Season 3 has begun! Before you crack your knuckles and kick off your placement matches, here’s a quick overview of what's new in Competitive Play.

If you’re an avid player, you undoubtedly noticed that Competitive Play wasn’t completely disabled when Season 2 ended last week. Instead, it was replaced with an Off-Season mode, which allows you to continue using the Competitive Play ruleset without your skill rating being affected.

This gives everyone the freedom to break away from the meta and experiment with new hero combinations and strategies without having to worry about being moved to a lower tier. Players in the Diamond, Master, and Grandmaster tiers can also take a week-long breather and avoid any skill rating decay.

We’re expecting each off-season to last about seven days, after which everyone will need to complete their placement matches for the new season.

After giving the Skill Rating system a major overhaul in Season 2, we noticed both the Gold and Platinum tiers were significantly overpopulated. This meant that some players were initially achieving inappropriately high skill ratings and then experiencing a downward adjustment within the first few matches of the season. This also meant that competition within the Gold and Platinum tiers could vary widely from match to match.

To address these issues, we’ve made some slight adjustments to the Skill Rating system—and, as a result, skill ratings will be more widely distributed across all tiers for Season 3. Many players will be ranked lower than expected after their Season 3 placement matches; however, this should normalize as the season progresses.

Now that you're up to speed on the latest changes to Competitive Play, it’s time to put your skills to the test! Season 3 is live right now on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.

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