Competitive Overwatch will have Different Rules

Competitive Overwatch is coming (at least, a ranked mode: people have been playing it 'competitively' since the first beta, especially in Korea--South Korea, i mean, the Korea that matters), and while people are very excited for a competitive mode, it has to be acknowledged that Overwatch was not designed for that kind of thing. While there are a lot of user-friendly options and features that players enjoy (and certainly part of what makes the game so popular), for competitive players, who are a whole different market, changes must be made. And according to Blizzard's Game Director Jeff Kaplan, those changes will be coming, and coming soon.

Inspired largely by the feedback received by Blizzard from the competitive community, the biggest changes would be to reduce the number of sudden deaths and coin flips professional players have to deal with, if not removing them outright. Namely, they'll be reducing match times for Escort, Assault, and Hybrid maps down from 5 minutes down to four. Sudden death timers will also be reduced to 1:45 minutes, rather than 2. While not live yet, these short-term changes would go into effect as soon as Competitive mode returns.

Long term, Blizzard is looking for ways to break ties that go outside sudden death. Namely, a "Time Bank" system: for escort, for example, if both teams reach the end of the map, their surplus time will be added to a 'second round' where they can see how far they can get the escort, which would replace sudden death.

However, that's just a suggestion: only around 9% of competitive games come down to Deathmatches, and implementing new tie-breaking modes would require a big commitment by Blizzard. Yet, still, it's good to see they're doing something, and listening to fans.

So, be aware: things are going to be a little different when competitive mode comes out...