After available in the Public Test Realm (PTR) for a week, Blizzard Entertainment has officially made Competitive Mode available to Overwatch players on PC.

In order to ensure everyone who takes part in the new game mode has a solid understanding of the game’s mechanics, maps, and heroes, Competitive Play is locked for players until they reach level 25. Once you reach level 25, Competitive Play will be available via the “Play” button in the main menu. Players can enter Competitive Play either alone or within a group.

Prior to the start of a player’s competitive career, they must complete 10 placement matches in order to obtain their initial skill rating. The rating will be a number between 1 and 100, with higher numbers indicating a greater skill level. Skill ratings will increase or decrease with each game completion based on a number of factors, which includes player performance and the skill of others.

There will be four season within Competitive Play, each of which will last 2.5 months. During that time, players will be able to increase their skill rating in order to obtain the highest rank prior to their stats resetting at the end of the season. Then a two-week offseason will bridge the gap between seasons, and then players will have to start all over again.

As far as rewards go, those who complete the 10 placement matches will receive a special spray and player icon. A new set of designs will be available at the start of each season, so you’re going to want to at least complete the initial placement matches to earn them. As you win matches and deliver a noteworthy performance, you’ll earn Competitive Points. These points can then be used in exchange for Golden Weapons for your heroes to wield in battle.

Blizzard is also taking player conduct very serious in Competitive Play. The new game mode can end up being locked if players quit early or if they go idle for too long. It can even be locked for an entire season if the player continues this type of behavior, resulting in forfeiting any rewards earned.

Competitive Play is now available for the PC version of Overwatch. Console owners should expect their version of the game to have Competitive Play soon.

Here are the full patch notes for today’s update, which of course, includes Competitive Play:

PATCH FEATURES

New Feature: Competitive Play

Overwatch is raising the bar for competitive players, giving them the perfect arena to sharpen their skills and hone their strategies. Introducing Competitive Play.

Competitive Play is designed for players who truly want to put their skills to the test, and offers a more serious experience than our Quick Play or Weekly Brawl! modes. To make sure everyone playing the mode has a solid understanding of the game’s mechanics, maps, and heroes, Competitive Play will be locked until you hit level 25.

Once you reach level 25, the mode will become available under the “Play” button in the main menu. Simply select "Competitive Play" from the submenu, and you’re ready to enter a match. You can join on your own or in a group, and Overwatch’s matchmaking system will automatically find the best game possible for your (or your group's) skill level.

GENERAL UPDATES

Gamepad Controls

• Players can now swap the left and right sticks on a control pad
• "Legacy" controls option has been added:
• Left stick up/down moves forward/backward
• Left stick left/right turns left/right
• Right stick up/down aims up/down (these can be inverted)
• Right stick left/right strafes left/right
• Sticks can also be switched
• Improved dead-zone controls, giving players increased accuracy during off-center and diagonal stick movement

Miscellaneous

• When activating Widowmaker's Ultimate ability, Infra-Sight, her voice line will now be audible map-wide
• "Weapons" section added to the Hero Gallery
• Added McCree as an AI hero in Practice vs. AI, Play vs. AI, and Custom Game modes
• Added a variety of a social options to the hero selection and end of match screens
• Removed "Avoid This Player" option from the game UI

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that would cause players’ weapons to auto-snap straight up or down when the crosshair was aimed between 85 and 90 degrees
• Fixed a bug that caused players who backfilled and then completed a game to sometimes receive a loss on their Career Profile and not receive their XP bonus for backfilling
• Fixed a bug that would move players toward the source of a knockback rather than away from it
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to spam objective-based voice lines
• Fixed a bug that caused Hearthstone-themed sprays to ignore localization
• Fixed several framerate issues that could occur when cycling through the hero selection menu
• Fixed a variety of issues with and made several improvements to ambient lighting
• Made some improvements to how AI heroes respond to one another
• Made a variety of performance and optimization improvements across the game
• Unicode keys for non-English keyboards are now displayed properly in the keybinding interface

Maps

• Players can no longer be resurrected in out-of-play areas on Ilios

Heroes

• Fixed a bug with the "Junkrat RIP-Tire Kills—Average" lifetime statistic
• Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause projectiles to hit Reinhardt instead of his Barrier Field
• Note: We fixed this issue in an earlier patch for "High Bandwidth" Custom Games; this fix now applies it to all games
• Fixed a bug that allowed Torbjörn to pick up Scrap while dead