Some huge video game news has the University of Miami’s competitive esports team buzzing.
Five new heroes, a new focus on annual story arcs, and a “Hello Kitty” collaboration were among the transformative changes announced by videogame developer Blizzard at its 2026 Overwatch Spotlight on Feb. 4.
“But our key focus this year is how we can evolve what it means to play an Overwatch game,” Aaron Keller, Overwatch’s Game Director, said at the Overwatch Spotlight event “There are so many things coming to Overwatch this year we can’t even fit it into this Spotlight.”
With the first season of this new chapter for Overwatch released on Feb. 10, Blizzard’s plans will change the fabric of Overwatch and force the ’Canes to adjust their strategy for the Spring 2026 collegiate esports season. A few of them are excited to play the new heroes.
“I feel like it’s Blizzard’s message to the community that it’s ready to go all in on Overwatch,” said Anthony Crespo, one of two team captains for UM’s eSports team. “There are a lot of exciting heroes and changes that will refresh the game over the coming months, and a roadmap of future content to keep everyone interested.”
Crespo and his co-captain, Randy Advincula, will, however, assess how this will affect their season.
The new heroes will be locked behind the PlayVS College League’s two-week rule, which prevents new heroes from being playable until two weeks after official release.
“We’re going to have two weeks to plan strategies for our teams, but it’s going to be crazy,” Crespo said. “With new heroes, perk changes, map changes, and most likely some balance changes, it’s going to be chaos.”
While the delay in hero releases will give the ’Canes time to prepare, they will have to adjust quickly to other changes to the game. Perks, or in-game upgrades to heroes, and maps are all being updated in the new update.
Subroles, labels given to certain heroes to denote their purposes and which come with an extra ability, are also a new addition to Overwatch that the ‘Canes will have to consider.
There will be two games played before the end of the two-week period for UM eSports.
“New heroes and subroles are a lot, and it’ll give an advantage to those who can adapt and learn quickly, something Overwatch has been missing for a while,” Advincula said. “We will have to keep in mind to test new stuff in our scrims while still practicing old strategies in the meantime.”