Here’s a quick break down of the different forms of solo queue. Years ago we were all arguing amongst ourselves over which would be the preferred version.
Starting from the most direct form, working up to the most pandering, hubristic form which we find ourselves saddled with today, called rated solo shuffle.
- Queue for standard 3v3 either solo, as a 2 party team or a full 3 party team. Game auto fills empty slots. One single, undivided pool of rated 3v3.
- Same as above but we split standard 3v3 and leave it alone, then create another pool of players who can only solo queue.
- Same as above but the solo queue’rs play an entirely different game mode with new mechanics like team shuffling and aggressive dampening.
Players were concerned about team balance and comp balance. This led to increasing abstraction, gradually moving #soloqueue away, one level at a time, from what we originally wanted - which was simply to play a game of rated 3v3 without having to manually group-form. That’s all.
Version 1 is the most direct, most flexible and most elegant form of #soloqueue and would indisputably lead to the lowest queue times for a game of rated 3v3. Implement it alongside RSS and let’s see what you choose.