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In any competitive game, people love showing off their skills, and one of the most common ways this is done is via profile-level borders.
Overwatch was no different until winter 2022, when Blizzard removed level borders from the game, making it impossible to show off your fancy level.
Keep reading and see why Blizzard removed the level borders and whether or not new portrait borders will replace them!
You might also be interested in Overwatch Hero Heights and Age guide.
What Were Overwatch Level Borders?
In Overwatch, level borders were a frame that would surround your profile picture representing your level in the game.
It was a way for you to show off how many hours you had sunk into the game so that when you joined a game, players knew whether or not you were an opponent to be feared.
The more you played, the more your level border would change, but this was not a good representation of a player’s actual skill.
Until you hit level 20, an XP level cap scaled (fx you’d need 1500 XP from level 1 to 2, but only 500 XP from level 18 to 19).
Past level 20, you need 20.000 XP to reach the next level.
Once you reach level 100, your level would reset to level 1, but now you would receive a prestige level border.
The way the borders worked was every player started in Bronze, and as you played games, you would gain experience points, much like League of Legends.
You’d get a new prestige border portrait at 11, 21, 31, 41, etc.
Every 100 levels would get you a fancy star underneath your profile. You would level up to the next level border once you got five stars, starting with a bronze star, then moving on to silver stars, and gold stars.
So even if you were terrible at the game, you could work up to the highest level borders simply by doing match completions.
Instead of trying to rework this system, Blizzard decided to take a course of action that would end up angering many gamers in the community.
Why Did Blizzard Remove Them?
When Blizzard announced that they would be removing the players’ portrait border, they immediately received backlash because level borders are one of the ways gamers can visualize the hours they have put into a game.
It gives them a reason to keep playing the game, always chasing that next-level border, but without that, the allure quickly disappears.
In an AMA on Reddit, a Blizzard representative confirmed that while leveling would remain the same, level borders would no longer be present.
Also, whatever level your profile displayed at that time would remain locked, meaning you could no longer increase your profile level.
This content was first published on GamersNotAllowed.com
So what was the reasoning behind this decision?
Blizzard removed the level borders because of the toxicity newer players were receiving in games.
Since anyone could see your border when you joined a game, it led to players harassing one another or straight up leaving games if teammates were not of a high enough level.
However, the gaming community has its own opinions on why Blizzard removed the level borders from Overwatch, and it is not because of the occasional toxicity.
Even games with the most toxic fanbases in the world – I’m looking at you, League of Legends – keep their level borders and profile levels.
The reason why gamers think the level borders were removed, in actuality, was so that Blizzard could push their battle pass in Overwatch 2.
You can still level up your battle pass, but with no way to level up your profile and show off your level borders; how else can you show how much time you put into the game but purchase the battle pass?
Whether or not that is the case remains to be seen, but while we may never truly know, level borders are a thing of the past in Overwatch.
Conclusion
Even though level borders have often been a key part of many multiplayer competitive games, Blizzard decided that Overwatch did not need them any longer.
How much this will affect the game’s popularity remains to be seen.
If you found this article helpful, check out the best settings for PC and Console Overwatch. Until next time, happy gaming!
FAQ
What Has Blizzard Replaced Level Borders With?
So while level borders have been removed from Overwatch, surely that means they at least threw some bone to their gamers that is not just the battle pass, right?
Unfortunately, no, as with level borders being removed, Blizzard, as of this writing not replaced them with anything of a similar fashion.
While this may change in the future, it does not appear that Blizzard has any such plans to do so in the future.
What Were All of the Overwatch Level Borders?
Overwatch used to have five level borders: Bronze medal, Silver medal, Gold medal, Platinum medal, and Diamond medal, with your profile capped at the Diamond border level.
The level border changed to a new look every ten levels. Every time you got a rank promotion (after 100 levels), you’d get a star – fx a gold star.
Levels Represented by Each Border:
- Bronze medals: Levels 1 – 600
- Silver medals: Levels 601 – 1200
- Gold medals: Levels 1201 – 1800
- Platinum-and-Gold border: Levels 1801 – 2400
- Diamond-and-Gold border (shines): Level 2401 – 3000
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jan has played video games since the early 1980s. He loves getting immersed in video games as a way to take his mind off stuff when the outside world gets too scary. A lifelong gamer, the big interest led to a job as a lecturer on game sound at the University of Copenhagen and several written articles on video games for magazines.