On June 23rd, Blizzard game director Jeff Kaplan acknowledged users through a forum post that 21:9 aspect ratio monitor support will be added on to the game Overwatch in July. The patch finally released with the option for players to now finally use the 21:9 aspect ratio in the Public Test Region mode. Many of 21:9 users however, were greeted with a poor implementation of this aspect ratio. (Images: 1 2 3) Rather than expanding the image properly, the developers have opted to crop the image instead. This was intentional due "advantages" it would have over those who use 16:9/16:10 aspect ratios. Kaplan pointed this out in a future post made on the thread concerning over this issue.

We understand Mr. Kaplan of your concerns of a competitive advantage, but I would argue that there are other ways of getting a much better competitive advantage: frames per second, internet speeds, surround sound headphones, low latency high CPI mice, mechanical keyboards, and a capable gaming PC. Higher frames per second gives the advantage of smoother input response. Better internet speeds gives the advantage of lower ping times to the game's server. Surround sound gives the advantage of hearing what direction certain sounds come from.(This is one of the bigger ones since Overwatch is loaded with audio ques that range from players asking for healing to when enemies use their Ultimate attacks such as Mcree's "High Noon".) Low latency mice give the advantage of a much faster response to inputs with higher CPIs giving the advantage to turn or look in another direction much quicker. Mechanical keyboards(such as those with Cherry MX Red switches or similar) gives the advantage of low actuation force that allows faster placement of inputs. Lastly, a capable gaming PC give the advantage of running the game at max settings, allowing gamers to have higher frames per second for smoothness, higher draw distance for seeing the enemy players, and higher resolutions for clarity.

If competitive advantages are a concern, why not limit the frames per second to 30? An accessible frame rate for many people's computers. Why not limit ping times to 80 so that people with better internet speeds don't see things happen faster than those who play with a poorer connection? Why not disable surround sound and just force stereo sound so that everyone hears everything only on the left and right? Why not limit people from using too high of a mouse CPI so that everyone turns at the same speed? Why not limit the types of keyboards that people use so that people aren't able to push the keys fast and have extra buttons for macros? Lastly, why not have everyone play on the same type of PC so there is not advantage in hardware such as SSDs, GPUs, and CPUs?

With how much options that open to gamers to get a competitive advantage(Many of these methods are allowed and can even be customized in-game) why draw a line on 21:9 monitors and not of those I mentioned above? Mr. Kaplan we ask that you please reconsider the implementation of 21:9 scaling in Overwatch so that it properly expands the image like in games Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Team Fortress 2, Battlefield 4, and Dota 2. All of which are games with a heavy competitive communities. Thank you.