Overwatch will invite more players to its closed beta with a special weekend-only event beginning Friday, Blizzard has announced.
The Beta Test Weekend commences this Friday, Nov. 20, at noon ET and concludes at noon ET on Monday, Nov. 23. Participation is invitation only; Blizzard says invitations are going out now to players in Europe and the Americas.
After the weekend, participation will revert back to those who were invited to the overall closed beta, which began in late October.
Players will receive invitations by email; however as they may be slow to arrive or get filtered out, players can double-check their eligibility by going to the Overwatch tab on their Battle.net desktop app. If there's a button marked "Install" there, they're good.
To prepare for the test, the ongoing closed beta will be taken down for scheduled maintenance on Thursday, Nov. 19. Accounts invited to participate will be flagged then.
The test weekend will remain open to those already in the closed beta. During the event, players will be able to choose from the full roster of 21 heroes and play on three maps — Hanamura, King's Row and Watchpoint: Gibraltar.
The test weekend is meant to be a stress test, so Blizzard advises participants to expect performance issues or encounter unexpected downtime. "That's all part of the process," Blizzard says.
Overwatch, a team-based multiplayer shooter, is due to launch before June 21, 2016, on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. The closed beta is only for PC. For more on the game, see Polygon's interview with Blizzard from Blizzcon 2015.