Overwatch players, get ready to sharpen your skills, perfect your strategies, and test your mettle in the ultimate competitive arena. Welcome to our newest game mode: Competitive Play!
Competitive Play is available right now on PC, and will be arriving from next week on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Once you reach account level 25, the mode will become available via the “Play” button in the main menu. Simply select “Competitive Play” from the submenu, and you’re ready to enter a match. You can join on your own or in a group, and Overwatch’s matchmaking system will automatically find the best game possible for your skill level. Before you can kick off your competitive career, every new player must first complete 10 placement matches in order to obtain their initial skill rating. This rating will be a number between 1 and 100, with higher values indicating a greater skill level. Skill ratings will be visible at the beginning of every match. As you compete, your rating will increase or decrease with each win or loss based on a number of factors, including your own performance and the skill of the other players in the match.
The names of these seasons, along with their schedule, will mirror the real-world seasons in the northern hemisphere—and the Summer 2016 season is already underway! At some point during each season, we’ll also activate a leaderboard that will highlight the best players in the Overwatch community—so those who manage to fight their way into the top 500 players on each respective platform will receive an in-game notification, certifying their competitive credentials for as long as they can hold the position within that season.
As players compete, they’ll earn some new cosmetic rewards for their collection. When players win matches, they’ll earn Competitive Points which can be exchanged for Golden Weapons to equip on their favourite heroes. Plus, at the end of each season, everyone who completed the required 10 placement matches will receive a special seasonal spray and player icon to celebrate their achievement.
To learn more about Competitive Play—including details on changes to maps, scoring, and game rules—head to the official Overwatch blog post here.
