Alongside the launch of the new Game Browser, the new competitive season of Overwatch has officially begun. As with previous seasons there are a few changes to the way Competitive Play will be handled, but this time they're mostly minor. But, the latest patch also brings a number of balance and character changes, most notably an overall buff to Bastion.

The changes to Competitive Play for Season 4 are as follows:

High-level players are required to play more competitive matches to avoid inactivity decay, improving the accuracy and prestige of skill ratings

Only players who reach the top 500 leaderboard at the end of the season will be rewarded, providing incentive to keep up a high skill rating

To encourage competition, skill ratings below 500 will no longer be displayed

In addition to the above a new re-spawn time is being introduced that will increase based on the ratio of attackers to defenders. Which, in theory, should alleviate some issues with defenders trickling in at a constant rate.

On the character front the biggest changes have come to Bastion, who seems to have been given a complete overhaul. Or, upgrade. Which, is fitting for a robot.

Bastion

Configuration: Sentry

• Reconfiguration time decreased from 1.5 seconds to 1.0 second
  
• Bullet spread increased by 50%
  
• Bullet spread is always at maximum (it no longer increases as the weapon is fired)
  
• Magazine size increased from 200 to 300
  
• No longer deals critical damage

Configuration: Recon

• Bullet spread decreased by 25%
  
• Magazine size increased from 20 to 25

Self-Repair

• Can now be used while moving
  
• Now bound to secondary fire (formerly Ability 2)
  
• No longer interrupted by taking damage
  
• A new resource meter has been added that depletes while Self-Repair is active and recharges when not in use

Configuration: Tank

• No longer grants bonus armor

New Passive Ability: Ironclad

• Bastion takes 35% less damage while in Configuration: Sentry or Tank

Pretty substantial changes to everyone's favourite robo-tank, and you can check out the rest of the patch notes here.