Overwatch Season 3 has officially been revealed to kick off on Dec. 1 and there are a number of changes Blizzard found on the Public Test Region (PTR) necessary to be ported to the upcoming season. In the discussion on Battle.net, principal designer Scott Mercer talked about a shorter hiatus between seasons 2 and 3, as well as the adjustments on how skill rating and skill tier will be calculated.
In hopes to provide good balance to the game, Mercer stressed out that matchmaking in Competitive Play will be improved accordingly. Blizzard took note of the teams that will engage in a battle should have the similar set or level of skills.
One Week Break Between Seasons 1 And 2
One of the changes that will happen on Overwatch Season 3's Competitive Play is right before it even starts. Hold you horses as Scott Mercer revealed that the hiatus between Season 2 and Season 3 will only take a week. This means that as Season 2 caps off on Nov. 24 at 12 a.m., Season 3 will immediately resume on Dec. 1. In the wake of the break, an in-game countdown will be posted on the PTR.
Skill Rating Adjustments
Considering Blizzard's desire to start fresh with Season 3, resetting every player's Skill Rating at the onset of Season 3 didn't quite appeal to the team. Apparently, this would cause players of all skill levels would end up pitting against each other. And this do not warrant a good match still, not until Blizzard will begin ranking the players. Hence, the developer decided to carry over the Skill Rating from Season 2 to Season 3. Even so, Skill Rating in Season 3 will be dropped a little bit.
Skill Tiers Adjustments
Skill Tier on Overwatch is another area having many loopholes when Season 2 opened. It can well be noted that Blizzard set the Skill Rating of all players in Season 2 back to square one. This resulted to below-average players having higher Skill Rating than they deserve when they were initially evaluated. As a result too, the Gold and Platinum Tiers have been blown up with more players than they should have been.
What Blizzard wanted to get rid of on Overwatch Season 3 is the uneven distribution of players in Gold, Platinum, Silver, Bronze, etc. In Season 3, some players may begin on different tier from Season 2 and increase gains a little bit. This will go back to normal after going through a specific number of matches.
