With patch 1.05. Competitive Play is introduced to Overwatch and you can finally compare your skill to other players. But how does it work?

The seasons

Seasons in Competitive Play normally last two and a half months and then there will be a two weeks offseason. The current season will only last one and a half month, because we are already late into the season which technically started on June 1th. There are four seasons per year and the seasons align to the northern hemisphere seasons. Each season your rank will reset and you have the chance to earn seasonal rewards as well as competitive points, which can be used to buy golden weapons.

Season one will end August 18

Getting ranked

Level 25 is required to getting access to Competitive Play. Competitive Play will compare your skill to other players and will show you a skill rating from 1-100. The top 500 players will get an in-game notification and you will be ranked into a separate system. This feature will be activated later in the season.

Player icon for reaching the top 500 in Competitive Play

The game modes

Competitive Play in Overwatch distinguishes a lot from Quick Play. The three different game modes in Competitive Play got a new system to find out which team is the better team on the map. A draw will end in sudden death and will select a team as offense and the other as defense on the same map, but you will only have to get to the first point. Except the Control maps, every map can go to sudden death. On Control maps you play a best of five system with each stage randomly selected from the pool. If you win three out of five stages you win the game.

The three Control maps

Escort maps or the one capture point Escort maps are giving you one point for each checkpoint you reach and they will also count the meters you have moved the payload in case you didn't finish the map. If you get more points than the enemy team or you pushed the payload further, you will win the map. The map also just ends if you are first defender and then attack and pushed the payload further than the enemy team did. You only have to go into a sudden death if both teams finished the map. No matter what time you and the enemy had, if you finish the map you will get 4 points. A draw will end into sudden death. On Hollywood, Numbani and King's Row a sudden death will be played on the first point of the map. The system randomly selects who will attack and who will defend. On the other maps you have to push the payload to the first or second checkpoint to win the sudden death.

The five Escort and Hybrid maps

The Assault maps are similar to the Escort maps. Each team plays a round on offense and you will get one point per captured point. If one team fails to get the first capture point while the other team got at least one point, the game just ends. If it's a draw after the first two rounds, you will just play again with your remaining time on the clock. This continues untill one team is out of time and one team scored more points than the other team. It also could end in a sudden death if both teams are out of time and the score is tied. Also if one team has less than two minutes left on the clock after their last round they will get another two minutes on their timer, but this will be their last opportunity to attack. In sudden death a team will be randomly selected as offense and the other team will be defense on the first point on the current map.

The three Assault maps

However the fall season, which is the next season after the current one, will also use a similar time-based system for Escort and Hybrid maps as Assault.

Leaver penalty

If you leave during a competitive match, you will receive a warning and if you do it too often, you can get banned from Competitive Play for the whole season. If a teammate or an enemy leaves in the first two minutes of the game, the game will stop and you can leave without a penalty. This game won't count as a win or loss. If a player leaves after the two minute mark, he has one minute to reconnect. The game won't stop, but it will show you a message that the game is now safe to leave if he won't reconnect in time. You will still receive a loss if you leave the game, but won't get a penalty.

Overwatch's leaver penalty system

Rewards

Each season will reward you with different seasonal rewards, which are only obtainable in this season. However there are new golden weapon skins which can be bought with 300 competitive points. You will get one of these points by completing a competitive match and after each season you will get a bunch of competitive points as a reward for your skill rating.

You will earn those rewards if you play Competitive Play in Season 1 and you will be able to buy golden weapons from your competitive points

Conclusion

With the introduction of Competitive Play, Blizzard changes the playstyle of the different game modes quiet a bit. People who have played stopwatch before will find a similar system to all game modes in the future. You now have a chance to compare your skill to other players and earn some nice rewards during the seasons. So just have fun and good luck!