Marvel Rivals season 1 has "double the playable content of a regular season" and adds maps, heroes, balance changes, and more

Marvel Rivals season 1 is starting this Friday, and it's a big one, offering "double the playable content of a regular season."

In a new video with creative director Guangyun "Guangguang" Chen and lead combat designer Zhiyong, the pair share everything we can look forward to in the hero shooter's first proper season.

First off, yes, there are buffs and nerfs, but don't worry, there's no role queue coming. "Ranged duelists [are] dominating lineups," says Zhiyong, so the team is "slightly toning down the prowess" of Hela and Hawkeye while also buffing Captain America, Venom, Wolverine, Storm, and Cloak & Dagger. Also, "The detection range for Jeff the Land Shark's ultimate ability will be fine-tuned to better align with early warning signals." I'll miss the videos of the cute little shark dragging entire teams off the map.

As for maps, there are three new ones on the way, but it seems just two will arrive in the first half of the season, which should last six or seven weeks. These are Sanctum Santorum and Midtown: New York. Each features new combat mechanics.

The Sanctum has "omnipresent portals to unveil unique strategies," explains Zhiyong, and Midtown has a "form of destruction unique to the Empire of Eternal Night, recursive destruction that lets you turn back the clock, reshape the environment, and create new opportunities for victory."

The Empire of Eternal Night are the vampiric legions of Dracula, who appears to be the big bad for the season. Maybe the devs will add Blade in an upcoming season to finish the blood-sucker off.

Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman will be added in the first half of the season, with The Thing and Human Torch coming in the second. Mister Fantastic is a duelist who can stretch and change his body to confuse and outmaneuver opponents, and Invisible Woman is a strategist who can control psionic energy and force fields.

There's also a new game mode coming called Doom Match, which features a new enemy, the Dooms, who are "cracking the foundations of multiple timelines" according to Chen. There's also mention of the Darkhold that you may be familiar with from Wandavision and Agatha All Along.

As for new settings, we're getting a streamer mode, mouse acceleration, and graphics options that should allow for higher fps – perfect for competitive play. Your competitive rank will drop by seven divisions, and a new rank, Celestial, is being sandwiched between Grand Master and Eternal, comprising three divisions. You'll also be able to see win and pick rates that will be updated every half season so you can keep an eye on the emerging meta.

Fans of the game seem pretty happy in the replies to the Twitter video. I still haven't made the time to play Marvel Rivals yet, but I'm hoping to get stuck in soon to try out all the cool new things being added this season.

In the meantime, check out the best online games you can play right now.