Time to raise your APM because Competitive Play for Overwatch is now live on PC. With PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions to be updated with the new mode next week. What's a Competitive Play? Well its the new ranked mode where after a batch of placement games players are given a skill rating that they can then improve to unlock rewards, and prove their worth against other Overwatch players over the course of a season.
Once you reach account level 25, the mode will become available via the "Play" button in the main menu. Simply select "Competitive Play" from the submenu, and you're ready to enter a match. You can join on your own or in a group, and Overwatch's matchmaking system will automatically find the best game possible for your skill level. Before you can kick off your competitive career, every new player must first complete 10 placement matches in order to obtain their initial skill rating. This rating will be a number between 1 and 100, with higher values indicating a greater skill level. Skill ratings will be visible at the beginning of every match. As you compete, your 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.
Blizzard has stated for a while now that they planned on having the new mode ready in time for the end of June, and hey, looks like they made good on their word.
Posted 06:13pm 29/6/16
If the original leaver rejoins you can't leave.
2-0 up... leaver ... ugh we might win the rest of us stay. 2-1 the leaver rejoins, and then hangs around the spawn point complaining about his link ... the rest of us have to stay or take a leaver penalty.
:(
Morale of the story, just take the damn loss.
Posted 10:14pm 01/7/16
Posted 11:15am 04/7/16
Posted 11:58am 04/7/16
I think a large part of it is the mechanics behind gaining and losing rank aren't very transparent at the moment, and aren't communicated well, so it feels s***** and confusing.
Posted 04:29pm 04/7/16
still slawing through the placement games
Posted 09:32pm 04/7/16
Posted 10:37pm 04/7/16
Basically support classes (and certain tanks) are deemed to have done less. (Not sure how they measure input but it looks like kills, and damage done weight highly).
In a loss they lose more points, in a win they gain less. They might have played the perfect rein and been on fire all match... but didn't get a gold medal oO
And playing as a team means you get spread all over the shop.
End result people pick useless classes that get good kda's but can't always take or hold an objective.
Posted 12:33am 05/7/16
I guess the obvious solution is to find a team and play it as a premade, but thats not really going to happen for a lot of people, I've got a few friends playing Overwatch that I've played 6 man premades in quick play with, but most aren't interested in playing competitive.
Also, the fact it still leaves everyone split off into their own voice channels doesn't help, in competitive it should force everyone into the team channel at least.
Posted 08:07am 05/7/16
Looks like all the top games both sides are just picking 2x Lucio, 2x Tracer and 2x Winston anyway, which clearly indicates there's some balance issues with classes.
Posted 11:05am 05/7/16
Pharah is very strong though too at the pro level, theres a guy called Talespin who plays a pretty amazing Pharah. And Zarya is pretty strong in the right hands too. Zenyatta pretty much doesn't ever get played, and I don't think Dva does much either, so there probably is a bit of an issue there, but *most* heroes get some kind of play even at pro level. Torb and Bastion don't get a lot of play at pro level just because they're too easy to deal with when you know what you're doing, but they still occasionally get picked as a situational thing or for a sneaky suprise Bastion.
But yeah, I wouldn't let the pro scene have too much impact on what your play or what you pick, its like when people get hung up on which classes in WoW are currently simming out the best or are topping ranked charts, it makes a difference if you're absolutely s*** hot and on the bleeding edge and you're playing at that level, but for most of us we haven't even hit the skill cap of the different classes/heroes/maps so just playing more and practising more is going to be more of a help and make more difference to your game than picking a hero with a strong pro meta.
Having said that, Mercy is probably not a bad thing to be in competitive, you might still get the odd team that are truly s*** and wont defend you but you've got the potential to really influence and swing the result of a match as Mercy if you're on top of s***. Just don't be that pistol Mercy that doesn't want to heal or I'll slap you.
Posted 11:58am 05/7/16
And yeah, I'm the pistol Mercy :P
Not really, but my stats haven't caught up yet from earlier games when I was learning (I'm at 170 games with >60% winrate), but lately I'm averaging 2k damage/8-10 elims and 7-9k heals per game.
I still laugh at s*** like I did last night though - had both a Tracer and Reaper hassling me, pistol-whipped both of them :P Okay, you're going to get newbs like that occasionally, but still hilarious.
Posted 12:26pm 05/7/16
Posted 04:45pm 05/7/16
Lvl 70 skill rating 54 I
Posted 07:59pm 05/7/16
Posted 09:00pm 05/7/16
Posted 12:11am 06/7/16
Posted 10:13am 06/7/16
Guess I'll wait for battlefield one or something.
Posted 10:48am 06/7/16
First game 2-0 in KOTH... leaver ... We lose. Lose 2/3 of a level!
Win the next 3. Still behind. 3-1...
Went 8 and 6 for the night (with 3 lose by leavers) 3 POTGs. All played as tank or support because there were always 3 to 5 people who would only play genji/hanzo/reaper/mei/junkrat
All of the games were with 1 on ranking average, most were 0.
End result lost 2 ranking levels... WTF with a positive win loss and positive KDA for the night.
Posted 04:48pm 06/7/16
Posted 06:16pm 06/7/16
yeah game recs are quickly a snore fest