Orwig and his team developed what came to be known as the Minimum Latency Tool, which works by setting a specific latency target for the span of a game and slowing down players on faster connections to match it.

вЂњIt's hard to play fair when you or an opponent has a perceived latency advantage.вЂќ

вЂњThe root of this was in the interest of one of Blizzard's core values, which is вЂPlay Nice, Play Fair,вЂ™вЂќ said Phil Orwig, Principal Engineer on the Overwatch team. Leveling the playing field in this area was the lynchpin of Project Aloha, and it fell on OverwatchвЂ™s engineering team to make it happen. But for Overwatch League competitors, who make up the very best of the best and whose reflexes and reaction times feel like they verge on the superhuman, the smallest latency advantage can have big consequences. For the typical player, all but the most severe disparities in latency are largely imperceptible. This time lag is called вЂњlatency,вЂќ and itвЂ™s measured in milliseconds. Generally speaking, the farther away you are geographically from your opponents in a game like Overwatch, the longer it takes to transmit whatвЂ™s happening in your game-like the firing of a weapon or your characterвЂ™s movement through space-to theirs. Puzzle Piece #1: The Minimum Latency Tool

The team assembled several puzzle pieces, each of which served a purpose, and each of which was integral to the whole thing coming together.вЂќД«elieve it or not, the first piece of this elaborate puzzle is a tool that strategically makes certain playersвЂ™ internet connections slower. вЂњWe didn't just build one thing and the problem was solved. вЂњIt was a multilayered, and multistep solution,вЂќ said Jon Spector, Overwatch LeagueвЂ™s Vice President.

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