Overwatch League head Sean Miller has confirmed that the league will continue playing on the Season 4 launch patch until the end of Midseason Madness.
Season 4 of Overwatch 2 was released on April 11, introducing a variety of buffs and nerfs alongside the hero shooter’s newest character, Lifeweaver.
This patch produced a diverse meta seeing a range of tanks including Winston, Ramattra, and D.Va all getting significant playtime.
The expectation was that once the mid-season patch was released, OWL would transition across to using it as usual. However, that won’t be the case this time around.
Overwatch League to keep playing on Season 4 launch patch
As confirmed on league head Sean Miller’s Twitter, the Overwatch League will not be transitioning to the midseason patch.
Miller’s Tweet reads: “We always look to keep OWL balance as close to the live game as we can, but given that there won’t be sufficient time to transition OWL to Season 5 for Midseason Madness nor a fair way to match the live game with Season 4 midcycle, we determined the best option for all parties is to remain on the Season 4 launch patch the League is currently using through the conclusion of MSM.”
Elaborating further Miller continued: “As we consider future balance patch impacts for the rest of the season, we’ll continue to do our best to align the live service with OWL competition as much as possible.”
The Midseason Madness tournament will come to an end on June 18, shortly after the Season 5 update is expected to launch.
Released on May 9, Overwatch 2’s Season 4 midseason patch saw a range of characters buffed and nerfs with the Junker Queen buffs being most notable.
There were some concerns in the OWL community that these buffs could have led to a Junker Queen-dominated meta as was seen when she was first released. However, with the league opting to stay on the old patch fans no longer have to worry.