The Overwatch community has had a great deal of discussion recently regarding what patch that Stage 4 of the Overwatch League would be played on. Patch 1.23 is the latest patch that Blizzard has implemented into Overwatch, and it brought the major rework of Hanzo with it that has caused a great deal of controversy in the community, as many of the professional players feel that the newly reworked Hanzo is too powerful and not a good fit for the competitive nature that the Overwatch League is striving for in Stage 4.
Looking to address this major discussion topic in the community, Nate Nanzer, the commissioner of the Overwatch League, posted an update on his Twitter account where he explained the reasoning behind the league's decision to have Stage 4 played on the old 1.22 patch, which does not include the Hanzo rework.
Nanzer explained that even though the league and Blizzard share the goal of having official matches played on the latest patch for the popular first person shooter, if both parties feel that the teams have not had enough time to practice with a new or extremely reworked hero, league matches would be played on the patch excluding the hero major changes. An example of this was back during Stage 1, where the patch that significantly changed Mercy was introduced into the game in the middle of the stage, but it was not implemented into the Overwatch League build of the game until Stage 2.
Finally, Nanzer explained how the lack of a fix for a bug that had been introduced into Overwatch by the way of Patch 1.23, which does not allow matches on escort maps to be accurately resumed after being paused or having a disconnect occured, is another major factor in the the decision to have Stage 4 played on Patch 1.22.
Even without the reworked Hanzo making his apperance in Stage 4 of the league, fans can still expect to see a new hero make her debut in the upcoming set of competition for the Overwatch League's inaugural season, as Brigitte will be available for teams to use in Stage 4.
Interested in more Overwatch League content? Check out which highly touted prospect of the New York Excelsior recently became eligible to compete in official matches.
(cover photo courtesy of Robert Paul for Blizzard Entertainment)
