The second Season of Competitive Play in Overwatch started today, along with a school year. Blizzard has gathered players feedback and implemented a bunch of changes. Let's take a close look at each of them.
Skill Rating Changes
Forget about 100 Ranks and welcome 5000 Ranks! New skill ratings will now range from 1 to 5000. Also, the developers have introduced a decay for players above 3000 Rank:
"We’re also implementing skill rating decay. Now, players with a skill rating above 3000 will need to stay active in order to maintain their status. If they aren’t able to complete at least one competitive match every 7 days, they will lose 50 points from their skill rating for every 24 hours they’re out of the action. The decline will stop once the player completes a competitive match, and their skill rating won’t drop below 3000."
Skill Tiers
Coming from Heroes of the Storm, or Starcraft (or any other game that introduced the idea first), is a"new" tier system for Season 2. As shown in the image below, there are 7 tiers that divide 5000 Rank points among themselves:
Grouping Restrictions
Of course, Grouping Restrictions come along with Skill Tiers. The idea is that you have a gap of skill rating in which system allows you to play.
Other changes and a new map
Other changes include competitive points rework, leaver system improvement, removal of Sudden Death (finally!), and changes to TOP 500. You can read more about them at the official news blog.
