Blizzard Reveals More Details on Overwatch Competitive Mode

ffronw

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Blizzard Reveals More Details on Overwatch Competitive Mode

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1330/1330679.jpgBlizzard has dropped more information on Overwatch's competitive mode, including rewards and season timing.

Overwatch's competitive mode was first shown off late in the beta, but it was not included when the game launched. Instead, Blizzard delayed it to late June [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167524-Ranked-Competitive-Mode-Hopefully-to-Return-to-Overwatch-in-Late-June]. As that time draws near, the developer is releasing a bit more information about what we can expect when the ranked play mode goes live. The information below is from a video featuring Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan.

First up, the length of the seasons has changed from about a month to about three months. The seasons will be based on the seasons of the year, with the first one at launch being Summer.

Next, the company plans to tweak the Assault format to cut down on the number of matches going into Overtime. It happens anywhere from 35 to 50 percent of the time, which Blizzard felt was a bit too high.

The game's progression system has also been tweaked, and the competitive tiers have been removed. In their place is a new system that will feature a matchmaking ranking that is based on a player skill rating from one to 100. Player skill ratings and averages will be shown before and after matches, and you will also be able to see if you are playing against a pre-made group. Blizzard says that this may result in skill ratings occasionally dropping, but the company plans to monitor this system to make sure it is working as intended.

Lastly, Kaplan talked about the rewards that players can expect from competitive play. While there are no plans for rewards that will increase player power, there will a number of cosmetic rewards available. These will include new sprays and player icons that will only be obtainable during each season. There will also be a customized "Golden Gun" system, and the example offered was Reinhardt's Golden Hammer. Kaplan said that more skilled players would be able to unlock these items "way sooner than anyone else." There will also be exclusive cosmetic rewards that are only available to highly ranked players.

In addition to competitive mode, new heroes and maps are on the way as well. Kaplan said that Blizzard is "hoping to deliver [Competitive Mode] at the end of June," despite a rumor earlier this month that the mode had been pushed to July [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167579-Competitive-Overwatch-Delayed-Now-Launching-Mid-to-Late-July]. You can check out the full video with Kaplan below.


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SirSullymore

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Man, I would love to earn some cool cosmetics, but I don't think I can handle being yelled at by my entire team for sucking.
 

RaikuFA

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SirSullymore said:
Man, I would love to earn some cool cosmetics, but I don't think I can handle being yelled at by my entire team for sucking.
Just do what I plan on doing and not play competitive. Once competitive hits the toxicity in the game will die down.
 

Otaku World Order

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SirSullymore said:
Man, I would love to earn some cool cosmetics, but I don't think I can handle being yelled at by my entire team for sucking.
Just do what I do and turn the volume on voice chat off.

And maybe the player skill ranking system will keep some of those whiners quiet anyway.
 

Scarim Coral

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Yeah I gotta thanks to this other game with PVP mode for reminding me how much I loathe competitive game in general thus I no longer intend to buy Overwatch now.
 

AzrealMaximillion

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I can't wait for competitive mode for one reason. No more duplicate heroes. That's super annoying in pub matches.
 

TheTygre

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Otaku World Order said:
SirSullymore said:
Man, I would love to earn some cool cosmetics, but I don't think I can handle being yelled at by my entire team for sucking.
Just do what I do and turn the volume on voice chat off.

And maybe the player skill ranking system will keep some of those whiners quiet anyway.
My man.

It's not even the shit-talking that bothers me. It's when there's one guy on the voice chat breathing into his microphone heavily like he's auditioning for amateur porn.
 

Bobular

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I'll dabble in competitive to see how well I can do, but I'll probably stick to the normal stuff free from the guys that yell when I try out a character I don't regularly play and aren't able to deflect bullets back properly or don't know the best way to outflank even though I still manage to get a bunch of kills and we won the game.
 

Harlemura

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Might try out Competitive just because the guys I've been playing with are all fairly tryhardy CS:GO players so they'll probably want to, but if it stops being fun I'm fully prepared to leave them to it and head back to Quick Play. Overwatch is a fun game, but I feel like there are too many mildly frustrating things that would be easily tipped over to absolutely infuriating by taking the game seriously, like Hanzo's "generous" arrow hitboxes, easy-mode ults like Reaper's and Soldier: 76's, everything about Torbjorn, stuff like that.

Can't say I'm particularly interested in the rewards either. The sprays and player icons would have to be pretty amazing to beat the ones that I'm already using and happy with [http://overwatch.wikia.com/wiki/File:Mei_Spray_-_Reading.png], and I don't imagine the golden weapons are going to look great. In fact, I hope they're not even that noticeable because I like how Overwatch and the characters look, I don't want everyone running around with gaudy-ass Call of Duty style golden guns.
 

Otaku World Order

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TheTygre said:
Otaku World Order said:
SirSullymore said:
Man, I would love to earn some cool cosmetics, but I don't think I can handle being yelled at by my entire team for sucking.
Just do what I do and turn the volume on voice chat off.

And maybe the player skill ranking system will keep some of those whiners quiet anyway.
My man.

It's not even the shit-talking that bothers me. It's when there's one guy on the voice chat breathing into his microphone heavily like he's auditioning for amateur porn.
Or the guy who inevitably has a screeching child running around in the background.
 

SirSullymore

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Mar 26, 2009
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Otaku World Order said:
TheTygre said:
Otaku World Order said:
SirSullymore said:
Man, I would love to earn some cool cosmetics, but I don't think I can handle being yelled at by my entire team for sucking.
Just do what I do and turn the volume on voice chat off.

And maybe the player skill ranking system will keep some of those whiners quiet anyway.
My man.

