Earlier this week, Blizzard announced that it would be adding fresh incentives and rewards to competitive play in Overwatch 2. Now that the update is finally live, players will be able to spend this weekend earning “Ride Points” and beating checkpoints.
Players can earn ride points during competitive rides, which are special events that most often take place at the end of the season. “Whenever you win a match, you will receive a driving score 10 times the total skill rank percentage obtained in that match” – Overwatch 2 blog post explains. “For example, if you earn 21% for the next level and division, you will gain 210 driving points. Losing a match results in five times the total skill rank percentage deduction, which is half what winning gains. So losing a match that costs 19% of your ranking progress will result in you losing 95 Ride Points.
But don’t worry, there’s a security blanket of sorts to keep you from bombing into competitive play and losing all your hard-earned driving points (although the same can’t be said for your MMR). “Losing matches will result in a small amount of riding progress being lost,” but “reaching each checkpoint guarantees progress and rewards,” the blog post reads. As long as you hit the checkpoint, you’ll at least be able to maintain some progress.
As a reward for passing each checkpoint, you will receive different rewards in six different stages. These will either be Competitive Points, which you can spend on a fresh gold or jade gun, or it will be Signature, which is a fresh feature in Overwatch 2 that will allow you to change the appearance of your Battle Tag in the game.
I’m not obsessed with signings right now because the current set that you can get on the weekend isn’t really my style. However, there have been some fresh, unique Mythic skins in Overwatch 2 recently, like the Ana Weapon skin or the fresh Anubis-themed skin for Reaper, so I’m looking forward to seeing what the team can do in the future.
The checkpoints and rewards for each are as follows:
- Level 1: 300 Riding Points – 500 Competitive Points.
- Level 2: 700 driving points – signature.
- Level 3: 1,200 Riding Points – 1,000 Competitive Points.
- Level 4: 1,700 Riding Points – Advanced Signature.
- Level 5: 2,200 Ride Points – 1,500 Competitive Points.
- Level 6: 2,700 Ride Points – Elite Signature.
In the past, Blizzard has had difficulty encouraging players to compete tardy in the season. Back in the days when competitive ranks reset every season, most players simply pursued the rank they wanted and then didn’t touch it for fear of losing and dropping ranks. While competitive resets aren’t as common as they once were, most players tend to sit out the last weekend of the season. I always find that some of the stupidest games happen when everyone is desperate to level up or get to the end of the battle pass, so we usually end up with people who just want to play as many games as possible instead of winning them. However, these competitive urges can encourage players to reflect on their end-of-season games, or at least nudge them in the right direction.
