Overwatch to Get Updated Competitive Play Mode

Overwatch’s Competitive Play mode is just around the corner, so game director Jeff Kaplan has shared some of the details.  Blizzard made some changes to Assault, season length, and how the competitive mode will define player’s ranking.

First of all, each season is now two and a half months long with a two week break in between each one. This decision is said to be based on the players’ feedback.

Kaplan also talked about some games ending with sudden death. It would go to the tiebreaker 35 percent of the time, which was too much for Blizzard. The studio is working on minimizing the number of times this happens, and when it does happen, the sudden death will occur on the same map you just played on.

Assault mode will also be changed so that matches can last longer and to produce more opportunities for the round to go back and forth between the two teams.

There will also be changes to Competitive Play’s ranking system. Now there are no more tiers and the gam uses your skill rating to determine your opponents  – you’ll get your initial skill rating from placement matches.

At the beginning of each game, you’ll get a chance to see every player’s skill rating to know exactly who you’re dealing with. As not every match is going to be fair, if you’re on the less-skilled team, you “stand to gain more if you win and you will lose less if you lose.”

The downside of a system like this is [your skill rating is] going to go down sometimes. But this is the sort of competitive system that we think players who are attracted to competitive play really want. If it’s not, I hope we’ve proven throughout the beta, and our responsiveness to change Competitive Play over time, that we’re going to change this system over time to really be right for Overwatch and the players of Overwatch.

Jeff Kaplan

You will also be able get gold-colored weapons.

The highest-skilled players will be able to unlock that stuff way sooner than anybody else. And there will also be some exclusive, other cosmetic rewards that only the highest-skilled players can get – that nobody else can get.

Jeff Kaplan

Source: YouTube