The fourth stage of the Overwatch League is currently being played on an old patch that excludes reworked Hanzo and nerfed Brigitte. Now it seems that the Overwatch Contenders Trials will also be played on an old patch, but most players don’t even have access to it yet. Teams that make it into Trials from the Open Division won’t be able to practice until that tournament has concluded on May 27.
Right now, teams that have already made it into the Trials tournament can only scrimmage with each other. Last Night’s Leftovers player Alex “Ajax” Jackson pointed out the downsides to this on Twitter earlier this week.
We have only 3 people we can scrim now. Only people that got relegated to trials have this patch with tournament realm client. Open teams dont have it yet. We can only scrim 3 teams rofl, the same teams we don't want to show strats too.
— Ajax (@Ajax1OW) May 24, 2018
The Overwatch Contenders Trials tournament organizers also took to Twitter to explain their decision.
“Due to instability with patch 1.23 and 1.24 not yet available for tournament play, we made the decision to revert back to 1.22 to ensure stability,” Overwatch Path to Pro wrote. “Looking ahead, Contenders Season Two, which begins in early July, will be played on patch 1.24.”
Teams that qualify for Trials will get tournament realm access after the Overwatch Open Division playoffs end.
As Ajax noted in his tweet, no one has practiced on the old patch for about a month now. The four teams relegated from Contenders (Simplicity, Bye Week, Grizzlys Esports and Last Night’s Leftovers) will have a slight advantage in terms of practice time over the teams that make it into Trials from the Open Division.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the decision to set tournaments up on an old patch. Recently, Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer decided that the League’s fourth stage would be played on patch 1.22 due to patch instability with 1.23. The older patch leaves out Hanzo’s rework and Brigitte’s nerf.
“The league and the developers share the goal of Overwatch League play being on the latest patch possible, with certain exceptions,” Nanzer said in a statement to Dot Esports. “One is if it would be unfair to introduce a new patch mid-stage, in the heat of competition. Another reason is if we feel a new hero, or a significantly reworked hero, hasn’t been available for our teams to practice long enough in advance of the start of the stage.”
This was a controversial decision among the Overwatch community, with fans even starting a petition prior to Stage Four to let the League’s final stage be played on the game’s most recent patch. The petition acquired over 8,500 signatures.