Overwatch 2 devs reveal big competitive changes with OW1 SR updates

The Overwatch 2 team confirmed that several big changes are in the works to competitive play, but some of the most notable improvements won’t be coming for some time.

Ranked play in Overwatch 2 has been criticized heavily compared to its OW1 incarnation with several major issues, such as removing SR that updated after every match.

Many content creators have been vocal about how the new system just isn’t rewarding, highlighting the fact that it isn’t very transparent with how ranks are calculated. This has resulted in some players deranking even after winning games.

Now, Overwatch game director Aaron Keller has stepped up and confirmed that changes are indeed in the works, with some coming sooner while others will only arrive next year.

Overwatch 2 devs open to OW1 SR coming back

In a blog post, Keller addressed concerns about ranked transparency, revealing that some players derank due to MMR decay if they haven’t played a role frequently.

“For instance, if you typically pick DPS and go a significant amount of time between playing other roles, then MMR decay could kick in between updates for lesser-played roles. Since decay is tracked per role, this could pull your rating down far enough to cause the demotion,” he explained.

That said, the team has plans to be more open about how decay kicks in and will make changes to provide some transparency.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean that the older skill rating measurement is or isn’t coming back. As we continue to iterate on the possibilities, we very much appreciate your continued feedback,” said.

Keller here seems to suggest that the previous SR system from OW1 could make a return, but there’s no guarantee. Perhaps some sort of combination of what we have in Overwatch 2 and the first game is what they end up deciding on.

Overwatch 2 ranked updates confirmed for early next year

“We want you to have a better understanding of what your true rank is and why wins and losses cause it to move up or down based on the general skill level of all players in a match,” he added before addressing the need to win five matches before getting an update.

According to the Overwatch game director, changes coming will make it so the system will contribute your progress toward a rank update after every match.

Furthermore, he revealed that the team wants to make the Top 500 leaderboard feature apply to other ranks as well to give players of every level a feeling of progressing and working their way up.

While all this may sound great on paper, it’s going to take some time, as Keller confirmed that the bigger updates won’t be coming for a few months still.

“Some of these Competitive changes will be made in the short term (like how we treat MMR decay), but other issues will be handled with broader changes coming early next year,” he confirmed. “Ultimately, we are aiming to make the system more transparent, add more frequent reporting, open up some of our restrictions for grouping at high-skill tiers, and look to introduce new competitive rewards.”

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