Overwatch

After what felt like a lifetime, Roadhog is finally getting a nerf, and other heroes are getting changes too.

The times of Roadhog's overpowered hook are soon to be over - Blizzard has announced that they plan to nerf the big pig in Overwatch, and they also have a number of other balancing changes planned for the near future.

The new changes don't focus on cooldown time or damages, but instead add more of a skill curve to the hook ability. In simple terms, Roadhog players will need to practice a little bit to get good with using the hook. Blizzard think the hook should be a high risk high, reward play and it's slowly leaning towards that.

"There is a cap on how far 'to the side' you can be pulled, so you can't just hook someone, spin 180, and dump someone off a cliff," principal designer Geoff Goodman mentioned.

"There is a new persistent line-of-sight check back to Roadhog once the hook has landed. If this check fails, the hook breaks off and returns to Roadhog."

A brand new Overwatch invitational event has been announced for MLG Vegas 2016.

The event will feature some of the top current Overwatch teams and the organizers will be putting $100,000 into the prize pool. Whilst the event was announced a little while ago, we've finally got details on the teams that will be attending MLG Vegas 2016.

The first team to make their faces at the Overwatch tournament at MLG Vegas 2016 will be Team EnVyUs from Europe; currently, one of the teams with the longest winning streaks in Overwatch history. It'll be interesting to see how they fare across seas. FaZe clan will be joining as a multi national team, Cloud 9 from Canada will be taking part, along with the following US teams:

- NRG eSports
- Rise Nation
- Fnatic
- Team Liquid
- compLexity

The MLG Vegas eSports event will start on December 16 and will end on December 18. The event will take place at Mandalay Bay, Bayside E&F.

Will

Blizzard has taken a huge step at Blizzcon 2016 and have announced a brand new Overwatch league, which should give a wide range of teams a huge level of opportunity to get paid to play.

The Overwatch league has been considered a brand new competitive scene which should help to keep the competitive nature of the game as healthy as possible. The league has a focus to provide "long-term stability for teams as well as opportunities for players to establish the types of professional careers associated with traditional sports."

The Overwatch league will start in 2017 - A number of current players will be given the chance to get invited to some tests run by Blizzard, and if they pass those tests they'll be given a spot in a team. If they get a spot the players will receive a contract and a minimum salary.

Each of the teams will represent major cities and regions as opposed to sponsors and organizations like they do in traditional eSports. This will follow a similar system

Dreamhack Winter 2016 is going to be a big one for any Overwatch fans out there.

A brand new tournament with a $50,000 prize pool has been locked in for the Dreamhack Winter event, and it’ll see 8 teams from around the world battle it out on a live stage. First place prize is $30,000, whilst second gets $10,000 and 3rd and 4th both get $5,000 each.

There will be three qualifiers for the event to determine which teams are allowed to take part in the tournament. A North American qualifier will go live from October 11-12th, whilst a Europe qualifier will take part from October 9th-10th.

2 Players from Europe will advance to the tournament, alongside 2 North American players. The final four tournament slots will be filled with winners of the bring your own computer tournament that'll happen on November 24th at the Dreamhack Winter 2016 event. If players win the BYOC event, they'll be seeded into the Overwatch tournament the next day.

Details including online qualifier

Steve Aoki, the famous DJ, has announced that he now owns an eSports team. It's becoming more popular for adults with a large amount of wealth behind them to put funding into an eSports team. We've seen it with NBA star Shaq, Rick Fox and NFL players too.

Now, we're seeing the first DJ get in on the eSports action. Steve Aoki has put funding into the eSports organization called Rogue. The Rogue organization currently has a team in Overwatch that has seen recent success and a fairly new CS:GO lineup.

Steve Aoki has mentioned that he has a huge life-long passion for gaming, so this new part ownership of Rogue eSports makes sense.

