UK-based game matchmaking company Teams.gg has added Overwatch 2 to the roster of games on its platform and has added new anti-toxicity measures.
The free squadmate-finding service has added Blizzard’s first-person shooter to its roster, allowing competitive and casual Overwatch 2 players to find their ideal teams. This joins CSGO, Valorant, Fortnite, Apex Legends and Rocket League on Teams.gg’s platform.
Mindful of Overwatch 2’s constituency of young players – and those of Fortnite and Rocket League – the company has added further safeguards for young gamers.
Teams.gg co-founder and CEO James Duffield said: “The tweaks are aimed at making Teams.gg an even safer space for younger players for any game that we support now or in future. We’re making sure that younger players will match with people of around their age: from now on, the algorithm will be stricter in how it matches players under 16.
“When younger players connect with someone and chat for the first time, we’re adding messaging at the start of the conversation – reminding them to be wary when talking with strangers online. And our third tweak is to link out to more detailed external guidelines on how to stay safe when communicating with people online and in games.”
On adding Overwatch 2 to Teams.gg, Duffield added:
“As with all the other games that we support, our biggest aim is to make sure that if you’re an Overwatch 2 player and you sign up for Teams, you’ll be able to find suitable friends to play with, who are around your skill level, and who can commit the same amount of time as you.”
James Duffield, Teams.gg
“If you’re looking for someone who wants to compete regularly at a high level, then you’ll find someone like that, but on the flipside, if you’re looking for someone to have fun with on a more casual basis, you’ll find that too.
“Overwatch 2 is such a team-based game, with the combination of roles required to succeed in the game. You need to find a set of people who are willing to play certain roles and are good at doing so, which Teams.gg can really help with.
“The aspect we put a lot of love into is the selection of primary and secondary Heroes for Overwatch 2 players. The big difference between this and our previous games like Valorant and Apex Legends is that you’re choosing heroes based on the roles that you like playing. So now we initially ask you what roles you play, and then we ask you about those specific Heroes within that role.
“The other major difference is how ranks work: Overwatch 2 players have a rank for each role. So we’ve had to be really mindful of how we display all that information in a really succinct way, whether we show it on a player card or on a profile – and how we then take that information on board behind the scenes to match people together. It’s quite unique compared to the games that we’ve supported so far.”
Teams.gg says more than 125,000 users have created profiles on the platform, and 13,000+ connections have been made via the service per month, as well as 19,000 participants in Teams.gg’s Discord.
There’s more info on the Teams.gg website
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
