The Overwatch team is on a testing spree. The latest Experimental Card sets up significant changes to the Assault game mode, but the adjustments are likely to stay as an experiment.
The overhauled version of 2CP will have teams taking turns trying to score and the winner is whoever gets the most points. Blizzard was quick to point out that it’s just a test, however. “The current iteration of this experiment is not planned to reach the Retail version of Overwatch you’re used to playing in Quick Play, Competitive Play, and the Arcade,” the patch notes read.
The experiment makes deep changes to Assault’s normal ruleset. Attacking and defending teams alternate after each successful attack or defense, and capturing an objective is worth points. Squads will get the chance to take over Point B if both teams have captured Point A and the winner of the match is the team with the most captures. Successful defenses aren’t worth points, but they preclude the opposing team from scoring.
Each team has six minutes to get as many captures as possible. The updated Assault uses “time bank” rules similar to Competitive modes—even in casual matches—to crown a winner. There’s also a handful of rules to break a tie based on the percentage of the final point that each team captured.
To accommodate the updated ruleset, the mode tweaks respawn times and locations. Attackers will respawn after just eight seconds, while defenders will respawn after 11.5 seconds. After both teams try to take Point A, the setup time will decrease and defenders will spawn in a temporary spot closer to the point.
The updated 2CP can help prevent the so-called snowballs—when the attacking team captures both points in quick succession—and make the game mode more dynamic, with fast-paced pushes and the need to reevaluate strategies for both attack and defense on-the-fly. The tweaks, however, will likely be confined to the Experimental Card mode, at least for the time being.
