Overwatch: Competitive Season 2 begins today

Blizzard today announced that Overwatch‘s second season of competitive play begins today.

Here’s what’s been changed since season one:

• Skill Rating Changes: Player ratings will be measured from 1 to 5000; this expanded scale should give players more detail about how their skill rating changes on a game-by-game basis.  We’re also implementing skill rating decay; now, players with a skill rating above 3000 will need to stay active in order to maintain their status.
• Skill Tiers: We’re introducing seven discrete skill tiers. Depending on their skill rating, players will fall into one of these tiers, but climbing into the next tier is possible as they improve.
  • Bronze: 1–1499
  • Silver: 1500–1999
  • Gold: 2000–2499
  • Platinum: 2500–2999
  • Diamond: 3000–3499
  • Master: 3500–3999
  • Grandmaster: 4000–5000
• Grouping Restrictions: Players will be unable to group if they have a skill rating difference of more than 1000 from their potential group mates. However, in the Master and Grandmaster tiers, the difference will need to be less than 500.
• Competitive Points: In season 2, players will now receive 10 points for winning a game. The cost of Golden Weapons will also be multiplied by 10, meaning that golden weapons will now cost 3,000 Competitive Points instead of 300.
• Leaver Penalties: A 10-minute penalty will apply to any players who leave an in-progress match, on top of the existing leaver penalties that applied in Season 1.

You can find out more about competitive play here.

Moreover, the game’s new Eichenwalde map is now in rotation on both Xbox One and PC. PS4 players will get the map shortly.