5v5 vs 6v6 (My take)

General Discussion
1

The major point of contention. It shouldn’t be, really and yet it is. We all have our preferences but the loudest crowd, despite now being all that big, is the 6v6 crowd, certain in their idea that its the better format. They even claim with a level of certainty that it is an insta fix and Overwatch will be super duper fun and awesome again when in reality, it just trades the issues 5v5 has for the issues 6v6 had. I personally like 5v5 just fine. I like how tanks feel more impactful over the supposed tank duos you’d have in 6v6. I think playing tank is perfectly enjoyable. The main issue is the struggle to properly matchmake DPS. It’s such a major flux between getting someone who will play well or someone who doesn’t have thumbs.

Also, we do need to address the major 6v6 elephant in the room: double shield. I keep hearing people saying “it isn’t strong anymore” or “its not that bad” but the fact of the matter is, double shield was aids. It was toxic and it was super broken to the point that all shield tanks got heavy nerfs and even then, all that did was further necessitate double shield because the shield tanks by themselves were too weak otherwise. You might also say “a couple shield tanks were reworked so its ok!”. Even then, only Orisa lost her shield for a different kit, one i actually enjoy a lot more than her old one, a kit that i think in a proper 6v6 would either need to be massively overhauled or reworked again.

Seeing the 6v6 changes for the upcoming test also doesn’t excite me. Every legacy tank is basically being reverted (Didn’t see Orisa in those changes). Zarya doesn’t have shared bubbles so there’s no more bubble management or tactical uses of the bubble on two teammates, a teammate and yourself or yourself twice. Roadhog gets reverted which i don’t agree with either since its clear that he’d likely return to his gutted state and even if not, i like current Roadhog with a more useful primary fire, no awkward secondary fire and pigpen is a fun ability to use for zoning. Losing that and not having any of that replaced feels wrong.

Its kind of like how in R6 Siege, they removed all the mid-range optics because they kept having them on OP operators and instead of better balancing them, they went back to the old system of only 1x optics and ACOGs, removing content without replacing it. Anyway, i don’t want this to become ranty because im not ranting. 6v6 as it is, is already unlikely to return and replace 5v5 as the issues that caused it to be tossed still exist and can’t really be fixed. Longer queue times, tougher to balance shield heroes etc

If anything, i’d like to see open queue changed to 6v6 as open queue was always 6v6 and worked pretty well and for role queue to remain 5v5. This i think would make a lot of players happy. For you 6v6-ers, note that there are just as many 5v5 enjoyers as well. Just because your favourite content creator champions 6v6 doesn’t mean everyone is in agreement. Far from it.

Watching a few OW streams where the topic unavoidably comes up, i noticed a few chatters happy to see 6v6 but also just as many not happy to see it, agreeing with my sentiment that its a preference and there’s the understanding that both formats have issues and that this must be taken care of thoughtfully and carefully by the devs.

DO NOT REPLACE 5v5 WITH 6v6! I like 5v5 and im not afraid to say so. I like how tanks feel. I like the more chaotic pacing of teamfights where something is always happening, i like the freer designs tank heroes get, something i don’t believe they could get prior since the devs had to be careful with shields and such.

If 6v6 is going to return, please reintroduce it in a way that doesn’t undo the years of 5v5 i’ve really enjoyed. I love how tanks are now and i don’t want to see rework reversions or removed content that doesn’t get replaced. Let 5v5 and 6v6 coexist with each other. How you do that is up to you, the devs. I just wanted to make my voice heard because i as a long time Overwatch player know how format changes can scare some people. I started playing before role queue. When it came, i was loving it but lots of people weren’t so Open queue came back for them. Please try something similar when reintroducing 6v6. Bring it back but not at the expense of a mode lots of others enjoy just fine. My friend and i both agree we prefer 5v5.

3 Likes
2

Yup. It’s this argument again. Not wasting my time reading a post by someone 2 years behind in the debate.

9 Likes
3

They can scream all they want, that does not change the reality that two fireballs are superior to two tanks. I am sorry, I do not make the rules.

1 Like
4

I don’t know what the devs are going to do.

But there are two facts that are the biggest indictment to ow 2 5v5.

Millions of players that bought ow 1 didn’t bother to come back for 5v5 even though it was free.

