Blizzard has already laid its cards for the upcoming eighth competitive season of "Overwatch." Players of the popular online role-playing game (RPG) demanded that a few changes be implemented, as a way to bring back the fairness in player-versus-player (PvP) rounds. Fortunately, they will finally get what they want as "Overwatch" season 8 will introduce big changes in player rankings.
As reported by Engadget, players can expect a major shake-up in the current player rating system of the seventh competitive season. As of now, players can find their matches according to the even pairing on their rate skill. However, in season 8, Blizzard revealed that the gap between the highest and the lowest ranked player on a team will be narrowed down. This range adjustment will be tested for the rest of the December period, and the final results will be reported by January. It should be noted that the current player ratings dictating which players should team together will not be affected by the test.
The principal designer for "Overwatch" Scott Mercer said on the Battle.net forums that some of the big changes coming to season 8 are the limited maximum difference in Skill Rating (SR) among players, as well as removing the Personal Performance Skill Rating adjustments for those who are on or above the Diamond tier.
IGN said that an increase or decrease in skill ranking can be affected by a lot of factors, aside from the fact that a player wins or loses after each battle. For one, the rank can go up when the player has already joined several matches. Also, the ranking can change based on the game's own assessment of the players' performance, which can be related to how often their teams are allowed to enter a match.
There will also be a brand new rule in "Overwatch" season 8 competitive play, as the personal performance curve will be disregarded. This way, more players will be encouraged to join a match in order to win, instead of participating in PvP battles so that the system will increase their ranking.
According to Mercer, the new changes in "Overwatch" season 8 competitive rounds will bring about positive results in the players' attitude. The top priority, for now, is to make the players focused on winning the battles instead of worrying about improving their gaming stats. Starting on January 2nd, Blizzard will be turning off the SR adjustments to give way to this new system.
