Season 27 of competitive Overwatch is now live

Overwatch players are happy to see a new competitive season kick off after weathering a host of issues last week. Competitive season 27 is now live on all platforms, giving players a chance to jump into placement matches and begin their long journey up the leaderboards. 

This new season was originally supposed to begin on March 4, immediately after season 26 wrapped up. At around 1pm CT, the season changed as usual, but players immediately began noticing serious issues. 

Normally, hardcore Overwatch competitive enthusiasts will instantly hop into placement matches when a new season begins. But this time, those players were unable to play placement matches and found they couldn’t enter competitive mode whatsoever. The competitive “card,” which normally shows the season number, also showed a zero instead of 27. 

After a few hours, the developers announced that season 26 would be extended over the weekend while they fixed rollout issues. Season 26 was extended until March 9 to give players the option to continue grinding the ranked ladder. 

Season 27 officially began today alongside the launch of the PachiMarchi Challenge. Since every competitive season lasts two months, this later start date may push back the start of season 28, which was expected to kick off at the beginning of May. 

Other than the delayed start date, everything else about season 27 will be business as usual. Players can now complete placement matches, five per role, and see what skill rating (SR) they’ll have to work with this season. As they climb the leaderboards, players will earn competitive points as well as exclusive rewards like season-specific player icons and sprays.