Welcome to Season 23 of Competitive Play

Competitive Discussion
1

Season 23 of Competitive Play is here, introducing Open Queue 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. Within the standard Role Queue competitive mode, 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. Open Queue will utilize the same rating and tier system, but since there is no Role Queue system, you will have a separate, single SR reflective of your performance across all heroes within this game mode.

Skill ratings and tier icons will be visible at the beginning of every match. As you compete, your selected role or Open Queue 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 or Open Queue 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. This also applies to your highest Skill Tier reached within the Open Queue.

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

Per Role Open Queue Max Total
Bronze 25 65 140
Silver 50 125 275
Gold 100 250 550
Platinum 200 500 1100
Diamond 300 750 1650
Master 450 1200 2550
Grandmaster 650 1750 3700

TOP 500 LEADERBOARDS

The best of the best players compete across five separate Top 500 Leaderboards. Within Role Queue, one for each role, along with an additional combined average leaderboard. The combined Role Queue 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. To qualify for the combined Top 500 Leaderboard, players must be eligible for all three role-specific leaderboards. Open Queue will have its own Leaderboard that will require at least 50 games played within the game mode for qualification. 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

Open Queue Added to Competitive Play

Starting with Season 23, Competitive Play will support both Role Queue and Open Queue. These will be separate queues, so Role Queue and Open Queue teams will not be playing against one another. Open Queue will have its own SR and leaderboard, separate from the role-specific Role Queue SRs and leaderboards. Play your way today!


Adjustments to Seasonal Placements for High SR Players

Going forward, the maximum Skill Rating (SR) earned after a player completes each season’s placements has been capped at 3900 SR. Players are still matched with other players of similar skill, as we want to keep matches as fair and fun as possible. As each player participates in more games during the current season, their SR will slowly rise to reach a value that fully reflects their current skill.

This change is intended to address many of the issues that SR Decay tried to fix, but in a more positive manner that rewards staying active and playing more games instead of penalizing players for not playing enough. Achieving a very high SR at the end of a season can no longer be achieved by completing a mere five placement matches. This does mean you may see larger SR differences between all the players in a very high SR match than in previous seasons, as two similar and highly skilled players might have different SRs based on how many games they’ve played during the season.

In making this change, we want to clarify how SR and MMR will adjust to this new system. Players who were skilled enough to reach 4500 SR in previous seasons will see marginally higher SR gains than normal as they climb back to 4500 SR from 3900 SR, but not nearly the size of correction we saw in previous seasons when a player who had decayed to 3000 SR due to inactivity started playing again. You’ll have to play a fair amount of games to get back to 4500 SR.


Season 23 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 in-game!

12 Likes
3

Looks like we’re still going to be stuck in hell

3 Likes
4

About how many games will it take a 4500 player to get back to 4500 from 3900?

About how many games will it take a 4100 player to get back to 4100 from 3900?

Does this change in MMR chase rate affect the MMR chase rate from after disconnects?

Or you could just give as an equation for SR change as a function of SR and MMR. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

can’t even select comp mode


1 Like
6

  1. I recall hearing that a person can’t get into Top 500 unless they have a cell phone or similar mobile device where an SMS message can be sent by Blizzard. What if that person doesn’t have such an item? Is that person forever locked out of Top 500? Is that truly fair?

  2. What about a possibility of a “character queue” (for lack of a better term)? Would it be possible to choose a specific character prior to entering the queue where another player can select whatever hero he/she thinks is needed?

7

You don’t have access to a cellphone but you do have access to a gaming computer and internet? Cool story son. Stop having multiple accounts.

5 Likes
8

If you decide what hero will be needed in the game before knowing what the map and your team comp is you’re pretty much just a one trick, which (on theory) is not what this game is about.

9

Its depressing that you guys still think this is okay honestly

2 Likes
10

Since bullets don’t show up properly in links, here is how it should look:

Three ideas to make the game even better:

  • Comp Mystery Heroes
  • Comp 2-2-2 Mystery Roles/Heroes
  • Fix SR Gained/Lost for Swapping Heroes
1 Like
11

So, I read this and looked in game:

From the looks and sounds of it, OQ and Role Q Comp yields the same Spray and Icon, yes?

I just wanted to ask, because for the first two seasons of OQ, within the Arcade, it got its own separately Spray and Icon. I was just wondering if that’s no longer the case now that it’s put under the Comp Card.

So, basically, I’m asking if we’ll ever see a OQ Season 3+ Spray and Icon, or if both Role Q and OQ will just give you the Season 23+ Icons and Sprays from now on.

I hope that question made sense.

12

Why is this being called a new season without any kind of reset or ladder integrity restore? It’s still season1, ongoing since 2016. You did “remix” the top 5% but left the rest of us in the same mosh, Josh.

13

They obviously have internet because they’re playing the game. Any wifi connection you’re likely to be able to down an app to give you a wifi-phone number (texting via wifi instead of phone data). People do it all the time to change their phone number constantly for
 illegal purposes so I hear


14


yet picking a hero before the game is not a guaranteed win. You have to figure out if you have the right hero or if you’re just rolling the dice.

15

Then I have to question the legality of your suggestion. Since my employer is Uncle Sam, I can’t engage in that kind of activity. Pass.

1 Like
16

getting a phone number to use via wifi isn’t illegal and actually very common for those who can’t afford a phone bill but need to have a line of communication.
I had friends who were jobless couch surfers who did the same thing to get online and call around trying to find a job.
There’s also stories of significant others doing it to cheat or whatever. People who meet online, who want to text, but don’t want to give out their phone numbers to an internet stranger use it. There’s multiple uses for it. Haven’t you ever heard of the app “What’s app?”
etc etc

17

Those phone numbers often don’t work with sms verification texts. They need to be associated with a mobile carrier and/or have a name linked to them in order to work. Most WiFi numbers do neither of these.

18

Exactly. If you go on a “character queue” you’ll be forced to play that the whole game no matter how bad it is for the current comp.

1 Like
20

It is just trash, so trash

22

Hi Josh, will you or anyone at Blizzard please respond to my suggestion to remove Match Making Rating from Competitive Play? The thread is over three years old and has received approval and comment from thousands of players: