All OW2 Ranks and How Competitive Works
Overwatch is a game with a lot of complexity. There are heroes to consider, abilities, roles, counters, team composition, and that’s all before we leave the character screen and actually get into tactics. Most players take the time to learn this complex game for the rewards of climbing up the OW2 ranks.
How do the Overwatch 2 ranks work?
This is a game with two main things to do, practice and ranked play. Quickplay is fun but it’s really just a more casual form of the core game. Overwatch competitive is the part of the game most people gravitate towards. It’s where you can go up against the rise of the Overwatch 2 player base at the same level of skill as you. Really test out how good you are, or at least how good your team is.
Given that the game has to account for the performance of five different characters playing widely different heroes, ranked matchmaking isn’t the simplest. The OW2 ranks have gotten a bit complicated over the years. If you want to optimize your time in this game mode, this is how the mode works and what the OW2 ranks are.
What are OW2 Ranks?
Overwatch ranks are the divisions between players in the competitive side of the game. This is how the game decides how good you are. It takes all of your competitive history across different matches and different teammates, then quantifies your performance to give you a ranking. From Bronze up to Grandmaster, it’s how you know you’re a strong player.
Even at the top of the game there’s competition to remain in the Top 500. That’s where you’ll see most of the Overwatch esports players at the moment. However, getting there is tricky. The OW2 Ranks are surprisingly open to players, with a lot of information made public. However, this also means a lot of complexity you need to understand.
We’ll start with an easy part, away from modifiers and other newer additions. Let’s check out the OW2 ranks themselves.
All OW2 Ranks
The ranking system starts with the ranks themselves. Where’s the base that you start at and where is the height that you want to reach? These are all of the OW2 ranks and the divisions that underpin the whole mode.
There are 7 ranks in Overwatch, all divided into levels 1-5: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Master and Grandmaster.
Grandmaster which works a bit differently to the rest of the ranks. That’s the top 500 best Overwatch players in each region so it’s not really a rank, more a title you achieve.
Skill Tiers and your party
Overwatch is such a strong team game, playing with friends can be a good way to level up. However, you’re limited in who you can party up with by where they sit in the ranks.
To join up with someone else, you can only go with players within two tiers of where you are. It prevents an old problem of low ranked players joining with those at the top for easy gains.
Different role, different rank
Each of the ranks themselves aren’t quite so simple. Overwatch is played in roles, and so are ranks.
Your rank in the game is also affected by which role you’re playing, so you have a separate rank for Tank, and a separate one for Support.
Each role has its own skillset, so it makes sense to divide them up this way. A lot of A-Tier DPS players probably wouldn’t adjust so well to Tank. It would be unfair to put them in high level games in that role.
How Do Overwatch Ranks Work?
Overwatch ranks are a way of dividing players up. When you’re playing in Competitive, you should ideally be in games with players in the same rank as you. Or at least close enough. You don’t have to line up character heights in OW, but the ranks should align for a team.
Your rank will go up or down over time as you play in matches. This should reflect your growth as a player in the game. Lately, the ranking system has gotten a bit more open though.
In the past we only knew that performance in game abstractly changed your rank. Do well and you go up, do bad and go down. However, more recently Blizzard has made modifiers to the ranks public. We have a good idea of some factors that change how your rank changes.
What Affects Your Rank?
Modifiers
One of the factors recently unveiled by Blizzard is the qualifiers they put on your Ranked games. Essentially, in each rank match up the game makes a judgment on how your team is balanced against the other. This effects the change it makes to your rank.
- Win Streak – Consecutive wins, positive
- Loss Streak – Consecutive losses, negative
- Calibration – Rank is in flux, more volatile
- Uphill Battle – Expect to lose but won, positive
- Consolation – Expected to lose but did better, positive
- Expected – Expected to win and did win, less positive
These qualifiers have a different effect depending on what they are. If you win or lose a game, they amplify the effect on your rank. It’s not just one win that goes up, one loss goes down.
Performance and OW2 Ranks
Outside of qualifiers and results, your performance in-game is taken into account too. This means your kills, time on objective, and more specific ones from Heroes like healing time.
Blizzard doesn’t release exact figures on what performance metrics impact your OW 2 ranks. We just know it’s broadly in line with performing well or bad in-game.
Rank Resets
That’s how your rank is decided but what about resets? Every game has these, they’re simply a time when the OW2 ranks are reset. Traditionally in Overwatch, new seasons are when the ranks get reset. So, keep an eye on updates for when one of these starts. Some players might think Overwatch is dying, but the game still gets new seasons all the time.
Not every new season is a whole reset though. Most use placement games and your old results to decide where you’re going to sit in the new OW2 Ranks. These resets keep everyone on their toes though.
How to rise the Overwatch Ranks
A lot of it comes down to performing well, and consistently. Easier said than done though, so we’ve got some tips to help you stay on top of the OW ranking system.
- Teams – Overwatch is a team-based game, solidifying with your team is important. Communicate and try to work together.
- Hero Knowledge – You need to know your Hero as well as you possibly can. When to use their abilities and how they fit into the wider team. Your hero should dictate your playstyle.
- Counters – Knowing your main is one thing, but it doesn’t always fit the game. It’s helpful to know how to counter another character to be a better asset to your team.
- Team Comps – Finally on Hero selection, team composition is important too. You’ll need to be able to fit in, sometimes that means managing your hero pick based on what the rest of your team picks.
- Map Knowledge – Knowing your way around the map is important. Each side has its eccentricities which you’ll need to master.
- Play to Your Role – There’s a time and a place for Supports to go ham with a pistol, otherwise playing your role is important.
- Be Patient – Climbing the ranks is pretty long term in OW 2. You’ll need to take your time making your way up there.
Those are some of the things to keep in mind if you want to go up the OW2 Ranks. This is a complicated game at this point, with a lot of history that its top players have experience in. The meta for Overwatch 2 is always changing too, so watch out for patches and alterations to how the game is balanced.
