I wish 5v5 Open Queue had never left the game.
At least for quick play … I know 6v6 has way more players than Open Queue did but I seriously miss it so bad…
What are your opinions on Open Queue? If you actively played 5v5 Open Queue, do you think the 6v6 mode is better? If you didn’t play it, do you still tend to pick Role Queue over 6v6?
- My reasoning for liking 5v5 Open Queue:
It’s probably just my (and a portion the like pool of, like, 100 people who played Open Queue’s) opinion that Open Queue is Peak Overwatch. You had the tank combinations that people were begging to have back, but the tanks were still individually strong (this strength is balanced out by being Big And Fat, though, so you naturally are a bigger focus, are easier to hit, and thus take more damage on your reduced health).
Not being the only person on the team who can play tank, alongside the characters still being individually strong, really helped alleviate that Constant Misery And Blame feeling that everyone attributes to tanking.
Despite still being strong, the 150 HP reduction honestly worked well to squelch the “unkillable superboss” feeling that you had when playing as DPS or Support, whilst still not immediately blowing up under focus fire (since you’re theoretically taking 16% less damage compared to 6v6, as well as your sustain abilities helping a bit more.
The rule of thumb was: If they have 2 or fewer tanks, you could run whatever and you’d still have a pretty comparable chance of winning.
In my opinion, it’s also preferable to Role Queue (even if both teams end up playing 1-2-2) because different maps inspire me to play different characters. And sometimes those different characters are in different roles :). Plus, I don’t really like playing as the superboss either! I like close duels no matter what role I’m playing.
- General 6v6 rambles:
That one extra player on each team provided by 6v6 really punishes both your individual and your team’s collective positioning in a way which stifles fun if you want to fool around and take massive flanks. It can also be extremely frustrating when you can’t coordinate a push because your teammate gets gunned down by 6 people for a bad peek. This is anecdotal evidence, sure, but: I find matches end before the first checkpoint way more than other modes simply because there are so many people to lock it down and it requires more strategy to break through a hold.
I understand this is sort of why people prefer 6v6–you have to be more methodical and every game doesn’t just devolve into a death match on top of an objective. But in Quick Play I simply want to play a different game. One where I’m not limited by role, isn’t 6v6, and isn’t Arcade (like let’s be serious), but that is still Overwatch.
- The issues:
- People like 6v6. A lot of people view it as the only Real Overwatch experience. That’s fine
- If they remove 6v6 again, people will be upset. So bringing back 5v5 Open Queue would require adding it to the selection.
- The Open Queue playerbase was already pretty small (I would regularly run into a lot of the same people every session at least), so the extra splits of both 6v6 VS Open Queue and Regular Gamemodes VS Stadium would probably turn it into a ghost town.
- Triple tank. The team that ran it either had to be severely underperforming or both teams had to run it for it to be remotely a fair match. Two tanks is manageable, but the third crosses a threshold of fairness. This was mostly an issue in Competitive since people are obviously going to lean toward the more optimal strategy. A solution to this would be to limit to 2 tanks (and what I was personally begging for), but that is sort of antithetical to the freedom of choice promised by “Open” Queue.
I am certainly biased and much more empathetic to Open Queue than most people are, given that I’ve spent like 500 hours in it. It was my favorite way to play the game! I know it probably won’t come back, but maybe other people feel the same way. I acknowledge that this is just wishful thinking.
All that being said: I’m primarily a Ball player so feel free to flame me. Idk. First post pls be nice :3 :PPP 
