The 27th Overwatch hero, Brigitte, has now joined the game. The tank and support hybrid character is already proving to be a huge hit with fans of Blizzard's multiplayer shooter and many are enjoying play as her in Quick Play and in the Arcade game modes. However, if players want to play as Brigitte in the game's Competitive Play mode, they may have to wait a while.
In a forum post, Overwatch principal designer Scott Mercer revealed that "Starting with the releases of Blizzard World and Brigitte, we made the decision to debut new maps and heroes in Competitive Play at the beginning of the season that follows their release."
Mercer explained that this means that Brigitte won't be available in Overwatch Competitive Play until season 10 which is over a month away; the Blizzard World map has been available since the start of season nine. This is unlike the previously released character, healer Moira, who became available in Competitive Play just weeks after being made available in Quick Play. The same went for other new characters introduced before Moira.
Some Overwatch players are upset with this change, with some taking to the game's official forums to ask what is the point of releasing Brigitte now if players can't yet play as her in Competitive Play? Responding to the thread, Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan said that the team is "following this feedback," also assuring players that "we made this change with the best intentions as we frequently heard complaints from players that we were introducing new heroes to Competitive Play too quickly." Kaplan also said that the team would see how this system works for Brigitte and would "re-evaluate for next time."
Although some may be unhappy with the change, Kaplan's reasoning makes a lot of sense. As highlighted by the list of the most used characters used in Competitive Play, new characters are quickly adopted by the Overwatch community whenever they're released. When considering characters like Brigitte, who appears to be significantly changing the meta, it makes sense to offer Overwatch players a little extra time to get used to the change.
Making the character available in Competitive Play too soon could mean that players don't have enough time to adjust, wind up feeling disgruntled, and leaving them asking Kaplan and co. to make balance changes. So while players have a little more time to wait, that wait could well be worth it.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.