Overwatch team release experimental changes for Flash Ops tournament

In recently revealed patch notes, the Overwatch team has released a new experimental card for its upcoming Flash Ops tournament. For this tournament, every hero from every role has significant changes applied. Three Overwatch content creators oversaw the changes. Popular streamer and Brigitte player Violet was in charge of the support alterations, Florida Mayhem content creator Flats looked over the tank changes, and lastly streamer Somjuu took on DPS changes.

Fine, I'll do it myself.

HUGE thank you @PlayOverwatch for letting me do this, the reactions are already worth it
https://t.co/7wxRleh54a pic.twitter.com/DnwTmUzAIy

— Flats (@Flats_OW) November 30, 2021

Homemade balance patch for competitive players

Unlike most other experimental patch notes in Overwatch, this one harkens back to the one released on April Fools as well as the mod Paris Eternal used in their 2022 season tryouts. As opposed to balancing the game, the team has focused on changing it significantly for a one-off tournament. This tournament, dubbed the Flash Ops: Experimental Card Creator Cup, is open to all with each region of the world having their own version of competition.

The number of changes within this patch is massive, with the full list available on the patch notes website. To show off how these changes feel, the first one you can see on the site is for D.Va. It increases her de-meched form’s melee damage from 30 to 100. Now, not all these changes are buffs, as these heroes are essentially balanced to an extreme. An example of that change is Orisa, who has a shield of only 300 health, as opposed to her 600 health regular one.

For supports, two of the most interesting changes are for Lucio and Zenyatta. If you land your Lucio ultimate on an enemy, it does massive damage. For Zenyatta, Transcendence now heals a little less but also applies discord orb to all enemies inside it. As support changes were overseen by a Brigitte streamer, her ultimate was altered as well. Now instead of providing healing, it reduces the cooldown for her Repair Packs by 0.5 seconds and increases their charge from three to five.

Lastly, the DPS changes also make things interesting. Some of the biggest changes include allowing Hanzo’s storm arrows to ricochet off walls and Genji getting his double jump refund after a wall climb. Make sure to look over the patch notes to see what’s different about your favorite hero in this experimental card.

Flash Ops tournament details

For this Flash Ops tournament, all maps except Paris will be playable. This marks the return of Horizon Lunar Colony to competitive play, albeit for a community tournament. The format will be nine rounds of single elimination. Entering the tournament is free for all regions.

The prizes vary per region. NA will have cash prizes of $5000 USD to $1400 USD, from first to fourth place. The EMEA and ANZ regions have rewards for first and second place only, with $4500 USD and $2500 USD in comparison. Sign-ups for this tournament will start on Nov. 29, 2021, and they will close on Dec. 10, 2021, at 7:55 am EST, five minutes before the first round of the tournament. The tournament schedule will be from Dec. 10-12, 2021, with times posted on their tournament website, varying per region.