Overwatch Season 17 Release Date, Map Voting, Everything You Need to Know

Overwatch's next Season is approaching, and the Blizzard team has revealed some juicy nuggets of information about its features. A new Flashpoint map, Aatlis, is on the horizon, and players will see changes to Suravasa and New Junk City. Plus, Map Voting will soon join Competitive queue. Let's explore the key information about Season 17, including its features, philosophy, cosmetics and how it will affect the meta.

How Will Overwatch Season 17 Affect the Esports Meta?

Overwatch Season 17 will certainly have plenty of Hero updates in its Patch Notes, but no upcoming alterations are public yet. However, we do know a great deal about the Overwatch team's philosophy thanks to a June 6 'Director's Take' statement.

The publication indicates Overwatch Season 17 will focus most on improving Flashpoint mode, adding Map Voting and reworking Heroes based on ban data. Players can expect better choke points and changes ranging from 'minor tweaks' to 'new areas to explore' on maps like Suravasa and New Junk City, plus a new Flashpoint option called Aatlis. Map Voting will help Overwatch gather data on which maps the community enjoys and let teams select optimal matchups they feel confident in. It will only affect the Competitive queue.

The Overwatch Director's Take states:

"Mid-year seasons, like Season 18, bring larger updates to core systems or new features that also upgrade your Overwatch experience. Between those beats it's important for us to deliver exciting gameplay for you to check out, but that's where we may weigh refinement more and build out systems that may be more functional than flashy."

Overwatch Season 17: When Will It Release?

Overwatch Season 17 will release at Season 16's conclusion on Tuesday, June 17 2025. Specifically, it will launch at 11:00 AM Pacific Time (PT). Since exact update times may vary, here's a quick conversion for each other major Overwatch timezone:

• West Coast US (PDT): 11 AM
• East Coast US (EDT): 2 PM
• United Kingdom (GMT): 7 PM
• Europe (CET): 8 PM
• Japan (JST)/Korea (KST): 3 AM (June 18)

All Overwatch Season 17 Known Updates

Now that we've explored the Overwatch team's philosophy regarding the new Season and how it may affect the meta, let's walk through all key changes we know of in detail.

New Map

A new map will enter Overwatch's Flashpoint game mode. In this format, players aim to capture Point Objectives in a linear fashion, progressing to a best-of-5 score to win. While Overwatch has only teased this new map so far, we do know several key details about it:

• The map's name is Aatlis.
• The map will likely be extremely large, since Flashpoint is non-linear and relies on team coordination.
• Overwatch states in its Director's Take publication: "There are lessons we learned with [Suravasa and New Junk City] (and others) baked into Aatlis in terms of navigation, objective fights, and choke points."

Existing Flashpoint Map Updates

In addition to Aatlis, Overwatch is updating several existing Flashpoint maps in the Competitive pool. The team states, "reworks for Suravasa and New Junk City are in the works" and are "slated for release in the latter half of Season 17."

The Overwatch community has had divided opinions on Flashpoint since the mode arrived. Many complain that the maps are too large to allow for effective team coordination and that their layouts can be confusing. Season 17's map pool changes will focus on "[upgrading] Flashpoint as a whole" and span "from minor tweaks on existing maps to new areas of exploration."

Related Article: Best Heroes in Overwatch Stadium Mode: Full Season 16 Tier List

Hero Bans and Map Voting

Hero Bans have rejuvenated Overwatch's competitive meta. Besides ensuring player enjoyment by eliminating unfun matchups, they help continuously cycle characters in and out of gameplay and create unique team comps. However, they can also indicate serious Hero issues: the Overwatch team has kept a close eye on Season 16's ban rates and identified necessary adjustments to Sombra and Freja. While Sombra's reworks will reportedly not arrive until Season 18, Overwatch players can expect changes to heroes with high ban rates to make them more tolerable.

In addition, Overwatch will add a new Map Voting mechanic in Season 17. This will only occur in Competitive queue, and will allow teams to collaboratively vote for which maps they wish to play on. In essence, it may function similarly to Hero Bans with a dedicated pre-match phase. The Blizzard team will carefully analyze this data to figure out which maps players enjoy and which require further adjustment.

New Hero Aqua

Freja arrived during Season 16 and was immediately one of the most successful hero launches in a long time. The Danish DPS instantly became a fan-favorite character (well, at least when she was on the player's team... she was extremely OP for a while). Season 17 will follow with another new Hero, the 44th on Overwatch's roster. We have an existing concept art image of this fresh face, whose placeholder name is Aqua.

Aqua's role is currently unknown, but netizens speculate he could be a Support or DPS, and his powers seemingly utilize water. In addition, he has a bright blue and white uniform with a staff-like weapon.

Related Article: How Overwatch Hero Bans Work: A Quick Guide to Drafting in Season 16

New D.Va Mythic and Reaper Mythic Weapon

Dazzling tank D.VA gets a new Siberian Tiger Mythic skin in Season 17, according to Overwatch leak account @OverwatchNaeri. This design may feature several colorways and reportedly resembles a fierce Siberian big cat, characterized by lush white fur and bold blue stripes. Baby D.Va (out of her mech) wears an adorable tail with a purple ribbon. In addition, Reaper will reportedly earn a new Mythic weapon to take out enemies in style.

Further information about Overwatch Season 17 will arise as its launch draws closer.