In this post I will outline the current queue systems, the problems that they come with, and a suggestion for another queue system - or rather a re-implementation of the current Role Queue - that might actually be preferred by a large player base.
This post makes the same suggestion as:
Current state:
Two different queue systems exist:
- Open Queue: 5 players get placed in a match, each can chose one hero of any role that has not already been chosen by another player in the team (mutually exclusive).
- Abstract, simplified implementation: When queuing for a game, players are put in a queue. When a new game server spins up, 5 players for each team are dequeued from the front of the queue.
- Waiting times: Thus, the waiting times for all players are equal on average.
- Team composition: Any composition is possible (050,122,203, etc.). From Overwatch 1 we have learnt that this causes a lot of bad games. No further explanation necessary. In Overwatch 2, from my personal experience, 302 is very overpowered.
- Role Queue: Each player selects 1, 2, or all 3 of the hero roles that he’d like to play. One match consists of 1 tank, 2 damage dealers, and 2 healers. Players sharing the same role cannot chose the same hero (mutually exclusive).
- Abstract, simplified implementation: There is one queue for each of the three roles. Players must decide which roles they are willing to play, and are queued in the according queues (i.e., if a player is willing to play tank and damage dealer, he gets queued in the queues for both tank and for damage dealer). Whenever a game server spins up, foe each team one player from the tank queue is dequeued, two from the damage dealer queue, and another two from the healer queue.
- Waiting times: If every player would be willing to play any role, then the distribution of players to roles, i.e. the probability of playing a certain role, would reflect the distribution of roles amongst the players of a team, that is 1/5 for tank, and 2/5 for both damage dealer and healer. Therefore, the waiting times would reflect this. In practice, however, we see that some roles are preferred a lot more than others. This greatly influences queue times of all roles. And, as a result of the design of this queue system (one queue for each role), this highly affects the probability distribution of playing some role.
- Team composition: Only 122 is allowed. From Overwatch 1 (and 2) we have learnt that this greatly improves game-play. No further explanation necessary.
Problem:
Since a not negligible number of players prefer some roles over others - which might be a result of the uneven distribution of heroes amongst roles compared to the distribution of roles to players in a team - queue times and thus the probabilities of playing some role when queuing for multiple roles are greatly disrupted.
Especially when queuing for all queues (i.e. Flex) it is highly upsetting to me, that I only play the same role for hours. When I queue for all roles, I want to play all roles, i.e. play a role with the given probability by the distribution of roles amongst players in a team. I do not want to fill up games!
Solution Proposal:
Create a third queue system “Fair Role Queue”, in which the probability of playing some role is equal to the distribution of roles amongst the players in a team. This also evens out the queue times.
Abstract simplified implementation:
Players are put in a single queue. Whenever a game server starts, 5 players for each team are dequeued and randomly locked into one of the three queues.
Let me know what you think of this proposal. I would really prefer it, and it seems that others on the forums as well!
Possible Questions / Remarks:
Q: How many players would actually play with this queue?
A: Not sure, there is no data on this. Perhaps put it on the public test regions. You could also ask questions to vote when starting up the game. You’ll figure something out…
Q: Three queue systems… isn’t that too much?
A: I agree! But how large is the player-base playing Open Queue in competitive (again, no public data)? In my opinion, remove Open Queue from competitive, move Open Queue from Casual to Arcade, and add the “Fair Role Queue” next to the current Role Queue.
Q: Isn’t this difficult to implement?
A: Based on what we know (we don’t have source code for the other queue systems), it shouldn’t be more difficult than Open Queue with role locking after dequeuing. So it should be very straight forward. The UI Changes will probably be the most time consuming change here.