Highlights

  • Overwatch 2's Season 9 brings major changes to competitive play system to prevent match throwing.
  • Players must win or draw matches to earn bonus Competitive Points, preserving game integrity.
  • Blizzard's update ensures players engage in competitive matches instead of throwing for rewards.

Blizzard has spoken out about its intentions after players noticed a change in Overwatch 2 competitive play. The studio clarified that the adjustment, which affects the recently revised Overwatch 2 competitive progression system, was made to prevent players from throwing their matches.

As a game with competitive play in its foundations, Overwatch 2 is continually in flux, with Blizzard tweaking and adjusting characters, balance, and progression systems in reaction to player feedback and its own internal metrics. Overwatch 2 Season 9 contains some of the biggest changes yet, which ushered in an overhaul of the competitive match system and progression, among other changes. The overhaul outright replaced the game's Competitive Challenges with a Competitive Progression system, and is currently the key to earning Competitive Points needed to buy exclusive weapon cosmetics.

overwatch-2-heroes-2
Related
Overwatch 2 Reveals How Colosseo Is Changing

Overwatch 2's director reveals some of the changes coming to Colosseo later this year, which aim to make certain areas much more enjoyable.

Overwatch 2 Competitive Changes Prevent Throwing Matches

The change receiving new attention relates to the Competitive Progression overhaul introduced in Season 9. The overhaul allows players to gain up to 30 levels in Competitive Progression simply by playing in ranked (Competitive) mode. However, some players reported that they were seemingly unable to earn progress on their bonus Competitive Points after completing all 30 levels. Community Manager Kaedi responded in an official Overwatch 2 forum post to clarify Blizzard's intent with the change: Players' ability to earn bonus Competitive Points is capped after completing the 30 levels of Competitive Progression, and earning further Competitive Points depends on their ability to win or at least achieve a draw their Competitive Matches.

According to Kaedi's post, the restriction was put into place to ensure that players "are doing the best they can" in every Competitive match. In other words, players shouldn't be able to earn Competitive points by "throwing" a match - playing badly on purpose to end a match quickly and claim the point rewards. While earning bonus Competitive Points by continuing to play in the mode is a worthwhile reward for players chasing cosmetics, Blizzard's action helps to preserve the integrity of the Overwatch 2 Competitive Progression overhaul, by forcing players to actually win or draw their matches to get the rewards they want.

The evolution of ranked play in Overwatch 2 is interesting to watch, as Blizzard balances the long-term engagement of its players by offering unique rewards and cosmetics, all while still bringing new players into the game. Flashy crossovers like the recent Cowboy Bebop x Overwatch promotion attract attention and draw the curious to take up a match or two dressed as their favorite character, while feedback from veterans helps Blizzard tweak the game to ensure a healthy competitive environment in the long term.