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Imagine playing one season of competitive Overwatch for an entire year. While that will never actually happen, but you can now joke to your teammates that competitive Season 19 felt like it lasted that long. The next season of competition will begin a few days after 2019 is over.
Season 19 began on Nov. 7 and was the first season to align with Overwatch developers’ new timeline for competitive seasons. Seasons used to begin and end on the first of every other month; every season lasts around two months to give players a chance to rack up wins and scale the ladder. Beginning with Season 19, every new competitive season will begin on the first Thursday of every other month.
This means Season 19 ends on Jan. 2. Since there are no longer breaks between competitive seasons, Season 20 will also start on Jan. 2. The fact that Season 20 begins as 2020 does can’t possibly be a coincidence; players should anticipate fun rewards for Overwatch’s 20th season of ranked competition.
Due to “developer availability during the day,” competitive seasons will also start at a different time of day. Seasons used to transition in the evening hours, normally around 6pm CT. Season 19 will end at 12pm CT and Season 20 will begin immediately after. If you’re a player that routinely logs competitive hours late in the evening, be sure to keep this earlier transition time in mind.
As usual, players who participated in Season 19 will earn a player spray, player icon, and competitive points that scale with their achieved rank. Competitive points can be used to purchase golden weapons for any Overwatch hero. Rewards, like competitive points, will be given after the season ends on Jan. 2, 2020.
