The 32nd hero in Overwatch, Echo, a Damage category hero is now live on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch! Echo is a multirole evolutionary robot programmed with a rapidly adapting artificial intelligence and represents the cutting edge of technology. Echo was the creation of Singaporean scientist Dr. Mina Liao, one of the earliest members of Overwatch. Prior to joining the organization, Dr. Liao was widely considered one of the prominent experts in robotics and artificial intelligence.
Here are her abilities:
Here’s the launch video:
COMPETITIVE OPEN QUEUE
A new Competitive Mode, Competitive Open Queue, all be launched in the Arcade. This will run for roughly four weeks, using standard Competitive Play rules, including hero pools and one hero limit, but will have no role restrictions or role queues.
UNIFYING THE HERO POOLS
A unified Hero Pool will be implemented, allowing both the Overwatch League and Competitive Play to mirror each other as closely as possible and making a more consistent viewing and play experience. Here’s how this works:
- To determine a week’s Hero Pool, hero play rates will be compiled from high-level Competitive Play matches from the preceding two weeks. Heroes with play rates above a certain threshold will be eligible to be removed; the higher their play rate, the more likely they are to be removed. Based on that, one Tank, two Damage, and one Support will be randomly removed from play. (Note that heroes will not be removed two weeks in a row.)
- At the end of each Sunday’s Overwatch League matches, the Hero Pool that will be used that upcoming week for both live Competitive Play and the Overwatch League will be announced. That pool will go into effect in the game Monday morning.
- This process will occur every week of the Overwatch League regular season; during weeks that there are no Overwatch League matches, the same data will still be used to determine the Hero Pool and you will find out Monday morning.
RETIRING MAP POOLS
To simplify the competitive experience, there will no longer be rotating Map Pools. Instead, Competitive Play will include all of the maps, with the exception of Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony. When those two maps have been updated to improve their play in the future, they will be added back into the pool at that time.