Let’s now discuss how to earn your competitive rank. When you start professional overwatch boosting, you don’t automatically get a Skill Rating of 1 or 0. When you first start Overwatch competitive mode, you will be required to play five placement matches. Based on how you perform in these five matches, the game will determine your skill and give a base Skill Rating. This means that you may not be able to move up to gold or silver right away, but will need to work your way up to bronze.
The fact that you can work with four Skill Ratings is where things get complicated. You will receive a Skill Rating for the role you choose, tank, DPS or support. This rating is only applicable if that’s your only role. To get unique rankings, you will need to play five additional placement matches with other roles.
The fourth and final Skill rating is only available in the Open Queue mode. You don’t have to choose a role to play. This is how competitive mode used work, and it was returned alongside the new mode to give you more flexibility. To get this ranking, you will need to match your placements in Open Queue.
How to level up and down
Now you have completed your placement matches for the role or roles you are interested in and you have been given a ranking. You will now want to move up the ranks. This is accomplished by increasing your Skill Ratio, which we have discussed throughout this article. Simply put, winning games will increase Skill Rating while losing games will lower it. A win is worth around 20-30 points. Losses can take away about the same amount. This range is designed to reflect your individual performance throughout the game.
Players have noticed a modifier to this: if they win multiple games, their Skill Rating will rise until they lose. This could be the game trying more quickly to place you with other people at your skill level, if it feels you are winning too often and too low.
Since we have already covered the ranks and the Skill Rating numbers that they include, leveling up or lowering means just earning enough points to reach the thresholds for the next rank. Ranking down is more difficult. You can be promoted to the next level by winning five matches.
Playing ranked with a team
To reach higher ranks in Overwatch, you will need to have a group of like-minded and skilled teammates. To limit boosting and prevent lower-ranking players matching up with lower-ranking friends in competitive modes, there are rules.
You must have a minimum of 1,000 Skill Rating to be considered a diamond rank player. This range drops to 500 if you are a master rank player, and it shrinks further to 350 if your rank is grandmaster. If you or your friends don’t complete all five placement matches, they will not be allowed to join a team with someone at or above the diamond rank.
How the seasons work
You should know that competitive ranks in Overwatch are not permanent. Overwatch’s competitive modes are run through seasons. Each season changes on the first Thursday in every two months. This means that each season will last approximately eight weeks. You will get a summary of your season and the Skill Rating that you achieved. Additionally, you can earn rewards based on this rank. These rewards can include icons and sprays as well as Competitive Points. These points can be exchanged for special golden weapon skins. For every match you win you will receive Competitive Points. You also get a bonus depending on your rank at the end. You will receive bronze 25, silver 50 and platinum 200.
Every season brings everyone back to an equal playing field. This means that you will have to do all over again with your placement matches. If you do well, it is possible to start right where you left off or very close to it. You have a better chance of reaching higher ranks if you begin playing earlier in the season. So get out there and go for it!