A major patch was released today marking the arrival of a much sought after new Play Mode - Competitive Play. A twelve minute Developer Update video from game director Jeff Kaplan sheds light on the thought processes behind this very significant update.

The patch notes are reproduced in full below.

Please note that some changes may not be documented or described in full detail.

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS:

New Play Mode: Competitive Play

Earned some battlefield experience and ready to step up your game? Prepare to prove yourself in Competitive Play! Designed for those seeking a more serious challenge, Competitive Play is our new game mode in which players can compete and “rank up” through a series divisions and tiers in monthly seasons.

To join a Competitive Play game, select “Play” from the main menu and then select “Competitive Play.” You can queue up for Competitive Play games solo or in a group (of any size), and the system will do its best to match you against other players who’ve also queued solo or against players in similarly sized groups.

Please note that you must be at least level 25 in order queue for Competitive Play.

GENERAL:

Progression Rewards

  • Several new sprays, player icons, and voice lines have been added
  • Some of the less popular sprays and voice lines have been removed
  • New Legendary skins have been added for several heroes:
    • “Gearbot” Bastion
    • “Junebug” D.Va
    • “Scavenger” D.Va
    • “Sparrow” Genji
    • “Fool” Junkrat
    • “Hayseed” Junkrat
    • “Scarecrow” Junkrat
    • “Breakaway” Lúcio
    • “Slapshot” Lúcio
    • “Abominable” Mei
    • “Yeti Hunter” Mei
    • “Raptorion” Pharah
    • “Thunderbird” Pharah
    • “Plague Doctor” Reaper
    • “Stonehardt” Reinhardt
    • “Islander” Roadhog
    • “Sharkbait” Roadhog
    • “Commando: 76” Solider:76
    • “Night Ops: 76” Soldier: 76
    • “Comtesse” Widowmaker
    • “Huntress” Widowmaker
    • “Arctic” Zarya
    • “Siberian Front” Zarya

Leaving Games

  • Leaver Penalty
    • If a player’s game completion percentage falls below our required threshold, they will now receive a warning message (this percentage is calculated based on their 20 most recent games)
    • If that players continues to leave games after receiving this warning, they will incur a 75% XP penalty for future games
    • This penalty will be removed once the player raises their game completion percentage above our required threshold (again, this percentage is calculated based on their 20 most recent games)
  • Play Interactivity
    • Players who are in the team spawn room and have selected a hero will no longer be removed for inactivity until 45 seconds after a game has started
    • Players actively browsing heroes in the “Assemble Heroes” selection screen will no longer be considered inactive
  • Removed initial warning message displayed after leaving a game
  • Note: Competitive Play will have additional rules and penalties for leaving games

Technical Updates

  • Network Graph
    • You can now enable a network graph while in-game to help diagnose client networking issues
    • Hit CTRL+SHIFT+N to toggle the network graph on or off
  • Network Quality Status Icons
    • The client will now pulse network status icons when packet loss or a network stream stall is detected
    • You can disable these icons from the Gameplay settings menu
  • High Bandwidth Custom Game Option
    • You can now enable a high bandwidth mode for Custom Game, changing the client update rate from 20.8Hz to 62.5Hz
  • Improved the regularity of player commands being sent from the client to the sever
  • Reduced the maximum rewind time allowed on behalf of high-latency players
    • Note: High-latency players will now extrapolate and potentially mispredict as a result

MAP BALANCE CHANGES:

Control Maps

  • Each round now has a unique name
  • Rounds are now shuffled in random order
  • Ilios
    • Minor revisions to art and collision have been made throughout the map
  • Lijiang Tower
    • The control point room in the Garden has been enlarged
    • The pillars in the Control Center have been removed and two new walls have been added
  • Route 66
    • Revised first tunnel on the left outside of the starting attacker spawn
    • Removed ability for players to enter the hanging train above the starting attacker spawn
    • Further adjusted payload size to ensure all heroes can move around it in narrow locations
    • Significant revisions to collision have been made throughout the map

HERO BALANCE CHANGES:

Mei

  • Ice Wall
    • Can now be destroyed early by activating the ability again

Developer comments: This is a simple quality-of-life change that helps Mei have better control of her Ice Wall.

Mercy

  • Caduceus Blaster

    • Now automatically reloads when not in use

  • Caduceus Staff

    • Players can now swap between healing beam and damage beam without losing the beam’s target

  • Guardian Angel

    • Range increased slightly
    • Cooldown decreased from 2 seconds to 1.5 seconds
    • Will now destroy environmental objects when you come in contact with them
    • Can now be cancelled by using the ability again

Developer comments: Some quality-of-life improvements for Mercy players, as well as overall improvements to Guardian Angel. We think the changes will help her reliability and survivability when she is the middle of a firefight.

Symmetra

  • Photon Shield
    • Shield amount reduced from 50 to 25

Developer comments: We feel that Symmetra's win rate is still too high at all levels of play. We want to do a pretty big swing here to see how it impacts her overall. This is a significant change that we'll be monitoring closely.

Torbjörn

  • Rivet Gun
    • Now automatically reloads when not in use

Developer comments: Similar to the pistol change for Mercy, this is a simple quality-of-life change that helps streamline using multiple weapons.

USER INTERFACE:

Career Overview

  • Reorganized the statistics on the Main Overview, Hero Comparison, and Hero Statistics pages
  • Averages shown are now per game averages, updated from per minute

Game Options

  • An option to select custom crosshairs has been added
  • The following hero-specific options are now available:
    • Genji
      • Automatically climb walls
    • Hanzo
      • Automatically climb walls
    • Junkrat
      • RIP-Tire: Automatically climb walls
    • Mercy
      • Toggle Beam Connection
    • Reinhardt
      • Toggle Barrier
    • Soldier: 76
      • Hold to Sprint
    • Widowmaker
      • Toggle Zoom
      • Mouse Sensitivity While Zoomed
  • Mouse sensitivity scale has been reset and re-calibrated

Spectating

  • Several polish updates have been made to Spectator Mode

BUG FIXES:

Maps

  • Fixed an issue on Watchpoint: Gibraltar that allowed players to access out of map areas
  • Fixed an issue where leaver penalties were being incorrectly applied to an account