“Game mode” and “objective type” are different things
The label does most of the damage here. Marvel Rivals has two main modes — Quick Match and Competitive — and both of them pull from the same three objective types. So when you search “game modes” you get answers about maps, and when you search about maps you get answers about modes.
The full structure:
| Layer | What is in it |
|---|---|
| Main modes | Quick Match, Competitive |
| Objective types | Domination, Convoy, Convergence |
| Side modes | Arcade (6 modes), Practice vs. AI, Custom Game |
| 18 vs. 18 | 18 vs. 18 Annihilation, 18 vs. 18 Bounty Annihilation |
Quick Match, Competitive and Practice vs. AI all shuffle the same three objective types. Arcade and the 18 vs. 18 modes are separate rule sets entirely — Conquest, Doom Match, Conquest (Annihilation), Free Fight, Clone Rumble and Giant-Size Brain Blast live in Arcade, not in the main rotation.
So the useful knowledge is objective-type knowledge. Three geometries, three completely different decisions. The maps guide covers which maps belong to which type, and the ranked guide covers how the mode rotation differs in Competitive.
Domination: contesting does not stop the enemy’s score
Domination is one point on a mirrored map. This is the mode where the most players hold a wrong belief, and it costs rounds.
The rules in order:
- A 30-second countdown runs before the Mission Area can be captured at all.
- Once only one team is on the point, that team captures it. After a full capture, their bar climbs 1% every ~1.2 seconds.
- That means a clean hold from 0% to 100% is about 120 seconds.
- When players from both teams stand on the point it becomes contested — but the team that already controls it keeps gaining score.
- To actually take the point back, the enemy has to be pushed off, not merely matched.
Read the fourth line again, because it is the whole mode. Standing on a point you do not control is not a stall. It is a stalemate that the leader keeps winning. If the enemy is at 60% and you jump on the point, they are at 61%, 62%, 63% while you are there. The only thing you have stopped is the round ending.
Math worth carrying into the match: at 1% per 1.2 seconds, 12 seconds of uncontested hold is 10%. So a fight won on the point is worth roughly 10% per wipe, and a fight won off the point is worth nothing at all. That single conversion explains why the team that keeps leaving the point to chase kills loses a mode it was winning. The positioning guide covers where to hold so the point stays covered while you fight.
Domination is best of three, and each map has three sub-maps with their own Mission Area, so winning takes two rounds on two different geometry.
Overtime exists here too: while contested, the Overtime bar does not deplete, and it does not reset when players step off. A single extra body re-entering the point keeps a round alive.
Convoy: the cart caps at three players
Convoy is an escort. Attackers push a vehicle to the end, defenders stop it.
- Defenders are released first with 40 seconds to set up, minus loading time.
- Then a 5-minute timer starts and attackers are released.
- Vehicle speed increases with attackers nearby and caps at three players. A fourth attacker on the cart adds nothing.
- Defenders can recapture the vehicle, which makes it roll backwards, slower than it moves forward.
- +3 minutes at the first checkpoint, +2 minutes at the second.
Add the clock: 5:00 + 3:00 + 2:00 is 10 minutes of total attacking time if the push reaches both checkpoints.
The three-player cap is the most actionable number on this page. A six-player team pushing a cart with four bodies has two players doing nothing for speed and, worse, has nobody screening the flank where the defence is setting up. The correct allocation is three on the cart and three ahead of it, clearing the next corner. If you are the fourth body, you are not helping the push — you are the reason the push stalls at the next choke.
The slow reverse speed matters for defenders too. Recapturing is worth doing, but it does not undo progress at the same rate the attackers made it. Trading cart touches is a losing loop for the defence; the winning play is to take the cart back and hold it, not to tap it repeatedly.
Convergence: a capture, then an escort
Convergence is Convoy with a capture phase bolted on the front.
- Attackers must first take a three-segment mission area to unlock the vehicle.
- Each captured segment acts as a checkpoint: progress will not drop below a captured segment even with nobody on the point.
- Taking the area adds 3 minutes to the timer.
- After that the escort runs like Convoy, with one checkpoint worth +2 minutes.
Total attacking clock: 5:00 + 3:00 + 2:00 = 10 minutes, the same ceiling as Convoy but split differently — more time before the cart moves, less time after.
The segment floor is the interesting rule. Because progress never falls below a completed segment, the capture phase rewards one committed push over repeated poking. Three separate half-pushes that each die at 90% of a segment achieve nothing; one push that crosses a segment boundary is permanently banked. This is why the mode punishes teams that filter in one at a time, and why the Convergence win guide treats the first capture as the match.
What Competitive changes
Competitive uses the same three objective types with a shorter clock and a two-round structure.
| Rule | Quick Match | Competitive |
|---|---|---|
| Round timer | 5:00 | 4:00 |
| First checkpoint bonus | +3:00 | +2:30 |
| Second checkpoint bonus | +2:00 | +1:30 |
| Total attacking clock | 10:00 | 8:00 |
| Sides | One way | Both teams attack and defend |
Competitive also scores differently. Each checkpoint reached counts as one point, both teams take a turn attacking, and the second attacking team has to reach further than the first team did to win. Matching the distance is not enough.
Then there is the Timebank, which tracks how much time each team had left after finishing their escort. That is the input to the overtime rule below.
The timebank overtime is gap-preserving, not lead-shrinking
Most players assume overtime compresses a big time lead. The rules say otherwise, and the arithmetic is worth doing once.
- Both teams above 120 seconds: the team with less time is reduced to 120, and the other team loses the same amount.
- Both teams between 60 and 120 seconds: nothing changes.
- One team under 60 seconds: they are bumped to 60, and the same amount is added to the other team.
In every branch, both teams move by the same number of seconds. A 200-to-150 lead becomes 170-to-120 — the gap is still 50 seconds. A 90-to-45 deficit becomes 105-to-60 — still 45 seconds.
Overtime never shrinks the gap. It only shortens the game. So a 30-second timebank advantage is worth exactly 30 seconds, no matter how the numbers get rounded, and a team that banked a lead should be playing to burn clock rather than to force a fight.
Overtime is the same idea in both escort modes
Convoy and Convergence share one overtime trigger: the defenders contest the vehicle at the end of the map, or the attackers are contesting when the timer expires.
While contested, the Overtime bar does not deplete, and stepping off it does not reset the bar. If the attackers capture and reach a checkpoint during overtime, overtime ends and normal time resumes.
That is the last decision the mode forces: during overtime, bodies on the objective beat damage anywhere else. A pick in the enemy spawn during overtime is worth less than one player standing on the cart.