Add Backfilling to Priority Queue

Competitive Discussion
1

When you get put into priority queue, why does matchmaker attempt to find a lobby from scratch? Why not just keep everyone in the match until a backfill shows up? The backfill should take no longer than 2 minutes anyway.

I’m all for the match shutting down if 2 people leave, but if a replacement can be found in a very short time then I see no reason to shut down the match. That being said though, if you do shut down the match and go back to the main menu, why doesn’t the matchmaker just hold onto the same people who were in the lobby before? Seems to me like priority queue would be so much faster that way.

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2

because not everyone likes to join a match that’s about to end in 15 seconds?

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3

Not really though. By putting the other 11 into a queue designed to be priority over the others they can potentially find others games that need them to fill the last spot(s) within their skill level which makes it more likely to find a game faster than waiting for one single player in a specific sr range on a role (especially if it’s a tank spot that needs to be filled).

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4

I disagree. The matchmaker should only have to figure out how to add 1 player instead of redoing the match to find 12 players.

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5

Because you’re thinking of it in a small pool of just 11 players after the one leaves. It’s not just “finding one player” it’s finding a player who can fit the slot needed in that skill level. More specific even than just finding a gold player for a gold game. That could take a decent amount of time to look specifically for say a 2150 players, especially if looking for a tank. However, the other players could potentially fill several spots in other lobbies and for at least half of them it could potentially be faster that way.

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6

Yeah, backfill has to maintain the team averages, so it can take more time depending on the rank, region, and time of day.

People who complain about queueing into a defeat screen are the same people who complain about only winning $5 instead of $5000. Backfill gives the other team a chance where before they would have had none, so who cares if 1/100 games you have to spend 39 seconds to hit the leave button and queue again.

Backfill could probably help Comp mode in the lower ranks where leavers are very common, but the higher ranks despise it so much that the devs won’t even consider it.

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