Overwatch Season 3 Competitive Info

[GazzaGarratt 11,037]

Taken from Eurogamer:

How Overwatch Skill Ratings are calculated will change again for Competitive Play Season 3 which, incidentally, begins a bit earlier than expected on 1st December - there will only beone week of downtime following the 24th November end of Season 2.

In a nutshell, Skill Ratings are going to skew lower to begin with but your gains from winning games will be greater early on. Increasing always feels better than decreasing, after all, and I seem to have spent most of Season 2 trying to claw back my initial Skill Rating.

Here's principal designer Scott Mercer explaining it more betterer:

"When Season 2 started, we had WAY more players in Gold and Platinum than we initially intended, and way fewer in Bronze and Silver. This was the result of how we calculated your initial SR for Season 2. We tried to partially reset player SR at the start of Season 2, but the results were not as we expected. Instead, below-average players started Season 2 at a higher SR than they should have been given their performance in Season 1. This meant that as they played in Season 2, their SR would often drop to a lower value, which didn't feel great. It also meant that there was a much wider variation of skill in the Gold and Platinum tiers than we wanted. This is something we want to avoid in Season 3."

So:

"We're testing a different way of determining your starting SR for Season 3 on the [Public Test Realm]. We're leaning more towards trying to keep things fair rather than giving everyone a fresh start. We're also going to initially tune your SR to be slightly lower to start.

"This change will mean that some players will not start in the same tier for Season 3 that they were placed in for Season 2, and that your SR gains from winning will be a little higher at the beginning of the season. After you play enough matches, however, your SR gains and losses will go back to normal."

[crispymorgan 1,054]

The Overwatch Season 3 end date has been set for Tuesday February 22 in the UK, ending the current run of competitive play.

Season 3 will officially end on Tuesday, February 21 at 4:00 p.m. PST (or Wednesday, February 22 at 00:00 GMT). 

Blizzard have also confirmed that Season 4 is currently scheduled to launch one week later on Tuesday, February 28 at 4:00 p.m. PST (or Wednesday, March 1 at 00:00 GMT).

[Greboth 2,721]

So one weekend to try and claw my way into plat before the season ends.  Works out well though, no competitive while i'm off should mean less temptation to play.

[Stretch616 697]

We can do it buddy. If we have another session like last night it'll be a breeze. Kinda looking forward to a nequipment set of placement matches as I'm sure it'll place you guys alot higher than where you are now.

[Greboth 2,721]

Played a few solo queue matches when I got home tonight and lucked in to some decent team mates.  Highlight was coming back on Lijang Tower from 0-2 to win 3-2 Now only about 100 points below my season high.  It will be good to do some new placement matches to see where I come out but I don't think it will be that different to where I am now as I have been high gold every season so far.

[crispymorgan 1,054]

Was going to play some placement games with Charlie, but stretch can't play placement matches anymore.  (Diamonds aren't allowed)

[Stretch616 697]

My bad 😐

[GazzaGarratt 11,037]

Will probably pick this back up a day or two before Season 4 after this season finishes. Enough time to put some time in other games I should really try out.

[Stretch616 697]

I think the next season will place everybody alot higher so we shouldn't get any issues with teaming up again. It's awesome to see the progression we've all made this season in getting to or nearly getting to the next level of SR. I'm just a bit pissed that they limit the amount a 3000+ can do with people not in that frame. Might just have to spend an evening tanking the rating all over again!!

[GazzaGarratt 11,037]

38 minutes ago, Stretch616 said:

I think the next season will place everybody alot higher so we shouldn't get any issues with teaming up again. It's awesome to see the progression we've all made this season in getting to or nearly getting to the next level of SR. I'm just a bit pissed that they limit the amount a 3000+ can do with people not in that frame. Might just have to spend an evening tanking the rating all over again!!

I wouldn't worry about tanking now with the season finishing this week. Just need to plan a few nights for placements matches. I'll get on it later 👍