In Overwatch, players are constantly scored based on their performance in each match. Holding the point, killing enemies, assisting teammates, and more help to build up the "On-Fire Meter" located in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. When the On-Fire Meter is full, players' Overwatch character portrait lights up and they say a unique voice line to let everyone else know that they are contributing a lot to the team's efforts.
With Overwatch 2, it appears as though the On-Fire Meter is getting the boot. Blizzard recently presented some new Overwatch 2 gameplay where professional Overwatch League players battled it out in a build of the new game, and the On-Fire Meter was nowhere to be seen. This was pointed out by YouTuber KarQ in a video where he outlined things that viewers may not have noticed while watching the new Overwatch 2 footage.
While the On-Fire Meter appears to be missing in Overwatch 2, KarQ noticed that player actions in the game were still getting scored. For example, a player was scored 45 points for using Soldier: 76's Helix Rockets to take out a player on the enemy team. KarQ floats the theory that Overwatch 2 could possibly be implementing a more detailed scoreboard, though it's unclear if that is actually happening or not.
Overwatch 2 is bringing many other changes to the table besides simply removing the On-Fire Meter. The most notable change is how Overwatch 2 is changing team compositions, dropping the number of playable characters on any given team from six to five. When this happens, Overwatch players will have to work with teams of one Tank, two Damage, and two Support characters, which will be quite the dramatic departure from the current setup.
As one might imagine, lowering the number of characters on a team is going to shake up the meta significantly. In turn, this is requiring Blizzard to rework some of the Overwatch characters, changing their abilities and re-balancing them with the new team compositions in mind.
The full scope of Overwatch 2's changes aren't clear just yet, but more information should come to light in the months ahead. Leakers have suggested that the Overwatch 2 release date is currently planned for sometime between now and next summer, and while Blizzard hasn't officially confirmed that, it does seem like a realistic goal. Fans of the hero-shooter will just have to stay tuned to find out for sure.
Overwatch 2 is in development.