Dev Update : Competitive Play

[Demoncrash]

- Coming end of June.
- Season length of 2.5 months and schedule will follow real world seasons(spring, summer, fall, winter)
- Changes being made to minimize the occurrence of "Overtime"
- Sudden Death matches will be played on the same map and not move to a random control point map.
- Changes to double cap Assault maps (Hanamura, Volskaya, Anubis) to encourage more back and forth action.
- MMR will directly co-relate to skill rating awarded to you after your placement match.
- Skill rating will go up and down and is no longer a grind-y progression system from the beta.
- Entire group's skill rating will be shown at the side so you know what you're up against.
- You will also be shown if you are grouped with/against pre-made or solo queue players.
- If you beat a higher rated team you'll gain more skill rating, if you lose to a higher rated team you'll lose less.
- Cosmetic rewards(sprays, player icons, "customized golden gun" system). Some will only be available to top ranked players.

[Deleted]

- Changes to double cap Assault maps (Hanamura, Volskaya, Anubis) to encourage more back and forth action.

This seems like a massive change to how those maps are played.

- MMR will directly co-relate to skill rating awarded to you after your placement match.
- Skill rating will go up and down and is no longer a grind-y progression system from the beta.
- Entire group's skill rating will be shown at the side so you know what you're up against.
- If you beat a higher rated team you'll gain more skill rating, if you lose to a higher rated team you'll lose less.

Skill rating sounds interesting. Would suggest something other than just win%? Maybe looking at the objective time/kills, eliminations, damage done and so on? Can't watch the video right now so I'm not sure if it was explained in further detail.

- You will also be shown if you are grouped with/against pre-made or solo queue players.

This should come to quick matches. Personally, I find it much, much better to just leave when facing a pubstomp, as far as my own personal game enjoyment goes.

[Phookah]

This should come to quick matches. Better to just leave when facing a pubstomp.

Ugh, please don't spread this garbage. You aren't going to automatically lose if you go against a premade, and acting like it is turns the whole thing into a self-fulfilling prophecy. "Ugh, we're just going to lose, why try" and then you do lose to them.
Premade =/= "good" (Trust me, I know. I que with a group of my friends all the time and we suck)
OT: Will be interesting to see the threshold on the rarer rewards they decide on.

[Deleted]

Ugh, please don't spread this garbage.

Yeah you're right. I'll just edit it to what I actually meant to say, which is that personally, I find it much, much better to just leave when facing a pubstomp, as far as my own personal game enjoyment goes.

Much better.

[Phookah]

Yeah you're right. I'll just edit it to what I actually meant to say, which is that personally, I find it much, much better to just leave when facing a pubstomp, as far as my own personal game enjoyment goes.

Much better.

True enough, and as long as you're leaving before the match starts no harm no foul eh?
I just tend to get irritated by it because I'll frequently get people that realize an enemy team is a partial premade, and then they decide mid-match that they aren't trying anymore "cause why bother"

[Deleted]

as long as you're leaving before the match starts no harm no foul eh?

There's virtually no strategy or communication within teams in quick matches, and people switch characters constantly throughout the games, and when someone leaves, a replacement arrives instantly, and because of all of the aforementioned it doesn't really make any difference if someone leaves mid game or even toward the end. It basically has literally no effect on the game whatsoever.

But, especially when the first 30 seconds is still counting down, leaving and allowing a replacement to join has no effect on the game.

The only impact leaving games in quick match mode has is on the leaver, if he or she does it too much. That's basically the only effect it has. Ever.

[Speedlance]

I just hope there will be an own que for solo Q players, because otherwise you have to no chance to get high rating if you solo Q. Let teams play vs other teams.

If not, there should be a significant penality in rating if you face a team of solo Q players as a pre-made or people will accept defeat right away and just leave instead of play the match or afk if there is a leave penality.

[Demoncrash]

Skill rating sounds interesting. Would suggest something other than just win%? Maybe looking at the objective time/kills, eliminations, damage done and so on? Can't watch the video right now so I'm not sure if it was explained in further detail.

In the video, he said you will get a skill rating from 1-100 based on your placement match and that number will go up or down based on your wins/losses in competitive mode. So i'am guessing its gonna be based solely on win/loss ratio as it will be really easy to cheese if it's based on stuff like objective time, damage done, etc.

I mean we don't want players only picking Bastion so they get that gold medal for damage done, just to pad their stats and boost their skill rating. Team synergy be damned. The only goal should be to win the match and you shouldn't be penalized for picking heroes like Zenyatta and Symmetra who may not get that gold medal for most healing done, but are far more useful in helping their team push through a defense or get back quickly to stop an offense.

He said they'll give us more info on this and the specific changes to the assault maps soon.

[Airlick]

Changes to double cap Assault maps (Hanamura, Volskaya, Anubis) to encourage more back and forth action.

I wonder what they mean by this. I'm guessing a much longer cap times AND a longer respawn time for defenders (and possibly slightly longer respawn for the attackers), at least on objective A? That way the defenders would have to be very careful as their deaths would be punished harder, but at the same time it wouldn't be enough for attackers to simply wipe out the defenders once, they'd also have to hold the point afterwards. As it is now, 1 mistake by the defenders is enough to take a point and there's really nothing you can do to prevent losing it if you get wiped out.

