The Overwatch dev team really tries to listen to its player base and make good decisions when updating the game. Sometimes, however, the best intentions don't always translate to improved gameplay. Such is the case with a recent change in patch 1.10 pertaining to Assault/Escort maps and win conditions.

The patch wanted to fix how victories were determined in close matches, mainly to avoid ties. The fix now requires players on a team to only have more progress in capturing an objective than actually capturing it. While it helped make ties rarer, players tended to be confused about how their team lost.

"Even with both teams aware of the new victory conditions and adapting appropriately, the instantaneous nature of the victory often resulted in confusion about what happened," principal designer Scott Mercer said in a post on the official forums. "Did the defenders not have someone on the point due to a mistake, or did the attacking Lucio pull off an amazing boop? This lack of clarity is not ideal, so we’re going to make a change in a future patch."

Mercer said that the patch would force players to capture at least 33% of the objective, rather than just 1% more. He offered the following examples:

• Team A attacks the first objective on Hanamura, but only gains 10% progress after a really rough offensive round. Team B then attacks, but they can only gain 20%. This is a TIE. Neither team achieved the minimum of 33%.
• Team A attacks the first objective on Hanamura, and gains 90% progress. Team B attacks, and only gains 40%. progress. Team A WINS, as they had a minimum of 33% and more progress than their opponent.
• Team A attacks the second objective on Hanamura, and fully captures it with 3:00 left. Team B attacks the second objective on Hanamura, and captures it in overtime with 0:00 left. Team A now is back on the attack, trying to take the first objective. They can only reach 20% progress after their time bank of 3:00 elapses. This is a TIE. They did not meet the minimum target of 33% progress. If Team A had reached 33%, then they would have won the match.

"This change means slightly more ties will occur than the present rules (still WAY less than the 6% rate across all competitive matches we saw before), but we feel that the additional clarity of the victory moment and ability for the defense to react to the offense are worth it," Mercer said.

Overwatch recently added the new Uprising content, with new skins, items and a PvE mode. The event is slated to end on May 1.