It's not even the shit-talking that bothers me. It's when there's one guy on the voice chat breathing into his microphone heavily like he's auditioning for amateur porn.
Or the guy who inevitably has a screeching child running around in the background.
The guy who doesn't say anything, just blasts music or chews into the mic. Why?
 

The Enquirer

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Scarim Coral said:
Yeah I gotta thanks to this other game with PVP mode for reminding me how much I loathe competitive game in general thus I no longer intend to buy Overwatch now.
Wait, it's a PvP only game, if you don't like competitive gaming why were you buying it in the first place? Not trying to be a jerk, honest question.
 

Scarim Coral

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The Enquirer said:
Scarim Coral said:
Yeah I gotta thanks to this other game with PVP mode for reminding me how much I loathe competitive game in general thus I no longer intend to buy Overwatch now.
Wait, it's a PvP only game, if you don't like competitive gaming why were you buying it in the first place? Not trying to be a jerk, honest question.
I was interest in Overwatch before the release date since I wanted to played an FPS game (last time I played one was Borderlands: The Pre Sequel).

The other game that I played daily did its PVP season a month or two pior to the release. Since there was alot of achievements and a reward item for playing the PVP, I entered it. Needless to say it was frustating to say the least (matchmaking is horrible and as usual the toxicity among the players).
 

The Enquirer

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Scarim Coral said:
The Enquirer said:
Scarim Coral said:
Yeah I gotta thanks to this other game with PVP mode for reminding me how much I loathe competitive game in general thus I no longer intend to buy Overwatch now.
Wait, it's a PvP only game, if you don't like competitive gaming why were you buying it in the first place? Not trying to be a jerk, honest question.
I was interest in Overwatch before the release date since I wanted to played an FPS game (last time I played one was Borderlands: The Pre Sequel).

The other game that I played daily did its PVP season a month or two pior to the release. Since there was alot of achievements and a reward item for playing the PVP, I entered it. Needless to say it was frustating to say the least (matchmaking is horrible and as usual the toxicity among the players).
You may like Battleborn then. But overall we haven't had much negativity with players in OW. I'm sure some will say otherwise. The saltiest group we faced was one that ended up pissed at us because we switched our group comp and steamrolled them in under 3 minutes. If you've got a pc and may be looking for people to play with, we're always looking.
 

Scarim Coral

Jumped the ship
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Oct 29, 2010
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The Enquirer said:
Scarim Coral said:
The Enquirer said:
Scarim Coral said:
Yeah I gotta thanks to this other game with PVP mode for reminding me how much I loathe competitive game in general thus I no longer intend to buy Overwatch now.
Wait, it's a PvP only game, if you don't like competitive gaming why were you buying it in the first place? Not trying to be a jerk, honest question.
I was interest in Overwatch before the release date since I wanted to played an FPS game (last time I played one was Borderlands: The Pre Sequel).

The other game that I played daily did its PVP season a month or two pior to the release. Since there was alot of achievements and a reward item for playing the PVP, I entered it. Needless to say it was frustating to say the least (matchmaking is horrible and as usual the toxicity among the players).
You may like Battleborn then. But overall we haven't had much negativity with players in OW. I'm sure some will say otherwise. The saltiest group we faced was one that ended up pissed at us because we switched our group comp and steamrolled them in under 3 minutes. If you've got a pc and may be looking for people to play with, we're always looking.
I was interested with Battleborn too until I saw the memory size! I have abit of an issue when it come to bandwidth usage.

I think I just need to find inner peace among the chaos (competive mode and against other people). Just to be clear, I have NOT resort to name calling to other people but at the same time I do not find harmony when my ranking get fucked up from one poor matchmaking (your ranking decrease with each loose).

I probably buy it eventually when it become cheap in a sale since I am also certain the repetitive gameplay (yes I know it suppose to be like that) will not keep me playing on it for long (I mean at least with old FPS games had different game mode which was more than 2!).
 

The Enquirer

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Apr 10, 2013
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Scarim Coral said:
The Enquirer said:
Scarim Coral said:
The Enquirer said:
Scarim Coral said:
Yeah I gotta thanks to this other game with PVP mode for reminding me how much I loathe competitive game in general thus I no longer intend to buy Overwatch now.
Wait, it's a PvP only game, if you don't like competitive gaming why were you buying it in the first place? Not trying to be a jerk, honest question.
I was interest in Overwatch before the release date since I wanted to played an FPS game (last time I played one was Borderlands: The Pre Sequel).

The other game that I played daily did its PVP season a month or two pior to the release. Since there was alot of achievements and a reward item for playing the PVP, I entered it. Needless to say it was frustating to say the least (matchmaking is horrible and as usual the toxicity among the players).
You may like Battleborn then. But overall we haven't had much negativity with players in OW. I'm sure some will say otherwise. The saltiest group we faced was one that ended up pissed at us because we switched our group comp and steamrolled them in under 3 minutes. If you've got a pc and may be looking for people to play with, we're always looking.
I was interested with Battleborn too until I saw the memory size! I have abit of an issue when it come to bandwidth usage.

I think I just need to find inner peace among the chaos (competive mode and against other people). Just to be clear, I have NOT resort to name calling to other people but at the same time I do not find harmony when my ranking get fucked up from one poor matchmaking (your ranking decrease with each loose).

I probably buy it eventually when it become cheap in a sale since I am also certain the repetitive gameplay (yes I know it suppose to be like that) will not keep me playing on it for long (I mean at least with old FPS games had different game mode which was more than 2!).
It doesn't get as repetitive as other shooters, mostly because each character has a distinct way they play. It's more so a question of "how much use will I get out of all these characters" and that ultimately depends on you.