There has been a lot of confusion about the rank system in Overwatch 2 Season 4 after several updates, so we thought it would be helpful to explain it in detail.
Overwatch 2 Season 4 Rank system updates explained
Before the Season 4 content update, the start of each Competitive Season was a pain for players because of a unfortunate SR Decay system. SR Decay took away players’ hard-earned ranks so they could feel like they were making progress at the beginning of a new season.
Unfortunately, SR Decay had a huge backfire and caused a lot of frustration in the community. This is because, in some cases, a player who had reached Diamond 2 by the end of a Competitive Season was demoted to Platinum 5 or lower, leaving them with Platinum-tier seasonal rewards rather than Diamond-tier, all due to SR Decay. It was almost as if the satisfaction of achieving a specific Rank was mercilessly ripped away from players, adding salt to the wound of a broken matchmaking system.
This feature was thankfully removed for Season 4, with the Competitive system taking MMR into greater consideration when determining where a player belongs in the ranks. Many players were excited to dive into the brand new Season 4 content, collect their Competitive rewards from the previous season, and learn how to use Lifeweaver. However, after reviewing their roles in the Competitive menu, some players discovered that the MMR Rank adjustment had a greater impact on their career profile than they had anticipated.
Players are dissatisfied with the apparent MMR-based role adjustment when they enter the competitive menu to begin a new season. Some people saw their rank rise slightly as the system recognized that they were performing below their rank. Others had the misfortune of falling in rank as a result of the MMR-based system, which identified them as underperforming.
Even though this is somewhat understandable and shouldn’t be too hard for players to fix by continuing to play Competitive and climb, some players have had their Competitive Rank changed by a window increase or decrease of an entire Competitive Rank, which meant they got lower-tier Competitive Rewards. This has made it feel like SR Decay never left, and many players have gone public about how disappointed and frustrated they are with the system and how it never seems to change.
Thankfully, the Overwatch 2 team has acknowledged the problem and is investigating it to find a solution as soon as possible. It’s only the first day of Season 4, so you might as well sit back and enjoy the new seasonal content, which includes the Battle Pass, new store items, the B.O.B and Weave game modes, and seasonal challenges.
Related:
