Overwatch 2 has had a terrible launch. Server problems, account merging issues, and a host of complaints related to the game’s transition away from lootboxes and premium pricetags to a free-to-play model have cropped up. But many are also complaining about Competitive in Overwatch 2, saying that the system doesn’t make sense and that it’s putting them in ranks much too low to accurately represent a player’s skill.

While there are bugs and issues, even with Competitive Mode in Overwatch 2, there isn’t much evidence to suggest the mode is fundamentally not working. So, in this article, we’ll explain why Overwatch 2’s Competitive Modeisn’t actually broken or bugged.

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How Competitive Mode Works in Overwatch 2

Credit: Blizzard

In Overwatch, you had a skill rating (SR) that you see increased by winning a game and decreased by losing a game. You could get more SR from a particularly awesome game and lose less from a game you lost but performed well in, and things like win streaks would be awarded with extra SR, too, but the system at its core was pretty simple.

Overwatch 2 is different, but it’s a lot less different than people might think. See, in Overwatch 2 you don’t see your skill rating anymore; instead, you’re placed into different skill divisions from Bronze to Top 500. Then, every 7 wins or 20 losses your skill division placement is reevaluated.

Many people think that if you get to 7 wins before 20 losses you’re going to rank up or, at least, stay at the same rank, while if you lose 20 games, you’ll get deranked. Once you hit either, many think that the count resets and you start from scratch again. The problem is that none of this is actually how the system works.

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We don’t have exact figures as to the specifics of the Overwatch 2 system yet, but players have had the chance to get their hands on the game, and the current speculation as to how the system works hasn’t yet been contradicted in any meaningful way. So, the idea is that SR is still in Overwatch 2, you just can’t see it anymore.

With every game you play, you’re either gaining SR from wins or losing SR from losses, while how much does range depending on in-game performance, but the big change is that not only do you not see your SR anymore but your SR gains and losses are applied to your account all at once after you hit 7 wins or 20 losses.

So, once you hit 7 wins or 20 losses, the system will then add together everything you’ve gained and lost and apply it to your internal SR that corresponds to a skill division, placing you in either a lower one, a higher one, or at the same division. This means that you can win 7 games and then derank or stay at the same place after winning all 7 games in a row.

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All that’s happening with the new system is that you’re seeing less information about your ranking and it’s being changed less often, not being changed any more or less.

Skill Rating Resets in Overwatch 2

Credit: Blizzard

The other big factor at play in Overwatch is the great reset that came to skill ratings. Blizzard announced this beforehand, but many didn’t take it to heart. See, if you played the original game and earned a certain rank in Competitive, you were not going to place at that same rank again, because Overwatch 2 is a new game and plays differently than Overwatch, so Blizzard wanted to give the game a fresh start, so to speak.

Many are upset that they were Gold players, for example, that now find themselves stuck in Bronze or Silver, but that’s not a bug, that’s the system working as intended. You aren’t supposed to be placed at the same rank you once were at, and you aren’t supposed to be able to instantly get back up to that rank after playing a few games.

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This very intentional choice has had a lot of unintended consequences, though. See, the problem is that many former higher-ranked players have been placed into lower ranks. Normally, if you were actually at a higher rank, you’d have not too much trouble climbing back up.

However, since so many folks of formerly high ranks are stuck in low ranks with genuinely new players, there’s become a huge mismatch of skill in the lower ranks. Oftentimes, perhaps even most of the time, in low ELO games one side is going to be absolutely dominating the other side, usually because one side has higher-skill players than the other.

This is working to keep both new and old players stuck at lower ranks than they ought to be, and it’s also making placements more difficult, as people are continuing to place lower than they even ought to be placed with the skill reset, like certain folks formerly at Master rank getting put into Bronze, which is far from just being lower than Master.

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Of course, this system isn’t working incredibly well, right now, but there isn’t much (if any) evidence to suggest that the whole Competitive system is broken or isn’t working.