The gaming community has certainly placed Overwatch 2‘s latest major quality-of-life improvement from Blizzard at the forefront of discussions. Besides focusing on the newly-arriving Advanced Info Panel that is set to feature in Season 19, the official Overwatch account made the remark “The numbers Winston!! What do they mean??” There is a feature that provides comfortable players with keenly seeing all the numbers and ability stats for their preferred characters, which is precisely what competitive gamers have been asking for – hard data to maximize their gameplay.
The curiosity now revolves around the utility of this new panel exactly? It’s like having a stat sheet embedded in the game that displays the precise damage of your skills, your cooldowns, and all those numerical values that were either hidden or required the player to do extensive testing to uncover. This is nothing less than a revolution for the avid Overwatch players. No speculation regarding the utility of that power-up in the Stadium mode since indeed it gets reflected in the exact numbers on your screen.
The community has given mixed responses but it can be probably labeled ‘overwatchy’. Some players like Halcyonaut termed it “PRIME-L addition to the game” while others started asking for changes at once. The Hope bundle return? Kiriko mythic weapon bundles? Roadhog mythic when? Such demand pattern conveys that players do stay on brand – one of their wishes is granted but immediately five more follow.
Among the replies, there seems to be a lot of confusion about the alterations in the Stadium mode. Players are requesting Blizzard to revert to the best-of-7 format for comp in the Stadium because they are complaining that the games are “too short” now and the players “do not have time to build a strategy or enjoy using their build.” Simultaneously, cbgbwade03 proposed at least providing an additional mode for gamers who prefer long games because “best of 5 just doesn’t hit the same way.” It appears that everyone has a strong opinion on everything except for the very feature being announced.
Eh? What was I saying? Oh yeah, the new stats panel. One of the good things about this update is that it won’t be just for hard-core number crunchers. The casual players would also, to a limited degree, benefit from it when they want to know why a specific ability may seem to be stronger or weaker between the two situations. For instance, if you have ever been curious as to how much damage Moira’s orb does when there are power-ups for abilities, you can now see the exact numbers instead of just guessing through feeling.
A very funny thread indeed where the gamers are debating whether Kiriko’s Protection Suzu removes a knockdown effect but not a regular stun and Lyzder_Wolf is like “the info is there” if they just take a look at the keywords in-game. The claim is that having such clear information accessible within the client would be more beneficial than making players sift through months of patch notes.
And then again, there are the common complaints about Overwatch matchmaking that are unavoidable and mixed with the conversation of the new features since that’s the case one like seanthegamer46_ is asking to “fix the dog shit match making and stop giving me dog shit teams.” Some things in the Overwatch community never change.
But actually, it is really interesting how the timing of this update coinciding with Season 19. Players are already digging into the new content, checking the battle pass, and now—as a result of this amazing new tool—they will also easily understand just what changes are happening with their favorite heroes. This feature is indeed one of those that appear simple at first glance but actually can create a vast impact on the way people play the game.
What’s really astonishing is the speed at which replies speculating about the possible collaboration with Call of Duty just based on a mere “numbers” implication shot up. For example, FelixHight0w3r and CrystolPistol each claimed this would be a COD collab confirmation, whereas iiiRaiden went even further into speculation saying that Kiriko would get Frank Woods and Mercy would get Mason skins. Sometimes it seems like players have the tendency to connect dots that are not there!
The Advanced Info Panel is among the very few features that confirm Blizzard is indeed attentive to the competitive players’ demands. This feature brings forward a higher level of game transparency, more data, and more ways to get into the mechanics as its benefits. Although it may not be the most stunning update – no new heroes or maps – it is one of those quality-of-life improvements that make the game better for every serious player.
As the Season 19 progresses, it would be interesting to observe how players will modify their strategies and their use of the new info. Perhaps the new metas will be a result of the easy-number-comparing feature? Or, the popularity of certain characters will either rise or fall as players will be able to see the exact scaling of their powers. The future will tell but one thing is certain that the numbers are utmost real and the Overwatch community has all those at its disposal.
Overwatch 2’s Twitch Drops give players free battle pass tier skips this weekend, while PlayStation and Xbox gamers can enjoy special edition content in other titles.
