Experimental Card Tournament: Hero Changes, How to Play, and Where to Watch

We gathered an experienced (and opinionated!) group of pro players and influencers—Seoul Dynasty damage-dealer Jong-Ryeol „Saebyeolbe“ Park, Chinese Overwatch League caster Alan Gai, Korean content creator Jaewon Kim, Toronto Defiant streamer Francine „Fran“ Vo, Boston Uprising damage-dealer Terence „Soon“ Tarlier, and Los Angeles Gladiators tank Indy “Space” Halpern—to discuss which hero changes they’d like to see in Overwatch.

But this wasn’t just a fun get-together; the assembled panel was also figuring out hero tweaks for all of us to play and enjoy.

After hours of spit-balling and deliberation and some additional back-and-forth after the panel to confirm a few final specifics, the team has settled on a collection of more than 45 hero balance changes that will be implemented in an Experimental Card for everyone to play in-game from March 22-29. This set of experimental balance changes will also be used for a special public Flash Ops Experimental Card Tournament from March 26-28.

WEIRD SCIENCE

Here’s the official list of the hero changes coming to the Experimental Card game mode and the Flash Ops Tournament:

Ana

• Max ammo increased from 12 to 14
• Nano Boost can be used on Ana by hitting the interact key (default F)

Ashe

• Dynamite damage reduced from 100 to 90

Baptiste

• Regenerative Burst healing reduced from 75 to 65
• Immortality Field no longer protects teammates to a minimum of 20% health—minimum changed to 1 health

Bastion

• Self-Repair increases movement speed by 25% while in use

Brigitte

• Inspire healing to teammates removed when Brigitte is eliminated

D.Va

• Boosters duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds

Doomfist

• No changes

Echo

• Duplicate: when ultimate ends, Echo will be healed to half health instead of full

Genji

• Alternate fire spread reduced from 9 to 8 meters
• Dragon Blade: when Genji gets a kill during his ultimate, the duration is increased by 1 second

Hanzo

• Dragon Strike:
  • Movement speed increased by 20%
  • Damage increased by 20%
  • Distance before the dragon forms from the arrow shot lowered from 10 to 5 meters

Junkrat

• Concussion Mine minimum damage increased from 30 to 35

Lúcio

• Soundwave cooldown increased from 4 to 6 seconds
• Crossfade:
  • Radius increased by 50%
  • Effectiveness is increased by 20% at close range, falling off to -50% at maximum range

McCree

• No changes

Mei

• Maximum ammo increased from 120 to 140

Mercy

• Killing blows reset Guardian Angel cooldown

Moira

• No changes

Orisa

• Protective Barrier:
  • Health increased from 600 to 700
  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 11

Pharah

• New Passive: Damage taken while airborne decreases by 5% and damage taken while grounded increases by 10%

Reaper

• Shadowstep voice line removed

Reinhardt

• Earthshatter: stuns closer targets for up to 3 seconds; maximum range targets stunned for the normal 2.5 seconds

Roadhog

• No changes

Sigma

• No changes

Soldier: 76

• Helix Rockets:
  • Can hold 2 charges
  • Damage reduced from 40 impact + 80 explosive to 30 impact + 50 explosive
  • Self-damage scalar reduced from 50% to 40%.

Sombra

• Hack:
  • Activation time increased from 0.65 to 1.15 seconds
  • Duration increased from 5 to 6 seconds
• Translocator cooldown triggered when used or destroyed (as it used to) and is reduced from 6 to 5 seconds

Symmetra

• Turret travel speed increased from 15 to 20 meters per second

Torbjörn

• Turrets
  • Can hold 2 turrets
  • Damage and health of turrets reduced by 40%

Tracer

• Health increased from 150 to 175
• Recall cooldown increased from 12 to 14 seconds

Widowmaker

• Venom Mine:
  • Damage increased from 75 to 120
  • Duration changed from 5 to 6 seconds
  • Trigger radius increased from 3 to 4 meters

Winston

• Armor increased by 15 and health reduced by 15 (total pool is the same)

Wrecking Ball

• Size reduced by 15%
• Ammo reduced from 80 to 70
• Grappling Claw cooldown increased from 5 to 7 seconds
• Adaptive Shield no longer prevents enemies from generating ultimate charge

Zarya

• Projected Barrier range increased from 30 to 34 meters

Zenyatta

• Transcendence speed multiplier increased from 2x to 2.3x

TEST YOUR METTLE

The best part of the Experimental Card Tournament is that it’s open to the public, free to enter, and you might get to take on some Overwatch League pros! All 20 OWL teams will have at least three current players competing in the tournament across the four different regions: North America, Europe, China, and Korea.

You can sign up from March 15-24 on GameBattles—NA, EU, KR—for your shot at glory and a chance to win some cash. There’s US $40,000 prize pool at stake, spread evenly across the four different regional tournaments.

For official rules and regional requirements, go here.

WATCH PARTY

You’ll be able to watch three live Experimental Card Tournament matches each day on March 27 and 28. Broadcasts for both days begin at noon PT and will be anchored by our desk team of Soe Gschwind, Matt “MrX” Morello, and Jonathan “Reinforce” Larsson. The six featured matches will be live and on demand on the Overwatch League YouTube channel.

We’ll soon be announcing new ways to enjoy viewership rewards during the 2021 Overwatch League season that are scheduled to be in place for the Experimental Card Tournament, so keep an eye on overwatchleague.com for more details.

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