Team Fortress 2‘s competitive matchmaking patch also brings a “casual” matchmaking mode.
When Team Fortress 2 first began, it was one of the “old guard” shooters – with a server browser that allowed players to pick and choose what ever servers they wanted, and drop-in and out of games at will. These days, matchmaking, and ranked matchmaking are all the rage, and so finally, Valve has implemented the long-requested competitive matchmaking patch.
It’ll work much the same way that another class based shooter that rhymes with Smoverwatch’s ranked play works. You’ll queue up for a match, and the system will place you with a team of similarly ranked players. Winning matches will increase your rank, while losing or abandoning matches in progress with decrease it. There are eighteen ranks to climb through, and at the end of each match players from each team will be awarded gold, silver and bronze medals for score, kills, damage, healing and support (also like “Smoverwatch”).
To access competitive matchmaking, you will need to either provide Valve a real-world phone number (for “security reasons”) or shell out $9.99 for a lifetime “Competitive Access Pass”.
In addition to competitive matchmaking, casual matchmaking will be released alongside it. Now, instead of jumping randomly into an in-progress game, you’ll be matched into an unranked 12v12 game with players of similar skill.
You can check out the full F.A.Q. here if you have any more questions.
Competitive mode is something that fans have been asking for for a really long time, and Valve has even tested a few variants of it as they ummed and ahhed. I certainly feel like the release of Overwatch‘s competitive mode has finally spurred them into action, but is it too little, too late?
Source: Valve
