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What’s going on with the Competitive Rank system?
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Overwatch 2’s Competitive matchmaking and ranking system has caused many issues for players all around the globe since the release of the game back in October 2022. Before the Season 4 content update, players were griefed with an unfortunate SR Decay system at the beginning of each new Competitive Season. SR Decay was dropping players’ hard-earned ranks so they’d have a sense of climbing back up at the start of a new season.
Unfortunately, SR Decay immensely backfired and caused frustration in the community. This is because, in some scenarios, a player that had made it to Diamond 2 by the end of a Competitive Season was being dropped down to Platinum 5 or lower, leaving them stuck with Platinum-tier seasonal rewards instead of Diamond-tier, all thanks to SR Decay. It was almost as if the satisfaction from achieving a specific Rank was being mercilessly ripped away from players, which only added salt to the wound of a broken matchmaking system.
Thankfully, SR Decay was removed for Season 4, with the Competitive system taking MMR into stronger account when determining where a player belongs in the ranks. Many players were eager to jump into the brand new Season 4 content, pick up their Competitive rewards from last season, and learn how to use Lifeweaver. However, upon checking out their roles in the Competitive menu, some players have found that this MMR Rank adjustment has significantly impacted their career profile more than initially anticipated.
Upon heading into the competitive menu to start a new season, players are disappointed in the apparent MMR-based role adjustment. For some, their rank increased a little, as the system recognized them for being below the rank they were performing at. For others, they witnessed the misfortune of going down in rank, according to the MMR-based system that recognized them as underperforming.
While this is somewhat understandable and shouldn’t be too hard for players to remedy by simply continuing to play Competitive and climb, some players have been adjusted by a window increase/decrease of an entire Competitive Rank and therefore suffered the result of receiving lower-tier Competitive Rewards. This, in particular, has made it feel like SR Decay never left and has caused many players to publicly share their seemingly never-ending disappointments and frustrations with the system.
Thankfully, the Overwatch team has acknowledged the issue and is looking into the situation to determine a fix as soon as possible. It’s only day one of Season 4, so while the devs work on remedying this problem, you might as well just sit back and start enjoying the new seasonal content, such as the Battle Pass, new store items, B.O.B and Weave game mode, and seasonal challenges.
Have you been negatively affected by these MMR-based Competitive Play changes? Feel free to let us know in the comment section below, and remember to check out the rest of our content here at Twinfinite for plenty more Overwatch 2 news, guides, and lists to help you kickstart your time in Season 4.
