Overwatch 2’s generally lacking progression system has been a consistent point of feedback from fans as the game moved to a battle pass system and got rid of seasonal placement matches.
In an effort to give a sense of growth back to players, Blizzard announced an upcoming change to the game today that will look to reward players for honing their skills with hero-specific progression and rewards.
Talking on the official Overwatch Twitch and YouTube channels, game director Aaron Keller detailed a new system that will let players effectively level up as specific heroes by playing games and executing specific plays.
“We’ll be tracking their playstyle through a lot of different categories,” he said. “As you do that you’ll level up that particular category and earn an emblem for that hero, and you can continue to earn more emblems… The interesting thing about it is that you can go into your career profile, check out the progression section and kind of get a story for the way that your particular hero plays the game.”
As players level through their hero progression, they can ultimately earn various name cards that show off their mastery of particular heroes that they can show off anytime they queue up. Ultimately, the progression system looks to be a surefire way to spot out any obvious one-trick players in your lobby. If someone has a rare customizable name cards for a specific hero’s progression equipped, it’s probably safe to assume that they play that hero quite a bit—perhaps even too much.
Related: How does battle pass progression work in Overwatch 2?
Along with progressing towards name cards, players will progress toward “emblems” that frankly just kind of look like shiny symbols that you’ll see whenever you open up your career profile. The badges could end up having more significance, but Keller did not disclose any such details during today’s stream.
