Quick Play is Overwatch 2‘s most standard, basic mode — where players log in if they just want to hop into a few matches without worrying about their rank or an unwelcome ruleset. But for one weekend, Blizzard’s team-based shooter is shaking Quick Play up.
For a few days, Quick Play will be “hacked” by Sombra, who is turning it into something called Quick Play: Hacked – Quicker Play. As the name suggests, everything will be faster. By changing things like capture times, Blizzard is hoping that players will experience more team fights and potentially new strategies. Here are the patch notes detailing the changes:
- Respawning times are now 75% of their original time.
- Payloads in Escort and Hybrid maps will move 60% faster.
- Taking control of the Objective Point in Hybrid is 40% faster than normal.
- Taking control of the objective point in Control is 40% faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 80% faster.
- Taking control of the objective point in Flashpoint is 20% faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 40% faster.
- When you play an Escort, Hybrid, or Push map, the initial match time has been reduced to 70% of the original time, and any time extensions are also reduced to 70% of the total time added.
Quicker Play will be active until January 14, at which point the game will return to normal. But according to Blizzard, this marks the start of a larger shift for Overwatch 2’s core mode.
“We want to explore new and fun ways to change core Quick Play gameplay,” reads the blog post announcement. “Changes will happen periodically and only for a limited time.”
Special, time-limited modes are added periodically to Overwatch 2, but typically they’re offered as something separate from the basic queue. Since these are changes to Quick Play, it means that more players will experience an alternative version of the game. Players who dally in Ranked or Arcade modes will be unaffected.
“Testing new ideas with you for a limited time allows us to quickly understand what you like and possibly implement changes to improve gameplay,” the blog post says. “This also gives players of all skill levels an opportunity to try out new playstyles and strategies that wouldn’t necessarily work as well in a traditional game of Overwatch.”
The good news is that if you’re truly not feeling these Quick Play changes, you can start a custom game with the traditional rules.
Patricia Hernandez is a freelance writer at IGN
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