Earlier this week, Blizzard released a patch for Overwatch containing a new Competitive Play mode. With this, countless gamers finally have a way to show off just how good they truly are at the game. However, it is a grueling path to the top with more than a few less than savory gaming experiences.
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The ranking process first begins with ten placement matches to determine a skill rating. After which, players are awarded a skill rating between one and one hundred. Unlike Hearthstone and Heroes of the Storm, the skill rating in Overwatch has 100 as the highest as opposed to one being the best in their other two games. Blizzard does a great job leaving quite a bit of room for growth as far as these placements are concerned. The highest rating that I have seen from a perfect 10-0 record was a 67. Personally, I had a 7-3 record which gave me a 57 while a friend of mine has a 5-5 record and received a 52. Thankfully, Blizzard has wisely chosen to place players lower in the spectrum to encourage continued competitive play, though they have said that the factors determining initial skill rating are not strictly based on wins and losses.
Anyway, the game is so much more interesting and unique in Competitive Play. In Quick Play, you are given either attack or defense and the game ends after either team wins. In Competitive Play, the games last much longer as each team gets a chance to attack and defend. Additionally, the conquest maps are best of five instead of best of three. The part that really intrigued me was how sudden death is handled. From my experiences, sudden death strictly depends on the map. Many players have reached out to Blizzard to voice their opinions that sudden death should be handled in a more fair way, though I believe Blizzard will wait until the conclusion of the Summer 2016 Competitive Play season to such a change. A forum post containing more information on sudden death can be found here.
With the addition of Competitive Play came several more rewards. The golden weapons seem to be the most sought after reward as they require 300 competitive points, however players are only awarded one point per win. Other more easily attained rewards are special seasonal sprays and icons that are awarded to anyone that completed all ten placement matches at the end of the season. Eventually, Blizzard intends to add leaderboards to the game and giving players in the top 500 special treatment. It is certainly going to be a rigorous climb to the top, but a number of gamers are already well on their way.