"During his performance at TwitchCon Party 2016 on Saturday, STEVE AOKI announced his ownership in the Las Vegas eSports organization, ROGUE. Having been a life-long gamer, STEVE AOKI became determined to build an eSports team after his experience at PAX East in April of this year, where he was invited to participate in a Street Fighter V exhibition

A new Overwatch update has made it to the public test realm and it should soon be travelling to the live servers for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The new update will include a number of changes, including improvements for spectator mode and custom games for eSports, balancing to a number of heroes and some overall fixes and user interface changes.

The most important changes are definitely the adjustments made to three heroes; Junkrat, Widowmaker and Ana. The changes can be seen below.

Ana
Nano Boost
- Ultimate cost has been increased by 20%

Biotic Grenade
- Radius has been increased from 3 to 4 meters

Developer Comments: So far, we haven’t seen any indication that Ana is too strong overall, but her ultimate charges a little too fast, especially considering the impact it can have on a match. Also, her Biotic Grenades are getting a small boost to help her hit multiple targets.

Widowmaker
Widow's

Have you been playing much Overwatch recently? You may want to get back in game soon because the Eichenwalde map will be pushed to live servers soon. At the moment the map is planned for a PTR release, along with other changes. The PTR stands for public test realm and it features a number of features in Overwatch that players can test to help with development before they are pushed to live servers.

The PTR versions can sometimes have bugs or glitches but it's a great way for players to experience new content before it's officially released. Currently the PTR for Overwatch is only available on the PC, but with the latest addition of the Eichenwalde map on the PTR, we can get a glimpse of what the newest map will be like on all platforms.

Eichenwalde is based upon a small German town in Stuttgart. The town is abandoned and a lot of the buildings have taken considerable battle damage. Despite the serious damage to the town, the place is undeniably pretty and we cannot wait to

Blizzard has been constantly making improvements to the new competitive mode in Overwatch and in recent news it has been revealed that the developer will be changing the way players can pick characters in the new game mode.

In a future update, players will no longer be able to choose a character if another player on their team has already picked that character. This will stop players from creating teams filled with certain characters and it helps to smooth out and progress the meta of the game.

This rule will only apply to competitive mode so this means players can still create crazy team compositions in casual modes if they'd like to.

You may also be excited to hear that D.Va and Zenyatta will soon be getting much needed buffs. "There's been a lot of talk in the community about how D.Va and Zenyatta felt a little bit underpowered, so we're making changes to them. Zenyatta is getting a little more shields, and he goes a lot faster when he uses his Ultimate.

"D.Va's

A new character has been introduced to Overwatch and from what we've seen so far, it's something worth getting excited for. Ana Amari is the new Overwatch character and she has weapons to provide long range support for her team.

Ana Amari's primary weapon is a Biotic Rifle. This rifle fires darts that can both deal damage to enemies and heal her teammates. It's clear that her marksman skills have been refined so that she can provide support from a distance, as opposed to getting up close and personal. Because of this, it's expected that she'll have quite limited defense.

In a similar vein to her primary weapon, Ana Amari carries Biotic Grenades that can put up an area of effect that can both heal allies and take healing potential away from enemies. Her sidearm on the other hand shoots Sleep Darts that can bring down enemies temporarily, although this won't kill them. Ana Amari's ultimate is Nano Boost - this is a support ultimate that will give all teammates increased damage,

A brand new update for Overwatch has been making ripples through the internet this week. The update, which has already seen a release on PC, has now made it's way to the Xbox One. So far the PlayStation 4 update has not been released but we expect to see it soon.

The biggest addition to the new Overwatch update for the Xbox One is competitive mode. Competitive mode is open to all players over level 25. If you're not level 25 yet, you'll need to reach that level before you can take part in the new game mode.

The new competitive mode will use a player skill rating, a new penalty system to punish quitters and rewards for winning games. Before a player is shown their skill rating they will need to take part in 10 qualifier games. Once the 10 games are finished, a skill rating will be assigned to your account.

The skill rating in Overwatch competitive ranges from 1 to 100. 1 is the absolute lowest rating, whilst 100 is the highest. Players will see their skill rating adjust