Overwatch has an extra feature to avoid playing with others

Overwatch will have a new feature in the PTR server called “Avoid as Teammate”.

This feature was announced by game director Jeff Kaplan earlier. It will give you the option to avoid playing with other players on your team. It’s designed for situations where that player is intentionally doing something you don’t like, but doesn’t deserve to be reported.

This feature is for “when you’re too tired for a teammate but don’t necessarily report because you didn’t break any rules,” according to Kaplan. Imagine a game where people are constantly asking you to change heroes or do something different, or they’re simply annoyed with the way you play, but they’re not too negative or offensive. Kaplan describes it as the perfect example to avoid playing with these guys on his team.

You can “dodge” up to two players for up to 7 days “in order to avoid having to meet them on the team before you start looking for a match,” according to Kaplan. You can still find them on the opposing team, but these people will not be on your team for 7 days. Once these 7 days have passed, they will no longer be on your “avoid” list. But you can re-add it at any time.

Adding players to the “Avoid as Teammate” list can affect matchmaking time, because the game will have to both find the match and “dodge” the people on the list. Kaplan says this shouldn’t be a big deal in mid-tier tiers, but in high tier games the wait time can increase during low players, for example.

In addition, you will receive a warning from Overwatach if you are “dodged” by a lot of different players. During that week, you will probably find matches longer because the system has trouble finding a team for you.

Blizzard is working to reduce toxicity with this new feature. It will be tested in the current PTR server and will be broadcast on the main server in the near future. Overwatch originally had an “Avoid Player” feature two years ago, but it was used to isolate players who were too good.

“With all of our systems, the team is watching it very closely,” says Kaplan. “We hope you’ll have a lot of control over your experience in Overwatch, and we’ll continue to add new features so you can create your own gaming experience.”