With Overwatch 2 on the horizon, its Oct. 4 release date is bringing a lot of mix-ups to the competitive scene of this first-person shooter. There are quite a few changes and additions to the game that fans are pleased to hear about, especially the addition of the new “skill tiers.”
Not all of the announced decisions were welcomed by fans, however. In a recent Reddit AMA, principal designer Scott Mercer, when asked about whether an MMR reset was imminent in Overwatch 2, revealed that the team does not plan on doing a traditional MMR reset.
Mercer answered, saying that the MMR reset won’t be a “complete” one, but they will rather be implementing what they’re calling an MMR decay system. For folks that aren’t familiar with the term MMR, it refers to “matchmaking rating,” which is a stat that isn’t available to the public. The devs use MMR to match players with other players that share a similar skill level to promote a fair playing field during matches.
“We won’t be performing a complete MMR reset for Overwatch 2, but we do plan on lowering the MMR of accounts who haven’t played in a while as part of a new ‘decay’ system. A complete reset would mean that games would be completely imbalanced for weeks or longer across the entire service, and we don’t think that will be a great experience for everyone,” Mercer explained.
Fans have been split into two groups with their feelings about this new system and the exclusion of an MMR reset. While some players think that this approach is sensible and will prevent the matchmaking balance from being disrupted like an MMR reset would do, other players feel that an MMR reset would be ideal, and deserving players would climb back up to the top in no time.
The MMR decay system in Overwatch 2 will work by lowering the MMR of accounts that have been inactive for long periods of time. Currently, in Overwatch, players only lose SR if they haven’t played for a while, so having the MMR of inactive players drop as well is sure to cause a stir in the competitive scene of the game.
The second beta for Overwatch 2 is scheduled to begin next week. At the moment, the beta will not offer ranked play, but a lot of the new features being added to the game can be tested. Sign-ups for the beta aren’t closed yet, so if you want to try out the sequel for yourself, there’s no time like the present.
