The Year of the Rooster event is now live for Overwatch and aside from the new festivals and emotes given to characters, a new game mode has also been revealed called "Capture The Rooster" - in other words Capture the Flag. Game director Jeff Kaplan reveals that a concept for Capture the Flag was in development for years in the game, but it just took a while before it got to Overwatch.
In a recent Developer Update, Kaplan explains that the delay on the game mode was because the developers were trying to find a way to balance the game, what with the speed abilities of some characters - particularly Tracer. In a typical Capture the Flag game, Tracer would be able to flit around the map and use her blink to teleport right back to her team base.
The developers particularly had a hard time trying to balance the game mode out without making it seem unfair to some, but it looks like they were able to find a way. Instead of picking the flag up instantaneously, players will have to stand around the flag for a limited time before they can pick it up. This will allow the enemy team time to react before their flag is whisked away.
According to Game Rant, Capture the Flag has been a staple for any FPS game like Halo and Star Wars Battlefront, and it was a wonder why Overwatch wasn't able to come up with the game mode right away. Hopefully now, Blizzard is happy with the tweaks they made to the game mode, and players won't find it unfair if their team went against a Tracer or a Sombra.
Capture the Rooster is said to last the whole Chinese New Year event, but there's still a chance that it will be made available afterwards. It all depends on player reception.
Year of the Rooster is now live on Overwatch, and it will be available until Feb. 13.
