Microsoft-owned Blizzard Entertainment is getting ready to launch a new season of content for its popular multiplayer shooter Overwatch 2. Today, it revealed the change notes for the next season, which will go live on Tuesday, Feb. 13.
In a blog post, Blizzard revealed that it would be making a lot of changes to the game"s competitive features. One of them will be a new higher player rank above the current Grand Master called Champion. In a , Blizzard published more details about the new Champion player rank:
Even with the boosts that Placement Matches can provide, top-ranking players will still need to win a lot of games to reach Champion 1 and prove they are the best of the best. This is the most exclusive rank in the history of Overwatch, and we’re on the edge of our seats to see who will achieve such heights in Season 9 and beyond.
That blog post also has lots of new information on how Blizzard plans to show Overwatch 2 players how their ranking in Competitive Play will change while they play, including showing how specific game modifiers affect the matches that you participated in.
Today"s blog post also revealed that when Season 9 begins, Overwatch 2 players will see "a soft reset of everyone run." This will be done to give all players a chance to go higher in their online progression while also keeping up match quality standards.
In terms of new content for Season 9, Overwatch 2 players will have to face a "Cosmic Crisis" in a non-canon co-op event. The players have crash-landed in the Antarctica Peninsula. They will have to escape while fighting off some kind of alien menace. Also, there is apparently a traitor among your team members.
Players can also look forward to accessing 80 new tiers of rewards, along with new player skins and a new multiplayer mode, Hero Mastery: Gauntlet, where you have to deal with waves of enemies while also defending towers. Season 9 will also introduce a number of game balance shifts, including a major update for the Pharah hero character.
Finally, the Junkertown map will get some changes as well to make it a bit less open, with a new burned-out building that"s being added to the first area and more.