Wed, Jun 29, 2016 by Fornaught

Overwatch has updated their Competitive Play Mode and gone Live for Season 1.   Designed to offer a more serios experience than Quick Play, players must reach Level 25 before they can start in Competitive Play.  This is to ensure that players have a basic understanding of the game's mechanics, maps, and heroes.

Season 1 is a short summer season,  players are ranked within each of 4 seasons per year.

Players will have an additional Skill Rating, which will increase or decrease with each win or loss based on a number of factors, including your own performance and the skill of the other players in the match.

Changes from the Playtest mode that were previously mentioned have been made, including some wanted changes in map mechanics and scoring.

One of the largest drawbacks in the Playtest PTR region was the large number of players who would leave matches before completion. To help prevent weak play, Overwatch has added significant penalties for Player Conduct.

"In Competitive Play, leaving a game early or stepping away from your computer during a match will make you ineligible to join a new game until the original match has been completed. There is an option to rejoin an in-progress game—however, failure to rejoin will result in a penalty.

Continued infractions will lead to restrictions on future competitive matches. As the violations start to pile up, Competitive Play will be locked for an increasing amount of time. Completing matches without incurring further penalties will, eventually returning the account to good standing. But repeated violations can also result in a ban on Competitive Play for the current season—including the forfeiture of any rewards."

See the announcement at https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/blog/20167051 for more details...