And 2nd, if 5v5 was a roaring success there is zero reason to bring 6v6 back.

Should they just keep both, or will they let popularity determine which stays and which goes?

I think they should just do both and let players decide.

3 Likes
5

Wouldn’t want to hear what garbage you’d have to say anyway. You keep living in a delusional world.

I don’t know where you get this statistic from and even if it were true, it’s meaningless for two reasons.

  • They’ve never tried it out and thus haven’t got an opinion to form

  • It’s not as if OW has been losing players to the same level as Concord. In fact, the game hit highs it hadn’t in OW1. Naturally this ebbs and flows and sometimes you get an influx when something new comes out before everyone goes off to do other things.

OW2 as is is still successful. The format likely plays little into this. 6v6 isn’t gonna make the game more popular per se. It’s just gonna make a certain sector of the community happy because they think its how you solve every issue in the game.

Another thing that isn’t realized by many. A lot of people only started playing OW when it became F2P and became 2 meaning 5v5 is all they know. To that effect, bringing in 6v6 might cause them to no longer enjoy the flow of the game with much longer and drawn out teamfights and less agency to act as a player on your own.

As you said, i’d prefer if 6v6 became the format for open queue and 5v5 remained the normal mode. I have no major issues with the format. Im more interested in otherways to spice of the game such as health packs being joined by buff packs and other elements. Also remember that community map? How about making that map a reality in some way? Battlefield 4 had a community map and it was pretty good. Let the community contribute to the actual game more so they feel a part of it

6

ow2 is a free game tho

7

Same, I stopped reading at this lie. 6vs6 would make OW better but nobody said it would be perfect.

10 Likes
8

Once again, you’re acting as if its an insta fix, when it isnt. It wouldn’t objectively make the game better. That is a matter of pure opinion

2 Likes
9

Right. Paint me in whatever color fits your narrative.

3 Likes
10

roaring success :joy: you really made me almost laugh out loud behind my PC

of course, but better is still better, and not the other way around…

11

I don’t. I prefer to be able to kill enemies, rather than be absolutely helpless in front of them. 5v5 ruined everything that made the game good, and replaced it with a watered down version of itself.

12

You struggle to kill with tanks… in a game where tanks are actually strong and impactful… How is that the game’s fault again?

1 Like
13

Bro literally can’t play tank without being super OP, skill issue

14

Who’s super OP? The game is in a very well balanced state currently. One of the best it’s had for a long while

1 Like
15

Tank player be like: i wanna be overpowered wah

16

Oh… Another player who doesn’t actually have an argument to be made. They just don’t like when things they don’t like are good and enjoyable. Maybe if you removed the rose tinted glasses and stepped forward into the future, you could see that things are actually quite fine

22

I vastly prefer 6v6 over 5v5, and do hope 6v6 replaces 5v5…the sooner the better

4 Likes
23

for me it’s funny that I liked more 6v6 when it was classic or the first seasons before RQ. I don’t understand people thinking that 6v6 (the last 4 seasons) was great because you could kill tanks because at that time it was nearly imposible to kill anything , and you needed ultimates to do it.

I thought that 6v6 people prefered a slow game mode where no one dies easily and you are squeezing all the cds and counting seconds so you prepare your entire team to focus the enemies and kill them, or just use multiple ultimates to finish them (it being less fps and more moba-ish nothing wrong with that but I prefer it to be more fps myself)

Me trying 2-1-2 again I feel like that is going to be the case because when I played it I was shooting 70-80% of the time shields. Still if they fixed that I wouldn’t care what we get if I’m not forced to play tank, I already play too much tank nowadays and I only like to play wrecking ball.

But in the end there is 2 groups of people, ones that prefer 5v5 and others that prefer 6v6 and I don’t know how are they going to decide if they change the game or not.

24

There is no double shield comp that works, other than Orisa+Sig.

You like where tank is. Are you the one playing tank, or are you playing against the tank? Cuz tank is no fun to play against — its a target nobody other than another tank can meaningfully interact with alone.

Perhaps if we went back to the TTKs of early OW2 (tank included), it would at least be bearable. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

25

Tanks also don’t want to interact with tanks, its not unusual for both to ignore each other entirely on ladder. Really no one wants to interact with tanks, and whoever is targeted by the tank is just a victim getting violated.

1 Like