Overwatch’s 13th competitive season will end today, and the next will start up a couple hours later. Competitive Play sessions once had a two week break between seasons, but that’s been slowly dwindling. The space between season 13 and 14 is the shortest yet, at just two hours.
Blizzard was once concerned with making Overwatch’s competitive seasons feel distinct—the developer said as much as the reason that new heroes were once disabled for an entire season. (They’re now disabled for a week or two after a release.) But that doesn’t seem to be a major concern any longer; the break between iterations is no longer an off-season and more like a snack break.
Related: Blizzard is testing a new moderation system for Overwatch Contenders’ Twitch chat
Season 13 ends today at 4pm CT. At 6pm CT, season 14 kicks up again. Everything’s the same, essentially. There are no new heroes added, no additional maps, and no big balance adjustments. It’s the same Competitive Play queue, just with a different name: Season 14.
As always, players are awarded for completing their placement matches at the end of a season. A spray and icon are handed out to anyone who got ranked, while top 500 players in each region and platform get an extra, animated spray and a special icon. Competitive points are handed out per placement. The breakdown goes like this:
- SR 1-1499 (Bronze): 65 CP
- SR 1500-1999 (Silver): 125 CP
- SR 2000-2499 (Gold): 250 CP
- SR 2500-2999 (Platinum): 500 CP
- SR 3000-3499 (Diamond): 750 CP
- SR 3500-3999 (Master): 1,200 CP
- SR 4000-5000 (Grandmaster): 1,750 CP
Competitive points are used to buy golden weapons, which cost 3,000 each.
Maybe you can spend your two hours between competitive seasons contemplating which golden gun to choose. Of course, there’s always Quick Play—but it can be a mess of trolls during competitive Overwatch offseasons.
