Hey everyone, we wanted to follow up on the performance of the Priority Pass and some next steps we’re taking to improve the process.
So far, our data indicates that the Priority Pass is functioning as intended, generally providing shorter queue times for those who use them. The goal of the Priority Pass is to improve player experience and get players into matches quicker. In the same vein, we don’t want this feature to have a negative impact on the quality of matches for yourself or others. We want to do our part to discourage players from intentionally losing and ruining matches for the sake of earning priority passes.
Moving forward, we’re looking to make the following adjustments to address some of these learnings:
- Losing a match will now earn 1 pass, down from 2
- A Priority Pass will be refunded back to players who used a pass, but ended up waiting longer that than the provided estimated wait time for those not using a pass
We’re going to continue evaluating data, make appropriate tuning changes to the system, and are looking into how we can better communicate when you are rewarded passes after playing a match.
We hope you continue to enjoy the Priority Pass feature going forward. Let us know what you think about the feature, we’re listening! To learn more about the Priority Pass, check out our interview with Scott Mercer and our forum post outlining the feature’s goals.
80 Likes
Great changes! Thanks Josh.
6 Likes
I feel like the game is far too generous with priority passes.
I don’t know what it’s like for all ranks, but around platinum my Damage queues were about 10-15 minutes each. So essentially a single 10-20 minute game could give me almost enough tickets to cut out up to an hour of queue times.
Personally I think it should be the other way around. A single ticket should take multiple games to earn, to reward those who flex and discourage flexing just for the tickets.
16 Likes
The main problem is giving people six passes for winning one game. That’s absurdly high, and has led to these passes being less valuable.
This wouldn’t be necessary if you’d just reduce the amount of passes given for a win.
Less Passes = More value. More value = more reason to queue flex.
32 Likes
Do this:
- 4 passes a win
- 1 for a loss (this one you already did)
- Max storage up to 20 passes.
Now, with less passes on storage, people will have to go back to flex queue sooner, improving queue times as well
39 Likes
Honestly losses should not reward any passes at all, but it’s a good start.
15 Likes
I think these are some interesting updates thank you
There is one thing I would like to suggest which is that if you could directly queue for the tank queue that would be wonderful If you could still earn priority passes doing so.
3 Likes
you guys are still way too generous with ur priority passes …
my suggestion : u need 2 tickets to use the priority pass. This way u would be able to skip long ques 3 times if you win and 0,5 times if you lose.
Please do not let this be ur final decision for the system. Its still very flawed and the game quality has gone DOWNHILL A TONNNN
2 Likes
I think it would be a good idea to let players use priority passes even on queues with low estimated wait times.
I just did a game where the estimated wait time for DPS was under 4 minutes, so I couldn’t use a priority pass. After waiting 8 minutes I got my queue, In that case, I would have much rather used the priority pass. Same with healer queues I’d much rather just use my pass than have to wait in the regular queue even if its just 15 seconds faster of a queue time, I play flex a lot, so I get a lot of priority passes, I just want to use them! xD
1 Like
Huh, good stuff on the refund angle.
That one hadn’t occurred to me.
Maybe they could do the same for priority pass resulting in a backfill.
Losing gives 1 pass.
Tanks get melted in half second.
Yeah, I guess I will never flex again, but maybe this is fine.
I don’t really enjoy playing tank but I would never throw a match, so I guess this feature is not for me anymore.
I hope that match quality gets better for everyone
2 Likes
Do you just… not give a crap anymore that DPS queues have basically doubled in ranked without a pass?
So I have to go soft-throw on the tank role to get games on DPS, which is exactly what you hate. It averages 50% win rate anyway so you just cut down 4 to 3.5 per game.
Match quality will stay down the drain when people that hates tanks HAVE to tank.
Thanks for not giving a crap about your DPS players. Really thought the system was supposed to help everyone’s queue times, not make DPS queue times worse.
3 Likes
Nice idea.
But what about another changes: Stop giving Role Queue rewards (Bonus Loot Box / 25 Credits) for losing a match?
1 Like
1-2 for win, 0 for loose, Josh Nash, pls, do not encourage loosing, also you will not solve “traffic” problem just by giving 6 “cars” each person. You should’ve just “pay” more for a pass, depends on how hard is the “traffic” or earn less to not amplify this traffic for free, just spent like 10 mins in what’s needed.
2 Likes
They still don’t get it. DPS players are FORCED into getting tickets to maintain a decent queue time (decent, not great, still up to 15 min for me sometimes). All the time saved (if any) by using a ticket is lost just by trying to obtain one by playing a role you might not like, or even care about the SR on that role. TBH, the only people I knew that cared about queue times were DPS Streamers. Maybe just do the priority queue for 4000+ players only. I didn’t mind a 10min queue for DPS especially since I knew I got real tanks and support on my team. The quality of the games were much better 1 month ago.
3 Likes
Suggestion: if we use a priority ticket, we should be guaranteed a game from the start (not a backfill). It’s horrible to use a pass only to go into a backfill game.
3 Likes
ok, I guess that is useful in some way.