I want to share with the developers some ideas I have for this current iteration of Stadium. It has not been a fun experience for a lot of us, but I wanted to also offer some genuine constructive feedback things I’ve noticed playing Stadium on console:
(I also posted this on Reddit, I’m hoping someone at Blizzard reads it)
I pretty much stopped regular Comp when Stadium dropped. There was something about the build kits and the progression each round, slowly building into your team or character that really clicked for me. I hit L3 last season in DPS because I took the time to learn the different builds on Tracer, but also how to counter opposing team draft picks. It felt rewarding, strategic, thoughtful and engaging. There were times I would play Mei and start an AP build, but realize by R3 I was doing nothing to help my team, and had the time to remove all my power ups and replace them with WP, making a bigger impact in later rounds. R4 without selecting a power gave me the opportunity to adjust my playstyle focusing on weapon, instead of ability.
The other thing I want to point out is I only use third person camera in Stadium, which allows me to be more situationally aware and peak around corners more effectively. I changed all my Stadium hero picks aim settings to match peak performance for third person camera. After spending hours in Stadium, I would try to play Comp, but without third person camera, and my aim adjustments set specifically for Stadium, it feels like I’m aiming a wet noodle and perform significantly worse in those Comp games, so I stopped playing Comp all together.
I don’t know what is going on at Blizzard, but there needs to be some better organization and planning around these major features:
- Implementing third person view in all modes, not stadium:
- With the new camera implementation, allow for aim/camera settings to be adjusted separately for first person/third person;
- When implementing a new feature that requires new button mappings, change the way button mappings currently work:
- When using a controller, players are limited to what buttons they can map to. Implement a feature like dual mapping (R3 press for gadget use during the game, R3 press for player endorsements at the end of the game);
- Or implement a feature in which players can hold down a context button for additional mappings;
- In terms of BO5 vs BO7, it’s a half-assed, half-baked implementation. Taking away two rounds and just simply increasing cash reward after each round serves no practical purpose. It fundamentally changes a main (and also very popular) game mode that leaves players reeling with no real context and no real justification. Players who play Stadium want the longer games, that is why we play. That is why it’s so popular. Other ways to change the pacing of the game:
- Eliminate draft picks, or shorten their time by a few seconds;
- Shorten the round introduction;
- Shorten the time from armory closing to game start;
- Allow players to chat in between rounds. For some reason, text chatting always shuts down in between rounds;
- For none-power-selecting rounds (2, 4, 6) only load maps that are shorter in length to play. Payload race, Push, etc. I know there are stats on which maps are statistically shorter to play than others. Or implement maps that have shorter play times (statistically) to be played for R2, R4, R6.
- (Edited to add): Allow Stadium teams to anonymously forfeit a match after round 3, if the voting team is behind by more than two games (0-3, 4-1).
Please consider tweaking Stadium to be a smoother experience without changing the whole formula. These recent updates feel jarring and disjointed. These are a few suggestions, I’m sure others have additional feedback.