Season 17: Powered Up marks the beginning of a new journey in an Overwatch season, flipping the proverbial switch finally by Blizzard, if you thought Junkrat was just about as far gone as they get. Now he has new Heat Traps, which pretty much negate the possibility of getting away. It is streaming the new Stadium map and, well, server queues are driving people truly crazy.
So, what really defines Season 17? To start with, Junkrat’s new Thermal Traps are just as scary as they sound. Just imagine trying to flee a fight only to be dragged back in because Junkrat mercilessly plopped a spicy little souvenir right in the middle of your runway. Then there’s Stadium, the new map, which is all about mayhem: wide-open spaces, flank routes, and verticality that make any Pharah main shed tears.
Those are the usual hype and…technical disasters new seasons get. Players like @Elm2026 reported being faced with download times that felt like they were just reinstalling the whole game as others were faced with 20,000-person queues for logging in. Classic launch day for Overwatch, honestly.
That meant a fairly weighty patch note alongside its debut. While Bastion shrunk (??), Lúcio and Moira got minor healing buffs, three new heroes from Stadium were thrown in, and map voting was added for Quick Play and Competitive, no more suffering through Horizon Lunar Colony for the fifth time in a row- unless your team starts that suffering, of course.
Naturally, the opinions were mixed. Some loved it, with @fiadraws proclaiming the new Sombra skin to be peak, while others wanted to go so far as to say the entire balance team should be fired immediately, via @harvv. Then there were a few moments of panic from @SnapDragonBlues, whose Moira Mythic skin disappeared from their gallery, but @gewch17 swiftly assured them it was just a visual bug.
Then there’s the Switch 2 crowd, with a handful of players, including @Vane_toria and @GeekNamedMike, already asking just when Overwatch 2 will be upgraded for Nintendo’s next console. Blizzard hasn’t uttered a thing yet, but there’s certainly demand for it.
Then comes an observation from @Timothy_Mark7 that’s suddenly ironic: Sigma looks like Sean Connery. Once you see this, no unseeing it.
Other than the server hiccup, Season 17 promises to be a wild ride for Overwatch players. Join Easter Egg Trail for Junkrat Trap, New Map for Junkrat Trap, or just to hear people yell at their balance team. That is, unless you want to join in after the login queue has passed.
