Yesterday in a patch that was released for Overwatch, Blizzard finally introduced Competitive Play to the game. The feature was initially not launched together with the game as Blizzard stated that they had to go back to the drawing board on the feature, but now that the feature has launched, Blizzard has decided to detail the feature on its blog.
Basically Competitive Play is a feature of Overwatch aimed at more competitive players. It will only unlock after a player hits level 25, which according to Blizzard should give players plenty of time and experience to familiarize themselves with the game’s mechanics, maps, and heroes. Players will then need to play 10 placement matches in order to gain their initial skill rating, so obviously the better you do, the sooner you’ll be placed with similarly skilled players.
Competitive Play will also have seasons and there will be four a year, each lasting 2.5 months, save for the current season which will last 2 months due to the late start. Now since this is essentially a more “difficult” version of the game, there will be rewards to make it more tempting, like new sprays and golden guns.
According to Blizzard, “As you win matches, you’ll earn Competitive Points. Based on your performance, you’ll also receive a number of points at the end of the season. These Competitive Points can be exchanged for cosmetic Golden Weapons for your heroes.” As we mentioned before, Blizzard will also be more serious about bad behavior in Competitive Play, such as leaving mid-game, and accumulating these infractions could see players temporarily banned from Competitive Play until their account returns to good standing.