With their new changes to the PTR, Blizzard announced a change in their ranking methodology
Scott Mercer, the Principal Designer for Overwatch, announced in a recent forum post Blizzard would be changing their philosophy behind the competitive ranking system. This announcement stems from community demand for shorter downtime between seasons. The transition period between seasons 2 and 3 will only be a week, in comparison to the 2 weeks between seasons 1 and 2.
In addition to shorter times, Mercer has come forth with a more inside look at how initial rankings are determined and distributed in competitive play. Overwatch follows an alternative soft reset model, where the ranking a player receives at the end of the season has some influence on where the player is placed in the new season. Traditional soft resets bring all players closer to the middle of the pack. As an effect of this process, lower skilled players are often brought above their actual skill rating, while more skilled players will be starting below their actual skill rating. This reset creates a large range of skill at the Gold and Platinum ranks, which often coincides with players losing more matches during the start of season calibration phase.
To address this issue, Blizzard is using an alternative model, where players will all be started at a lower SR and have increased rank gain for the first few matches. This change will allow players to have a more pleasant start of season by hopefully seeing more wins before their rank normalizes. Concurrently, this change will also lead into a more accurate distribution of the player ranks overall.
Blizzard will be actively monitoring the ranking distribution on the PTR to determine if any alterations would be needed before the start of the season on December 1st. For any players making a final push for the next ranking, Season 2 ends November 24th. Good luck with the competitive grind, and we hope to see you again in the new season!
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