Ever since Overwatch let the 5v5 cat out of the bag in 2022, it’s spent most of its time trying to get it back in. The format has been met with a lot of backlash over the last four years from those who don’t see it as a good alternative to the classic 6v6. It’s a problem Team 4 has tried to solve by bringing in 6v6 open queue as an alternative mode. But that hasn’t stopped the developer from trying to find a compromise between the two modes.
The latest attempt at compromise falls in the current Quickplay Hacked Event, a limited time mode where Team 4 trials ideas to make the game better and looks to the community for feedback.
For those who want to test it out, you can now play a new form of 6v6 which attempts to utilise certain characteristics from 5v5—it’s the 1-3-2 flex mode where teams can have one tank, three DPS, and two supports with the catch that one of the DPS can also flex to the tank role if they want to.
I get what it’s trying to do. With there only technically being one tank needed for a game you’d keep the shorter queue times that 5v5 promises while also adding an extra person into the mix for more team-based and chaotic skirmishes that 6v6 offers. On paper it seems like a good fix, but in practice it just feels like a bad compromise.
I only played this hacked mode last night and after the first few games a trend emerged: teams that had two tanks stomped those that only had one—who’d a thought? Me, and honestly most players.
Because there’s a capacity to have two tanks on a team, it means the role is balanced on the side of a 6v6 game with the tanks having slightly less health and abilities which are tuned down (aka Zarya having one bubble not two). This is okay if you have two tanks, but painfully weak if you only have one.
In one match where my team had two tanks and the enemy team only had one, we rolled through them, pushing the payload to the first two checkpoints with no issue. But the enemy team flexed to two tanks right before the final objective and managed to stall the point from there. I played games where I was the solo tank against two tanks and it sucked—every time one of the enemy tanks made a mistake the other one would correct it before I could capitalise off of it. The only way to win against a 2-2-2 comp with a 1-3-2 comp is to have vastly better players, which isn’t a reliable option. Without fail the team with one less tank lost.
This makes the 1-3-2 flex mode completely redundant, no matter the tweaks or balances it will almost always be better to have two tanks rather than one. And if that’s the case having a 1-3-2 option is entirely redundant, with its only use being it may make for shorter queue times.
Needless to say I don’t think this is the answer to the 5v5 or 6v6 debate. Unfortunately, these two formats are just too different to find any useful common ground. I play both formats, and I like them for different reasons—the chaos of 6v6 can be fun to navigate and manage but I prefer the 5v5 matches because you can make more of an impact on games and it rewards a more deliberate and skilful approach to fights as mistakes are easier to capitalise on.
So, I’ll say the same thing I always do when it comes to the 5v5 vs 6v6 debate: I think Overwatch should prioritise 5v5, its new direction is better for what the game is now. 6v6 certainly has a place and should still be an option for those who want it. But, a compromise between the two—at least in how this hacked mode frames it—should not be on the table, it is just the worst of both modes.
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