Revitalizing the Overwatch 2 Experience

The newest season of Overwatch 2 is just around the corner, and with it comes some exciting changes. During our Overwatch 2: What’s Next Panel at BlizzCon 2023, we shared a sneak peek at some of the philosophy guiding many of the system changes coming this year: striving to make PvP gameplay more rewarding and fun and providing greater transparency for players in-game. We are introducing major changes to Competitive in the new season—from a new progression system to an all-new skill tier above Grand Master—as well as major gameplay changes to combat and hero survivability. Read for details on what you can expect for Overwatch 2 Season 9: Champions.

We’ve heard your feedback on Competitive Play over the last eight seasons, and we have some big updates coming that will give you the opportunity to build on your skills and see how you progress through the Competitive ranks. We built a better system that’s more accurate while also helping convey the meaning behind the mathematical complexity of a modern matchmaker and bring clear insights about what impacts your rank in every match.

One piece of feedback we heard is that just knowing your rank doesn’t say anything about why your rank went up or down. Competitive Updates originally worked to provide updates that reflected your growth as a player across multiple matches, but with the goal to provide greater transparency in each individual match, we’re going back to updating your rank after every match and showing how much progress you gain or lose between each Skill Division. We’re also displaying Modifiers that affected your last match below the rank progression bar. Some modifiers help provide transparency in the matchmaking for each match, like getting a boost when you defeat a team that was more favored to win. While other modifiers show if your rank is calibrating, like going on a huge win streak, proving you belong in a higher rank. Feedback is a driving force behind these changes, and we want to hear your thoughts on