Overwatch 2’s new Competitive feature gives players their “best” & “worst” matches ever
Blizzard EntertainmentOverwatch 2’s Competitive Drives feature is being both praised and panned for providing players with some of their best matches ever, while others say the game’s quality has gotten even worse.
On October 4, Overwatch 2’s Competitive Drives went live, offering up exclusive rewards to players who climb in rank and giving them some extra incentive for reaching each checkpoint.
By winning matches and heading towards their next rank tier, players unlock rewards – but the caveat is that unlike other events, losing can hinder one’s progress. As such, there’s extra pressure to win, something that more casual players may not be familiar with.
Although Competitive Drives only lasted until October 7, it seems like it’s going to give the devs quite a lot of data to look through and improve for the next iteration as players are sharing extremely mixed opinions.
BlizzardOne player revealed that their first matches during the Drives were horrible, but got better as the weekend went on.
“When Drives went live the match quality, as expected, nosedived and I hoped it would get better over the weekend. What I didn’t expect was that it would get so much better so fast,” they said.
“The past day or so of my games might’ve been the best set of 25-35 games I’ve played in years, possibly since 2019 when role queue launched. Everyone’s freaking trying so hard. I’ve even had a few games start with randoms asking the rest of the team to please actually try.”
Another echoed the sentiment: “Same experience. The first day was actually hell. But by the end of it, I had played more ranked than I had in months and I could feel each of my games improving in quality as time went on.”
“This weekend was the best solo queue experience I’ve had in OW2. Quick to find games, most of them with an entire team of people on mics, trying hard,” someone else chimed in.
However, not everyone had a positive experience, especially with players who typically only queue in quickplay now trying their luck in ladder matches.
“No shade to 80% of the player base, but I am seriously not enjoying having my Comp games filled with Quickplay warriors.”
“This comp drive has been their worst idea in ages. Games are so unbalanced. Horrible experience,” blessed another.
“The match quality is worse, the banners are hideous, the event is too short, and the FOMO on the comp points is horrible. Easily the worst event they’ve ever done.”
It’s not clear what the devs have planned to improve Competitive Drives in the future, but expect to learn more from a Directors’s Take blog post at some point as the OW2 team aims to continue enhancing matchmaking.