Blizzard has finally introduced the long awaited competitive mode for Overwatch. At least for PC players. Those playing the game on consoles will have to wait another week or so; although Blizzard has not announced a concrete timeline for the update.
The Battle.net post announcing the new competitive mode acknowledges that the initial deployment of the new game mode may not be up to par; and that Blizzard will be introducing incremental changes to improve the game experience. It also points out that the first season of competitive play has been cut short due to delays and sticking the timeline to a real world calendar.
Competitive mode will see several changes from the usual Quick Play format. For one, the developers are experimenting with a change to the length of Sudden Death time. This will be dropped by 15 seconds; leaving less time for players to get on the zone and capture the objective. Blizzard has also said that it may removed Sudden Death from competitive play at some point.
Competitive matches will also see their base time reduced from five minutes down to four minutes. The developers say that this should work in favour of reducing the length of matches, allowing people to play more games. Of course, it was also implemented because it is an easy change to make.
The first season of competitive Overwatch play is effectively an open Beta; which is not like the version that was tested during the closed beta. Or the version that has been available for players to opt in for the last two weeks or so. In other words, be prepared for a lot of complaints and Blizzard making plenty of changes over the coming seasons.
[Source: Battle.net]
