The Overwatch 2 developers have confirmed that there won’t be a complete MMR reset for the second game, but revealed that there will be a new decay system related to SR.
Overwatch 2 is set to finally launch on October 4 and will be introducing a slew of changes to the game’s ranked format.
During an interview with Dexerto, Game Director Aaron Keller revealed that there will be new “skill tiers” such as Gold 2 that will be updated after players win seven games.
Unlike SR, MMR is a hidden matchmaking rating that determines who you end up being matched against. In a recent Reddit AMA, Principal Designer Scott Mercer was asked about an MMR reset in OW2 and ruled them out… sort of.
Will Overwatch 2 have an MMR reset?
According to Mercer, the Overwatch team won’t be performing a “complete” MMR reset in the sequel, but they will still be lowering MMR for certain accounts.
“We won’t be performing a complete MMR reset for Overwatch 2, but we do plan on lowering the MMR of accounts who haven’t played in a while as part of a new ‘decay’ system,” he said.
In Overwatch currently, players lose SR if they haven’t played in awhile. It seems like the team is expecting an influx of returning players for the sequel and wants to see if they can still perform in the new 5v5 setting.
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It’s unclear if this new decay system will impact one’s skill tier as well, but the Overwatch team has specified that more information on the revamped competitive 2.0 ranked environment will be coming in the future.
Why won’t Overwatch 2 reset MMR?
As explained by the developer, if Overwatch 2 were to implement a full MMR reset, there could be some major challenges for players leading to very lopsided games.
“A complete reset would mean that games would be completely imbalanced for weeks or longer across the entire service, and we don’t think that will be a great experience for everyone,” he stated.
Luckily, Overwatch 2 is taking steps to make for a better competitive experience such as adding extra security to combat smurfs and a new ping system.
We’ll have to see what more Blizzard plans to bring to the table when OW2 launches later this year. But in the meantime, be sure to sign up to enter the second beta for your chance try new heroes and maps including The Junker Queen.
