An arguably heavy-handed free-to-play setup isn’t the only thing that’s going to be different in Overwatch 2. The shooter is also looking to use the sequel/replacement for the original as a way to improve its overall competitive play landscape.
For one thing, SR is being replaced by skill tier divisions in order to reduce the stress of seeing SR raise and lower each match. The tier ranks are still the same as before, and each skill tier division represents about a 100 SR range, only now players will receive a competitive update every seven wins or 20 losses instead of every single game. Incidentally, players will remain unranked when the season begins until those first seven wins or 20 losses, and those who were ranked before OW2’s launch will see their rank modified.
New informational screens found in the career profile UI will be offered to players in order to help them learn and improve, with breakdowns of the current season’s match performance split up by game mode that can be individually clicked on for deeper stats. Future updates will also make these data persist between play sessions and add a timeline feature to check key moments of a match and find results.
For those who have been away from the competitive scene after a while, players can expect OW2’s matchmaking system to try and account for skill decay in order to better gauge their current skill level, with faster adjustments to internal ranking in order to make matches feel fair.
Finally, rewards are being tweaked, with top 500 sprays and icons being removed and instead replaced with unique titles, while competitive points are still being granted for winning matches. Incidentally, golden weapon skins will still be available once 3,000 points are earned.
