It’s been a chilly winter, but Overwatch players will soon be able to turn up the heat when a new ranked season kicks off. A few days after the calendar clicks over to March, competitive season 27 will also begin.
Each “competitive season” of Overwatch is a two-month period in which players get to climb the leaderboards and increase their skill rating (SR). At the end of each competitive season, rewards like competitive points and exclusive sprays are handed out. High-level players also get to brag about their placements on regional top 500 leaderboards.
Season 26 has been active since Jan. 7 and brought with it a few important changes to competitive mode. Priority Passes were used for the first time, offering players faster queue times in exchange for participating in a “flex queue” system. We haven’t heard official word from Blizzard about the success of this project, but queue times were certainly reduced at most levels of play.
This season also saw a meta shift from “double shield,” which was based around Sigma and Orisa, due to nerfs on the two heroes. Season 26 was full of speedy compositions that revolved around Wrecking Ball and Tracer and also saw a resurgence of hitscan heroes like Ashe, McCree, and Hanzo.
Over the past few weeks, however, chaos has reigned at the highest levels. This should even out following more hero balance changes and after more high-level Overwatch play sets the tone for ranked. After the Overwatch League returns on April 16, competitive mode should see some semblance of normalcy.
Season 27 is set to begin on Thursday, March 4. The new season will start immediately after season 26 ends with no downtime. Competitive seasons often switch over at 12pm CT, so get those final few games in before the clock ticks down.
