Season 19 Competitive Season Updates

Season 19 of Competitive Play is here, introducing map pools to the Competitive playlist.

Unlocked at level 25, Competitive Play is designed for those players who want to put their skills to the test, and offers a more serious experience than our Quick Play or Arcade Modes.

GETTING STARTED
Before you can kick off your competitive career, every player will be required to complete five placement matches in a selected role to obtain their seasonal skill rating for that role. Players will earn separate skill ratings (SR) for each role in Competitive Play, for a total of three distinct SRs. This rating will be a number between 1 and 5000, with higher values indicating a greater skill level. Players will also be assigned a tier per role based on their rating—Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master, or Grandmaster – and climbing into the next tier is possible as you improve.

Skill ratings and tier icons will be visible at the beginning of every match. As you compete, your selected role skill rating will increase or decrease with each win or loss based on a number of factors, including your own performance and the skill of the other players in the match.

A detailed breakdown of the skill tiers, along with icons and information about the corresponding skill ratings can be found by pressing the “Information” button under the Competitive Play menu.

COMPETITIVE REWARDS
In addition to experiencing the thrill of victory, players can also unlock unique rewards through Competitive Play. Anyone who completes their placement matches in any role during a Competitive Season will receive a special spray and player icon.

On top of that, as you complete competitive matches, you’ll earn a currency called Competitive Points. When the season concludes, you’ll also receive a number of Competitive Points based on the highest Skill Tier you obtained during the season per role to spend on golden versions of your favorite heroes’ weapons.

Here’s the Skill Rating (SR) to Competitive Point (CP) breakdown:

Skill Tier Per Role Max Total
Bronze 25 75
Silver 50 150
Gold 100 300
Platinum 200 600
Diamond 300 900
Master 450 1350
Grandmaster 650 1950

TOP 500 LEADERBOARDS

The best of the best players compete across four separate Top 500 Leaderboards—one for each role, along with an additional combined average leaderboard. The combined Top 500 Leaderboard will be based on the player’s average skill rating across all three roles. To be eligible for a role-specific leaderboard, players must complete at least 25 games in that role (down from 50 games). To qualify for the combined Top 500 Leaderboard, players must be eligible for all three role-specific leaderboards. At the end of the season, players who earn a spot within the Top 500 players for any of these leaderboards on their platform and region will receive an additional player icon and animated spray.

WHAT’S NEW
Beginning with season 19, competitive seasons will now begin (and end) on the first Thursday of every other month, rather than the current system centered around the 1st of every other month. Seasons will also begin later in the day to better correspond with developer availability.

We will also be introducing a rotating, seasonal Map Pool to competitive play starting with Season 19. The initial map pool for Season 19 has 12 maps, including 3 maps of each game mode. Future competitive seasons will see continuous map rotation in and out of the pool, providing each season with a different experience and identity. Information about the current map pool can be seen in-game by opening the information panel of the Competitive Play card.

Season 19 will feature the following maps:

Assault

  • Hanamura
  • Anubis
  • Volskaya Industries

Hybrid

  • Hollywood

  • King’s Row

  • Eichenwalde

Control

  • Nepal

  • Lijiang Tower

  • Busan

Escort

  • Route 66

  • Gibraltar

  • Havana


Season 19 is live RIGHT NOW on Windows PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, so power up your favorite gaming machine and join the fight. We’ll see you on the battlefield!

4 Likes

Any plan on dealing with leavers? 3 matches in 2 matches with leavers on my team. That is not a good start :frowning:

5 Likes

I like the limited maps idea. What I’d like to see are map blacklist per role. Some maps I wouldn’t play a certain role on, in the old system. Here’s an idea:

You can blacklist all but 2 maps, on each role. But, you may only have up to 2 or 3 total maps completely blacklisted.

Could we get an official statement on the changes for SR gains with leavers, discovered by Xion?

Silent changes like these are extremely frustrating for those of us who would like to know how the game works.

4 Likes

lol, get out of here.

Oh Role queue is still around for S19 guess i’m sitting this one out

2 Likes

I guess you will enjoy sitting all future seasons.

3 Likes

Any plan to deal with smurfs with in the next life time? I just reported 6 enemy players for it. I know it doesn’t do anything, but it makes me feel better.

1 Like

I feel the same way and do same

1 Like

Here is an Idea, Ban people who leave comp games for 12 hrs not allowing them to que for comp and quick play. I am sick of people leaving midgame and killing my SR.

5 Likes

Bet I can free up the space

Leavers still a big problem? Yup.

Role Lock all creating ‘lol’ levels of waiting just to play a game? Yes.

Still forced to play with bad teammates if you play well, thanks to the algorithm/patent that Activision has? Uh huh.

Blizzard has yet to deny it’s use in overwatch? Correct.

Rankshaming all kinds of active? For sure.

Nah. I’m ok playing other games without the above issues. I’ll keep an ear to the ground to see if things change. Otherwise? I’ve found stress free gaming instead of the garbage fire that is Overwatch. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Please remove this 2-2-2 forced thing. I am bad at tanking and I am throwing most of my games because i’d rather get a 10 second Q and play the game badly instead of waiting 15 minutes to get a DPS Q where i’m confident I can help my team.

3 Likes

2.2.2 is the best thing to ever happen to Overwatch. If you dont have fun playing a certain role don’t queue up for it. If you dont want to wait for dps queue you are welcome to play other games. In other words don’t trash a game because your mentality can’t handle the queue time. That’s immature & poor sportsmanship.

Leavers & throwers need harsh penalties, the reason people like this get away with it is because the consequences aren’t enough to stop them. Blizz take action don’t let them trash 30% of all games, that’s unacceptable to the 70% of good people with positive sportsmanship

3 Likes

I’m sorry but I won’t wait 15 minutes to play a game. I prefer to just be bad and have instant Q than waiting 15 minutes games to get a leaver and have to rewait 15 minutes.

Since there’s no penalty in this game I can do what I want even if the 5 other people in my team are trying to win. That’s the reality of the 2-2-2 now. You do what you want, screw the other people in your team, play for yourself.

2 2 2 is garbage, Overwatch was way better before it was implemented. The people who like it are the same cucks that would complain every game if their team wasn’t a 2 2 2 comp which is stupid because 2 2 2 isnt even a good comp.

1 Like

It definitely is absolutely garbage. It’s restricts team strategy. Doesn’t allow creativity. I just had a 222 where I had 2 plat tank 2 play dps and 2 diamond support (including me) whereas other team had 2 diamond tank 2 diamond dps and 2 plat support. That is ridiculous in my books.

1 Like

Need to change the level at which people can play comp. 25 is way to low

Gotta love that there is no replies concerning leavers XD so much love for the community. Hence I join the bandwagon as well. It’s just a crap game afterall