Controversial thought: playing the current Anniversary Events has cemented my belief that OW2 should've been 4v4

Okay I’ve been playing the Overwatch 2 anniversary events and considering how many of them are small-group team-v-team things (Catch the Patchmari, Starwatch). I slept on these the first time through and playing them now I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying them, particularly StarWatch despite some of its dumber ideas (like the AI-controlled Doomfist). This has cemented my previous opinion:

OW2 should’ve been 4v4 (2 DPS, 1 tank, 1 healer) with some kind of fast-respawning mechanic for the healer, and a standard double-team mode (8v8) either in quickplay or the arcade or something. Basically, make the distribution on the team reflect the number of options in each hero class.

Obviously they would’ve needed to rework some of the healers to be able to solo-carry the healing, and probably add more Soldier/Sombra-style off-healing abilities for DPS characters (eg: give Reaper a way to share his vampirism), but still: While the 5v5 gameplay is generally unpopular, a lot of competitive players celebrate how every play feels much more impactful at those smaller counts. In 4v4 or 3v3 games like StarWatch or Elimination, it’s even moreso - solo-healing is intense, but at the same time in StarWatch when the healer goes down it’s not as huge of a loss as losing both healers in regular games because of the respawn-in-place mechanic.

Anybody who played Team Fortress 2 knows the huge distinction between intense, competitive small-team 6v6 matches and the low-stress farting-around feel of the huge 12v12 lolgames in pubs that were vastly more popular, because the diffuse responsibility meant you weren’t letting down your whole team if you were breaking in a new character or a new strategy. Transferring that to OW2, it would only make sense to break away from the forced “every game must have the same playercount” thing and embrace offering 8v8 modes for more casual play, and 4v4 modes for more competitive.

To my mind, this was the missed opportunity of the composition rejiggering of OW2.

…

Also they should make No Limits and Mystery Heroes 6v6 for old time’s sake.