Blizzard Announces Ranked Play for Overwatch
In June, Blizzard will be opening up its new ranked mode for Overwatch. The newly released first person shooter (released May 24th 2016) will soon feature a competitive ranked mode. The game initially provided a competitive mode but the early stages of matchmaking set up low skilled players with those of a higher skill level.
Overwatchs game director, Jeff Kaplan, expressed that the “competitive mode is the current focus of the Overwatch team, and it’s the most important thing for us to add to the game right now.” Although there is no definite release date for the ranked mode in Overwatch Kaplan stated that an update can be expected towards the end of June.
According to Blizzard, Competitive play mode will be locked until level 25 in order to give players looking for more serious game modes the option. In the ranked mode the players will be categorized in regards to their tier which is obtained by winning games to climb up the ranked ladder. The tiers (Challenger, Advanced, Expert, and Master) are broken into five (1-5) divisions. Once a player reaches Master 5 their next tier would be Heroic which has no division. Rather, the player would then be categorized depending on the tier (Heroic) and a numeric rank which determines their position within the tier.
To go into further explanation the video below provides more information on what you can expect within Overwatchs competitive play mode:
The game currently features four play modes. Quick Play automatically allows individual or parties (up to six players per team) to queue up for a random map in a death-match style game mode which puts two teams against each other to compete for their objectives. Play vs. AI allows players to play a game against bots (which is a good mode for beginners). Custom Game gives the player the option to choose who will join as well as fill in any remaining spot they choose with an AI. Overwatch also offers a Weekly Brawl mode as an alternative to the other modes but does not offer Loot Boxes (boxes which contain character skins, player icons, in-game currency, etc..) as a reward.
Overwatch is published and developed by Blizzard Entertainment (known for Diablo 3, World of Warcraft, and Starcraft 2) for $39.99 USD. Other Overwatch packages include its Origins Edition for $59.99 which add five origin skins and some “Digital Goodies” that can be used in several other Blizzard games. For $129.99 Overwatch’s Collector’s Edition provides the above with a few added bonuses including a Soldier:76 statuette, Overwatch Visual Sourcebook, as well as the Overwatch Soundtrack.