Blizzard is aiming to implement further changes to the Overwatch matchmaking system when the new season eight officially begins in January.
Posting on the official forums earlier today, principal designer Scott Mercer stated that the focus is on “increasing match quality” for the competitive crowd by reducing the gap between skill ratings of teammates.
“The first change is limiting the maximum skill rating difference between the highest SR player on a team and the lowest SR player on the same team,” Mercer explained. “This will especially help players at both the lower and higher limits of SR, where there are typically fewer players available.”
This will not affect the current requirements that players must heed when grouping up for Competitive Play: 1,000 SR for Bronze-Diamond, 500 SR for Masters, and 250 SR for Grandmasters. The changes will only ensure that teammates are more closely skilled than before.
It should be noted that the same changes were announced last week to find equally skilled teammates. Blizzard, however, did not “aggressively tune the SR value of the limit” and will be doing so during this month. The developer will quietly monitor the impact on match quality and queue times. Provided that the feedback is positive, the finalized set of values will be pushed live on January 2 when the development team returns from the holiday break.
Finally, Blizzard will also be removing personal performance skill rating adjustments for players ranked in Diamond or above. The developer believes that the same Overwatch matchmaking system is great for the game overall but not necessarily for highly skilled players.
