The addition of players being able to select which role they’d like to fill before a match starts should have a huge impact on the game’s competitive scene.
Back in the day, I put a lot of time into Overwatch. I started off playing Ranked and while many of my friends chased that SR, I quickly fell off of it. Largely because taking the game so seriously removed a lot of fun from the experience and playing Competitive was more frustrating than rewarding. You’d always be thrown together with a team of players who didn’t care for healing and thought they’d be the badass of the game and steal a solo team kill as Genji. Yes, I’m sure your Genji is very good and I believe you when you say you shouldn’t be in silver. But maybe a tank instead? Just in case?
Blizzard seems to be combatting this frustration by implementing Role Queues into Overwatch, meaning players can select what sort of position they’d like to fill and be matched together with a team that is in dire need of whatever role they’re bringing into the mix. While this won’t really affect casual players all that much, those of you mad lads who enjoy dipping their toes into competitive will no doubt be wondering how such a system will be balanced alongside each player’s Skill Rating (SR). A player’s SR is a value given to them based on performance (basically determined by you win/loss ratio) that places them into a specific rank. With the introduction of Role Queues, players will essentially be given three ranks: One for Tank, Attack and Support. So it’s entirely possible for you to be ranked as a Silver Tank, yet have a Platinum Rank as a Support.
Together with these separate skill tiers, there will not be four Top 500 leaderboards, one for each position and a fourth that reflects a cumulative SR. In terms of placement matches, players will only need to partake in five placement matches as opposed to ten to earn their SR at the beginning of a season, with players performing over all three roles earning a higher SR after their five games. The addition of these Role Queues should help make competitive Overwatch both far more accessible and balanced for all players hoping to avoid uncooperative teams while also encouraging players to specialise in certain fields. All in all, it’s a smart move from Blizzard and I’m excited to see how this changes Ranked Overwatch in the future. Role Queues are now live on the PTR.
Last Updated: July 19, 2019
Pariah
July 19, 2019 at 10:54
Title made me think of this:
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3439e9dba8982a1ef9b79bbb8f04c0149d737d76beb845c43843232d3190d43.jpg
Pariah
July 19, 2019 at 10:54
And that’s just how I roll.
Admiral Chief Umbra
July 19, 2019 at 11:33
I just rolled my eyes so hard, I checked out my own ass
For the Emperor!
July 19, 2019 at 11:26
Seeing this, I wonder how the queuing is these days in HotS…I have not played since my GPU crashed beginning of the year but have been meaning to get back into that. Overwatch can GITFS for all I care, since it is the main reason the HotS team I was on disbanded…
Pariah
July 19, 2019 at 11:26
Why not try a real MOBA instead? Like LoL or Dota? Hell, Smite is worth a shot if you enjoy the genre.
For the Emperor!
July 19, 2019 at 11:39
Dota and LoL has too much salt in them. Plus I like the characters in HotS, and it is MOBA on “easy mode”. Though with more and more characters being added to HotS, it is getting more and more “overwhelming” and I might completely drop it next time I am forced to take a break…if I even get back into it to start with! Just got Odyssey installed yesterday and will focus on that for the next week or so 🙂
Admiral Chief Umbra
July 19, 2019 at 11:39
Hmmm, I ran out of pink in my office food drawer…
Perhaps I’ll start up a game of LoL (since it is more pink than DotA)
Pariah
July 19, 2019 at 11:39
Just ask Otto. Problem. Solved.
Admiral Chief Umbra
July 19, 2019 at 11:39
Oh he brings the pink for sure, but he is not salty enough
Pariah
July 19, 2019 at 11:39
I’m curious – why would you taste him?
Admiral Chief Umbra
July 19, 2019 at 11:57
I taste all my friends, to make sure when the zombie apocalypse hits, who to eat first
Pariah
July 19, 2019 at 11:39
A week should get you through the tutorial at least. 😛
For the Emperor!
July 19, 2019 at 11:48
Darn, I hoped one week would be enough to get to the REAL action https://media3.giphy.com/media/Y0uNrfA68dV3WS0K70/giphy.gif
Admiral Chief Umbra
July 19, 2019 at 11:57
o_O
CrAiGiSh
July 19, 2019 at 14:06
I like HOTS cause you can finish a game in +- 20 minutes and for me it feels more team focused.
For the Emperor!
July 19, 2019 at 14:38
True that.
CrAiGiSh
July 19, 2019 at 13:58
They added the idea first into HOTS.
HOTS you can show your preferred role (in ranked)
For the Emperor!
July 19, 2019 at 14:38
Aaah, I think I remember it being mentioned. But I skipped over the details as I have not played ranked since Overwatch released and destroyed our team.