Overwatch 2 Clash rework might be coming sooner than you think

A rework for one of Overwatch 2’s most controversial game modes might be coming to the game sooner than you expect.

Overwatch 2 has its fair share of unpopular game modes, but it might be hard to beat Clash as the most nightmarish in the game right now. Clash is PvP “tug-of-war” like mode where players need to capture several points, battling back and forth in a linear map.

Many of the fights play similarly to Overwatch’s other historically controversial game mode, 2CP, with spawns close to the point and long drawn-out fights. Made even worse, as Clash maps are mostly straight and linear, there aren’t many interesting angles or flanks to take, leaving fights feeling one-dimensional.

Fortunately, the devs seem to be aware of Clash’s unpopularity, as they announced a rework for the game mode about a month ago. And even more fortunately, this rework might be coming soon.

Clash is getting a rework

Overwatch 2’s biggest esports tournament series, the Overwatch Champions Series, kicked off its first matches on January 24 in Korea. But one omission from the map pool was the Clash game mode, explicitly removed from the tournament, an indication that the mode is not competitive.

While Blizzard isn’t explicitly involved with the decisions made for the Overwatch Champions Series, this news does align with a statement made in December by Systems Designer Gavin Winter, who revealed that the devs are working on “another set of changes” for the mode.

Blizzard Entertainment

This has hinted to the community that changes for Clash may be imminent and coming soon. One user suggested that “clash being taken out of OWCS signals to [them] that the devs are about to make significant changes” and that the “OWCS team [might] have an idea of what the OW dev team is doing.”

It’s worth noting that Hanaoka was previously played in the OWCS 2025 Open Qualifiers, implying this was a last minute decision to remove this game mode. Still, the removal of Clash from the competitive scene is a good sign that change is to come for this problematic game mode.