Yesterday Blizzard's Jeff Kaplan told us what they are working on at the moment. He then revealed that Competitive Play has undergone significant changes. Now he has shared further details on the matter.
The first thing Kaplan talks about in the developer diary is that they've changed the length of each season. Where the beta version's seasons lasted a month, the revamped version will last for about two and a half months. This way you'll get to see a more varied progression, while also giving other players more time to see how well you've done. The reason as to why they're not going for the full quarter is that they want to give the players time to rest between seasons.
He then talks about the complaints regarding how the formats worked within Competitive Play, specific to both Assault, Escort and the Hybrid modes. Focusing more on the high-level goals, he mentions that 35 percent of the matches went into sudden death. They felt that this was far too many. With the recent changes this will occur far less often, so it'll feel more special when it actually happens in future. Unlike the beta, the sudden death moments will also resolve on the map you were already playing on.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, some maps (Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries and Hanamura are mentioned specifically) will get extended time in Assault mode to have a higher chance of teams fighting back and forth than before.
Blizzard will also be implementing a new, fluctuating skill rating system, moving away from the beta's tier-based structure. A player's matchmaking rating (ranging from 1 to 100) will now directly correlate to their skill rating. These and the teams' average skill rating will both show up pre-match. This screen will also let us know when other players are partied up, so we know what we're up against.
Kaplan ends the video by teasing that high level players will get access to new cosmetic rewards. As an example: something he calls the "golden gun system" will make the different heroes' weapons turn gold.
You can see the developer diary for yourself below.