Overwatch Season 18 Prohibits Mirror Matchups in Stadium Mode and Adds Quickplay
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Key points
- Overwatch 2 Stadium Mode is receiving fundamental changes in season 18, which begins on Aug. 26, 2025.
- Stadium Quick Play is a new mode, with ranked being locked until players win 10 games in Quick Play with Blizzard tracking stadium MMR in quickplay.
- Mirror matchups are no longer allowed in Draft Mode, featured in Stadium Competitive.
Overwatch 2 Stadium Mode is receiving numerous quality of life changes, fleshing out the experience for new players and stadium veterans alike. Beginning in season 18, which begins tomorrow on Aug. 26, 2025, Overwatch Stadium mode will have a new Quick Play mode, offering faster matches and serving as a prerequisite for all players prior to participating in ranked.
Players will have to achieve 10 wins in Stadium Quickplay to unlock Competitive play; Competitive Stadium now features a Draft Mode that prevents mirror matchups. Therefore, only one of each hero can be played, a change Blizzard implemented to increase play diversity and reduce the likelihood of static metas, according to the official Overwatch blog update post.
Grouping restrictions are being added to Stadium Competitive for Elite and above. Pros can group within 15 divisions, All-Stars within 10 divisions, and Legends within 5 divisions. This is targeted towards improving matchmaking quality.
To help address the frequent issue of leavers, Blizzard stated players will lose fewer Stadium Points when someone on the team leaves; the opposing team still gains the same amount of Stadium Points. For close matches, players are rewarded SP for each round won in Stadium Competitive, but the pity feature stops upon reaching All-Star and Legend ranks.
Overwatch 2 Season 18 will start on Aug. 26, 2025. The game is available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC. The game teased a collaboration with Persona 5 in late August.
