Just reached diamond for the first time, and im not sure I understand the decay thing? can someone please explain?
thanks!
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Not completely sure either.
It seems like it starts counting from either a server defined fixed time each week or when you finish your placements. When you do not reach your minimum of played games in a 7 day time span from then on, you’ll lose some points each day.
For example if you drop to 3000 but haven’t played in over a week and play 1-2 games you will still lose points the next day (if above 3000) for not having played enough in the past 7 days. The decay will not stop when dropping, only when you play enough.
Loss is usually minor at first, but then grows bigger each day. On the plus side you’ll get more SR for wins afterwards since the internal mmr still sees you higher than you’re placed so it gives more SR to get you up (at least that’s my impression, I’m back on 3083 on my dropped account after two games).
Usually it’s very easy to keep your SR by just playing 3-4 games at least every 3 days, but you’d probably want more like 3-5 games every 2 days if SR is important to you.
Rank Decay
To prevent rank camping, for players ranked 3000 SR or higher, their rank will decay 25 SR per day if they do not play. Each game a player plays increases his buffer by 36 hours, to a maximum of one week (20). Each day a player’s decay buffer decreases by 24 hours. If it hits zero, decay starts. To determine how many games must be played per week to avoid decay, we can calculate (1 game / 36 hours) * (168 hours / week) = 4.67 games / week. This is slightly lower than the 5 games per week that was originally reported (15). To see if decay is imminent look on the right hand side of the information screen of the competitive play card. After returning from decay, the player will have a substantial SR buff (gain more SR from wins than he loses from loses) until he is back where he was (3). While decayed, a player’s MMR (and hence matchmaking) does not change (3). The decay clock doesn’t start until the player does his placement matches.
(3) https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20753625906
(15) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqf0e8zzyCw
(20) https://us.battle.net/forums/en/overwatch/topic/20758787028
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Nobody knows how anything works, why do you think it takes so long to fix bugs 
It’s all one big pile of witch craft, it all jeff’s fault using powers he can not control
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thanks everyone for the help!
I don’t remember the decay changes that were made before but I do know how to see when you’ll decay.
Click “Play” then RIGHT CLICK competitive (that’s very important, you don’t want to queue on accident) and there should be a timer somewhere on that page that lets you know “decay begins in x days” or something similar. Not sure how much SR you lose anymore or if you still have to play 1 game to replenish 1 day of non-decay anymore (up to a max of 7 days) but that’s all the info I can give you. Good luck!
ok thanks for helping!
There is a decay timer on the competitive description screen. You can get there by right clicking the competitive mode. It should be in the top right corner.
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