If you are not familiar with Overwatch, it is a terrific multiplayer first-person shooter that has been making some big waves in the video game industry. If you haven't heard of this game, then you probably have not heard of Gamescom, which is an annual trade fair held in Germany. Gamescom 2016 is happening from August 18 to August 21, but there has already been an announcement related to Overwatch the second competitive season release date for it. The news concerns the skill ranking, as well as some other new features.
Engadget reports that there are going to be some big changes for the game's second season. There will be a change in how the rankings work as the current 1-100 skill ranking is going away in favor of a 1-5,000 rating that breaks down into seven tiers such as bronze, silver, gold, and the master and grandmaster for the highest levels.
This is similar to League of Legends and Halo 5: Guardians. The purpose of the overhaul is to make it feel like you are performing poorly overall based on a single instance. The reason for all these changes is probably Blizzard listening to community feedback for this game, and it is a good sign that Overwatch's fan following is just growing larger and larger. Apparently, the company didn't want the Skill Rating to be the primary focus, so it added seven tiers to the system, based on the Skill Ratings, in order to give players a general ranking.
Other changes include getting rid of the coin toss, as well as sudden death. Teams will be able to earn competitive points for tied games, even though instances of teams scoring the same overall are going to be made pretty rare. Competitive points are gong to be multiplied by ten, an loot such as golden guns are going to cost ten times more.
Then there is other news that a new map is headed to Overwatch. This new area is known as Eichenwalde, and it is set in Germany featuring a castle and its neighboring village. Gamespot reports that gameplay like this hasn't been done before, and the play area is "very vertical" in the middle of the map. There is a drawbridge at the end of the map.
The second season of Overwatch probably doesn't have a hard start date yet, but PC Gamer reports that the first season comes to a close on 5 PM PT on August 17. It means that is probably showing up around the end of August, with Polygon reporting it starting on September 6.
