted in the patch notes. Naturally, when this occurs, games “often turn into stomps for the team that can’t group up.”

With the new Group Respawn feature, we should see fewer ‘hero moments’ where one player goes off on their own and falls short, with teamfights now taking priority instead.

Group Respawns will be introduced in #Overwatch2 Season 7 🔄

Heroes who die within 5 seconds of each other will respawn together to help force teams to group up. Depending on the response to this change, they may add it to Competitive too. pic.twitter.com/1XCTc2E2tk

— Overwatch Cavalry (@OWCavalry) October 9, 2023

To begin with in Season 7, devs have implemented the Group Respawn feature across Quick Play and Arcade modes. While it may sound all positive on paper, there’s always a chance things go awry, thus, they’re taking a cautious approach before dropping it into Competitive Play.

“We’ll be listening closely to feedback on this new system, and depending on the response and making any changes, we will consider adding these adjustments to Competitive Play in a later season.”