Overwatch 2 Reveals Competitive Changes

Overwatch 2 is less than a week away and Blizzard has revealed details about changes to competitive play in a new blog post. As revealed earlier this week, Overwatch newcomers will not be able to access competitive play from the start; instead, they will be required to compete in 50 quick play matches before the option is unlocked. However, that's not the only change that Blizzard is making to the game's competitive scene. Notably, changes are being made to the user interface, SR, rewards, skill decay, and much more.

One of the biggest changes to competitive play is the removal of the SR metric. In Overwatch 2, SR will be replaced by Skill Tier Divisions. Tiers will range from Bronze to Grand Master, and each Tier will include five divisions. According to Blizzard, "Tier Divisions represent the same skill levels as SR, but they give players a higher-level view of where they're placed in Competitive. Each division represents approximately a 100 SR range." The company wants players to feel less pressure when they lose a single match, so players will no longer get updates after every one of them. Instead, updates will be provided after every seventh win, or after every 20th loss.

Players that stop playing for a while "will find their internal matchmaking rating lowered to help us re-evaluate and determine their current skill level." Blizzard will raise or lower that rating more quickly though, so players can expect to find themselves back at their normal placement without waiting too long.

During sessions, players will be able to look at Game Reports, which go into specific detail about the player's overall performance. This section will feature replays and highlights, and players will be able to find details about how they performed with each individual character. Those reports will reset after each play session, but Blizzard plans to adjust this in a future update.

There are a lot more changes to competitive play, but these are some of the biggest highlights. Readers interested in learning more can check out Blizzard's blog post right here. It will be interesting to see how fans react to these competitive changes once they've checked them out for themselves! Luckily, they don't have much longer to wait, as Overwatch 2 is set to release October 4th on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Are you looking forward to the release of Overwatch 2? What do you think of these changes? Let us know in the comments or share your thoughts directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp to talk all things gaming!