[Deleted]

I wonder what they mean by this.

I still didn't watch the actual video, but "double cap" to me sounds like you'll be able to cap either point straight away, meaning both points can be capped simultaneously and both points need to be defended simultaneously.

That's why I said it would change the way those maps are played drastically, but I'm starting to think that can't possibly be what they had in mind.

[Demoncrash]

I still didn't watch the actual video, but "double cap" to me sounds like you'll be able to cap either point straight away, meaning both points can be capped simultaneously and both points need to be defended simultaneously.

Double cap is just a term people on Reddit use to describe Assualt maps. Specifically the part where you can win the match in just 2 fights where the defending team doesn't have enough time to recover after a wipe at point A and setup at point B. The assault team just rolls in with 2-3 ults and wins the match in under 2 minutes.

They basically don't want to see something like this happening in competitive mode...

I wonder what they mean by this. I'm guessing a much longer cap times AND a longer respawn time for defenders (and possibly slightly longer respawn for the attackers), at least on objective A? That way the defenders would have to be very careful as their deaths would be punished harder, but at the same time it wouldn't be enough for attackers to simply wipe out the defenders once, they'd also have to hold the point afterwards. As it is now, 1 mistake by the defenders is enough to take a point and there's really nothing you can do to prevent losing it if you get wiped out.

Yup, that's pretty much what he said in the video. They don't like the fact that the offence can just steamroll the defense and will be making changes to make sure that doesn't happen. Whether that's faster re-spawn times for defenders, or moving the defensive spawn closer to point A, or changes to the map layout, that remains to be seen. TL;DR, defenders getting a buff on assault maps.

[Deleted]

Double cap is just a term people on Reddit use to describe Assualt maps. Specifically the part where you can win the match in just 2 fights where the defending team doesn't have enough time to recover after a wipe at point A and setup at point B. The assault team just rolls in with 2-3 ults and wins the match in under 2 minutes.

Makes sense.

[midish]

w8 competive mod

[Deleted]

sudden death happening to often, no it doesnt happen to often it happens every damn match,

[Dejiko]

Am i being too hopeful in assuming that by "Sudden death" i will perhaps no longer die from one shot by non-ultimate abilities, or does it refer to something else?

[xerus]

Am i being too hopeful in assuming that by "Sudden death" i will perhaps no longer die from one shot by non-ultimate abilities, or does it refer to something else?

Something else.

In a sport or game, sudden death (also sudden-death overtime or a sudden-death round) is a form of competition where play ends as soon as one competitor is ahead of the others, with that competitor becoming the winner.

In this context they are talking about the overtime timer that can go on forever sometimes.

[Demoncrash]

In this context they are talking about the overtime timer that can go on forever sometimes.

Nah, Sudden Death is a whole different concept that related to both teams winning in Assault or Payload maps:

Yea sorry, that's my fault for mixing up two different features he was talking about, and making it really confusing.

- "Overtime" will indeed be getting some changes as it's happening way too often.

- "Sudden Death" is pretty much what Bovine Divinity said it its. What used to happen was, if teams tied on Dorado, the sudden death match would go to a random control point map. Now the Dorado tie-breaker will be played on Dorado.

[Deleted]

I wonder how this "skill rating" is formed. I watched the video, but there's no specifics about it, other than it goes from 1 to 100, and that you'll see everyone's skill rating. It's different from the MMR, but no specifics are given about it.

However, since it's called "skill", and it's separate from MMR, it can't be just win%, because that would make no sense. So, I'm guessing it'll have to do with kills, deaths, objective kills, objective time, and so on, and perhaps even stuff like headshots. Of course healers will have different metrics.

It'd be dumb if it was just the win% of the "placement matches", whatever the hell they are, I've not understood that system at all. Although, he says "we're going to directly correlate that with your skill rating", talking about the MMR.

I don't know. I just don't see any point in having two separate win% ratings.

[Alydael]

True enough, and as long as you're leaving before the match starts no harm no foul eh?
I just tend to get irritated by it because I'll frequently get people that realize an enemy team is a partial premade, and then they decide mid-match that they aren't trying anymore "cause why bother"

Well, to be honest, most pre mades have a significant advantage over a group of randoms thrown together. I never leave a match, even if we are getting crushed. The matches are so short, why bother?

- - - Updated - - -

Double cap is just a term people on Reddit use to describe Assualt maps. Specifically the part where you can win the match in just 2 fights where the defending team doesn't have enough time to recover after a wipe at point A and setup at point B. The assault team just rolls in with 2-3 ults and wins the match in under 2 minutes.

They basically don't want to see something like this happening in competitive mode...





Yup, that's pretty much what he said in the video. They don't like the fact that the offence can just steamroll the defense and will be making changes to make sure that doesn't happen. Whether that's faster re-spawn times for defenders, or moving the defensive spawn closer to point A, or changes to the map layout, that remains to be seen. TL;DR, defenders getting a buff on assault maps.

Those maps, that mode need to be reworked. It is so easy to take advantage of it. Especially in a pre made.

[Notshauna]

Those maps, that mode need to be reworked. It is so easy to take advantage of it. Especially in a pre made.

Hell personally I don't think those maps should even be in a competitive mode the difference between an organized team on them compared to an unorganized is ridiculous.