'Overwatch' Competitive Play: Big Changes To Skill Rating And Placement Matches Coming In Season 3

Overwatch is getting some major changes to its competitive play system next season. First off, the off-season is only going to last one week, with season two ending Nov. 24 and season three starting Dec. 3

On the PTR, there’s an important but subtle change being implemented to all player’s rankings. Scott Mercer, the principal designer on Overwatch , took to the Battle.net forums to explain how skill ratings are going to work for season three.

Right now, the Overwatch ranking system tends to place players in a higher rating than they actually deserve. According to Mercer in his post: “When Season 2 started, we had WAY more players in Gold and Platinum than we initially intended, and way fewer in Bronze and Silver. This was the result of how we calculated your initial SR for Season 2 … below-average players started Season 2 at a higher SR than they should have been given their performance in Season 1.”

During season two, players in Gold or Platinum could get matched up with players of the same skill rating who could be absolutely terrible players. At the start of season two, I finally built up enough courage to try out competitive play. I won five games and lost five, netting me a 2000 ELO rating. I was so proud of myself, I managed to hit Gold on my first foray into ranked, even though I feel like I’m trash at Overwatch.

After my placement matches, I started losing, a lot. Game after game, I either had teammates that were just as clueless as me, or were so much better that I was holding them back. My skill rating started to drop like a Bastion in water and after a massive losing streak I ended up with a 1600 skill rating. It didn’t feel good to lose that much, to think I was a great player only to have that dream washed away by reality.

Next season, players will not start in the same tier they started in for season two if they win the same number of placement matches.