Dear Blizzard,
First off I’d like to preface saying I love HotS, its literally the only MOBA I play. Alot of my friends play League but its just no for me.
Now, with that being said… It would be AMAZING if Blizzard would add a Map Filter option into Quick Match and/or Ranked. I try not to curse in my forum posts but I think its the best way to describe this here.
Blackheart’s Bay… is the most absolute… sorry excuse dog @#$% map in the game. Ive probably left a match 3 times in HotS ever, but every single time i see Blackhearts on the loading screen, I instantly want to quit. I hate that map so much and I think its absolutely terrible.
With that out the way, I know people feel that way about other maps. Such as Hanamura, I personally dont dislike the map but pretty much everyone I play with does. So i think it would once again be awesome if there was a feature added almost like the PvP BGs in WoW, to be able to filter out up to 2 maps from your QM or Ranked Matchmaking.
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Yet another queue time increase so it would be very unpopular. I already see people groaning over 10 minute queues.
I feel like it wouldnt affect queue times much. If 1500/2500 people are filtering out a specific map, then they’ll still match, those 1500 just wont have get put on whatever map is being filtered.
I also feel like a plus to this system would be the idea that if one or two maps are being overwhelmingly filtered then maybe they will just remove them from rotation, OR update them
Sadly never gonna happen because dev pride could never take such a hit on few maps being massively unpopular and as such not perfect as they think they are 
What if they all filter a different map? How will you ever match them together? A match has 10 players. But someone doesn’t like Dragon Shire, the other doesn’t like Battlefield of Eternity, etc…
This has the same problem as the proposed “avoid player” option: It’s not just you blocking a map or player but tens of thousands of people…
If one person is blocking one map each, a match can never be found.
That being said I hate BhB in ranked too and it is gone in that mode for a long time.
2 Likes
I don’t think im understanding 100% to be honest man.
Idk what HotS player base is but lefts underestimate and say 1000 people in NA region. If everyone filters a different map but only one map, 10 people will still get put on Dragon Shrine for instance, and if someone has that map filtered theyd just get put in a different match that is loading a different map. I cant think of the last time Ive been put on the same map back to back.
I feel like the idea would work because the fact that there are so many maps in the game. You know what I mean or am i just completely misunderstanding you?
But you can’t just filter by map preference. You also need those players to have similar MMR or Rank. Queue times on low population servers are already so high a match can’t be found in 1000+ seconds. If people can also filter maps, they can never find a game.
Australia is the worst in this regard, ques outside peak time are 3000+ seconds. If there are any more filter criteria added to the matchmaker (like letting people avoid certain players or maps) nobody will ever find a game.
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You believe that even if you could only filter out a single map at a time? I usually dont have bad queue times, my worst late as *** on a weekday would be around 5 minutes for QM typically.
True, you’re filtering a single map at a time. But another player is filtering Dragon Shire. Then another one is filtering Alterac Pass. Another 5 people are filtering 5 other maps. Thus you will never be put together in a match even though you otherwise had similar MMR.
So your queue time will increase as it searches for players whose map bans don’t clash together. I hope you understand my point of view now.
That’s not true tho. If game finds 10 people who would make game all with different map denied then game would just throw them into map 11 which nobody has denied.
there are only 8 maps in ranked rotation each season…
2 Likes
Yeah I see what youre saying. I figure it depends really on what the population of HotS really is in each region. I still do believe its doable and I can 100% see how it could increase queue times, but I don’t necessarily think it would be too bad.
Theres definitely going to be plenty of people that wouldnt filter any maps at all, but !$%# man i hate BhB with a passion. I felt like the only way around that would be this idea, or a straight up poll asking which maps are trash. But the problem with that, is everyone has there own opinion and i dont really believe that if a map won the popular vote of hot garbage that it should be removed but 70% of the game might see 0 issues with “that” map.
wait, bhb hasnt been in ranked rotation since 2017
https://heroespatchnotes.com/battleground/rotation.html
so no worries getting that map if you go ranked now
but it is truly a pve map more suited for brawl or qm, it’s a good thing they removed it
I could actually see alot more how this could be an issue in regards to what Ray was saying. I guess I was focusing more on QM…
Im trying to think of other solutions for ranked and such, but with such a low pop game, a seasonal ranked game map voting poll wouldnt be the best idea because the pure fact barely anyone would even see that, let alone take the time to vote.
Any further matchmaking restrictions should be just on EU or US sadly. Because if you play on ANZ or Singapore, the queue times can be devastating even with the current rules.
If you could also avoid maps or players, que times could become intolerably high in unpopular Hots regions.
It sounds crappy but i definitely wouldn’t be against them only adding that in EU or US. Worst case scenario if they added it on Tuesday, and queue times are horrible, then they could always just remove it on the next weekly patch.
I don’t feel like thats too extreme, no? To be honest I don’t even know how much Blizzard monitors these forum posts. Especially ones that aren’t super “hot”