Overwatch‘s highly anticipated competitive mode will (hopefully) launch later this month. A few days after Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan detailed some of the changes and features coming to the mode, new details have leaked out of the Korean public test realm.
Firstly, if you haven’t yet watched it, check out Kaplan’s summary of competitive play below.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/GAOaXSVZVTM[/youtube]
A quick summary:
- Competitive Mode adds a skill rating
- Players will be given a matchmaking rating (MMR), which correlates to their skill ratings. This is represented as a number from 1 to 100.
- Before each match, you’ll be able to see the average skill rating of the team you’re competing against.
- You’ll be able to see which players are in a party.
- Skill ranking will fluctuate, as opposed to continually rise.
- Seasons will be longer than one month.
- Blizzard is working on making less games “sudden death” (Overtime).
- Cosmetic rewards will be added, such as Golden Guns.
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New details have since surfaced out of Korea, which expand on a lot of what Kaplan was talking about. Here’s what has been leaked:
- Players need to play in ten “placement” matches before they can participate in a Season and be ranked.
- Competitive ranks start at 1 and cap at 100.
- Competitive rank goes up and down after wins and losses, respectively.
- Each mode will have multiple rounds (as with most semi-pro and professional esports leagues).
- Teams earn points by achieving the objective.
- Team with most points win. In a tie breaker, there will be a “sudden death” match on the same map the final round took place on.
- Each season has three months.
- Players will need to play ten games each season for an initial ranking.
- Players will earn rewards (such as sprays, icons etc.) for participating in Season matches.
Check out screenshot images from the Korean public test realm below, thanks to the folks at NeoGAF.
