🏠 » General » Overwatch bans stacking in competitive play for Grandmasters

Overwatch bans stacking in competitive play for Grandmasters

Overwatch’s sixteenth competitive season began today, and it brings with it some major changes for Grandmaster players. 

Developer Scott Mercer announced that players with a skill rating above 4,000 would no longer be able to “stack.” This is when several such players get together to play on the same team. Instead, Grandmaster players will only be able to duo in competitive mode. 

“In an effort to have higher quality and more matches for everyone, Overwatch actively tries to place parties of similar sizes together to create fair matches,” Mercer explained. 

This works for the vast majority of Overwatch players. But it becomes difficult at Grandmaster levels, since there are fewer players at that skill level available for matchmaking. According to Mercer, this change will create better quality matches for Grandmaster players. 

This new change also applies to professional players. 

Most Overwatch League players are Grandmaster, which includes the top 500 players in every region. Reactions from the OWL community have been supportive of this change. In fact, most pros in the league are already playing with a stack of three or lower when teaming up or facing off with other Overwatch League competitors. 

“No more 3 stacking in GM PogChamp,” Houston Outlaws DPS Jake “JAKE” Lyon said on Twitter. 

He went on to say that the 4,000 SR player pool is small enough that “balancing a triple stack” is too inconsistent. 

On the original blog post announcing the change, the Overwatch community was very supportive of the change. Many players thanked the developers for the decision, and some even pushed for the change to be applied at lower ranks. 

One player said that the Xbox community in the European region is so small that Masters is considered top 500. They noted that the rank 500 player is currently at 3,750 SR. Other players chimed in as well, including one who said that there are so few players on the Australian PC servers that there are usually only one or two masters in any given high skill game, even at peak times. 

“I think top 500 in Asia is like Diamond lmao,” replied another. 

Other gamers expressed concern with the update. They said that Overwatch, for them, is all about playing with their friends. They expressed worry over being made to play with strangers who may not have a mic or be willing to properly communicate in-game. 

Despite the vocal minority on the blog post, it’s clear that Blizzard has listened to the Overwatch community regarding the issue with stacking in high-tier competitive play. 

Read Also
Dota 2 starts massive smurf ban wave, are you guilty?
A smurf ban wave has left 90,000 Dota 2 accounts in the ...
PewDiePie banned on Twitch again, but why?
Felix “PewDiePie” Kjellberg has earned another strike on Twitch, as his channel ...
Kai Cenat banned from Twitch, “green out” possibly why
Kai Cenat has been temporarily banned from Twitch following a “green out” ...
Dota 2 pro asks Valve to take back permanent ban after account sharing
Earlier this week, Valve banned pro Dota 2 players for account sharing. ...
League of Legends auto-mute feature added
Riot Games has taken a proactive step to combat toxicity in their ...
Latest News
Here’s what Kick Bounties are and how they work
Kick Bounties are a new feature that encourages ...
NezhenkaPirozhenka hits rare max multiplier win in online slot
Kick streamer NezhenkaPirozhenka has been having a quite ...
MOUZ vs Legacy: BLAST Austin Major CS2 betting guide
MOUZ has almost climbed its way out of ...
Nmplol explains why OTK is now streaming on Kick
Content creation organization One True King surprisingly started ...
NaVi vs G2 Esports: BLAST Austin Major CS2 betting guide
NaVi took a tough loss to longtime rival ...
StableRonaldo joins Kick, here’s what we know so far
FaZe Clan streamer Rani “StableRonaldo” Netz has created ...
Team Spirit vs NaVi: BLAST Austin Major CS2 betting guide
The BLAST Austin Major has not gone to ...
Bonus round leads to huge max win for Trainwreckstv
Tyler "Trainwreckstv" Niknam continued his recent winining streak ...
These are the best new slots to play released in June 2025
June is heating up with some spicy and ...
Editor's Picks
Who is Stevewilldoit? Net worth, girlfriend, and more
The news of Stephen "Stevewilldoit" Deleonardis, the master ...
All we know about Thea Booysen, MrBeast’s girlfriend
Jimmy "MrBeast" Donaldson is known purely for his ...
How to quickly make infinite water in Terraria
Whether you’re looking to spruce up your Hellevator ...
Best Pokemon Glazed cheat codes
Pokemon Glazed is one of the most popular ...
How to enable net graph in CS2 
Competitive players were disappointed when they discovered that ...

Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.

This site is using Cloudflare and adheres to the Google Safe Browsing Program. We adapted Google's Privacy Guidelines to keep your data safe at all times.
21+NCPGGamblers Anonymous
×
Your Promo Code:
The bonus offer of was already opened in an additional window. If not, you can open it also by clicking the following link:
Visit Site