What players can expect of Overwatch Season 8 are all just rumours at this stage – no official information has yet been released about the new patch or the release date thereof. Still, the rumours doing the rounds are enough to get everyone at the tips of their seats in anticipation of the new season.

The end date of the current season and the start date of Season 6 are still a mystery but some educated guesses suggest that the new patch should be available well into August. Season 4 was the longest running season up to date – running almost a full three months – with preceding seasons, with the exclusion of the first, running generally the same length. Players can expect Season 8 to kick off anytime during August 28th -September 3rd.

As for the rest of the Overwatch Season 8 details, everything is still only speculations. But very exciting ones, nonetheless.

Some data miners have reported information leaks that may indicate that players can look forward to new summer games, possibly a new skin for Top 500 players and an old favourite coming back.

Overwatch’s PTR(Public Test Region) cycle has been ongoing for a while now for Patch 1.13, but it seems that data miners have cracked at least two more files that are indicative of the upcoming content as well as some guides on how to play OW. Typically, these kinds of files are encrypted on the PTR, but according to some, they were stored with an already known key – thus the find.

This year’s Overwatch Summer Games logo seems to be very much the same as last year’s – though it may be a little streamlined and is topped off with a simple “2018”. This is just more evidence that the Summer Games are returning. After crash logs for Patch 1.13 pointed to the Summer Games, as well as the introduction of Doomfist, the community braced itself for the coming storm. There is also some reference to “Event 8” that may indicate an action-packed new event in the future.

One of the hottest rumours around is the leak of what seems to be a new spray. It’s guessed that it is to be rewarded to the Top 500 places in the upcoming competitive season. The spray depicts a desert with a traveller overlooking pyramids in a majestic sunset. Some believe that it like references Anubis in Egypt. However, as none of the information is yet confirmed, the pyramids can also indicate a new map.

Is Lucio Ball coming back? Last month, Redditor, Elooohell, noticed in the PTR Career Profile that “goals”, “interceptions” and “saves” are all listed. It would be rather strange for Blizzard to include these in the profile listing without actually having plans to bring back Lucioball.

What will happen to Roadhog? His win rate has fallen below 50% in the first few weeks following Patch 1.12’s release. At this point, it’s still unknown what changes will come with the release of Overwatch Patch 1.13.

Speculation and rumours are all fun and games, but luckily, there is some information that we do have. We know that Season 5 is drawing to an end, although there is still some time left to battle it out for those prestigious end-of-season rewards. Blizzard allows a short period of time between a season End and the Start of the following season. This short ‘off-period’ is just enough for players to receive their rewards and for Blizzard to prepare for the next competitive season. The previous season-end had a particularly short off-period.

While the exact start date of Overwatch Season 6 is not yet known, players can expect a very short off-period between the end of Season 5 and the new season. Of course, the start of Season 6 is crucially important for competitive players who are serious about ranking up.

As soon as the new season starts, players will have to complete 10 Placement Matches. Once placed, players will notice their Competitive Play Skill Rating was soft reset. Some of the previous Skill Rating carries over, but not all of it. This means that your Overwatch Season 8 Start Skill Rating will reflect somewhat to your skill rating from the previous season without necessarily being exactly the same.

The end of the current season and the start of Overwatch Boost Season 8 is near, although it is yet to be announced. In preparation, make sure that you get the best possible rating for Season 5 and keep an eye out for the announcement of the start date.