Overwatch’s big revamp has gone well. The new user interface seems overwhelming at first but cleanly conveys a lot of information. The five new heroes are all rather unique — Anran’s face aside — and are, for the most part, a blast to play as. Moving the story forward and reflecting those narrative changes in the game is also a great choice since those kinds of developments can’t just rest in comic books on the internet. But there is one essential feature Blizzard Entertainment has been hesitant to bring back: role queue in 6v6.
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Overwatch’s Role Queue System Changed the Game
The role queue system was first introduced in 2019 and dramatically improved the experience. Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping your team of randos would balance out, role queue forced two Tanks, two Healers, and two Damage heroes in every match. It narrowed what was possible, but it meant that teams with four DPS heroes would be a thing of the past. This kind of frustrating team composition went away and meant that would at least be the barest form of balance even if no one coordinated.
Blizzard seemed to sour on this system when it came time to talk about 6v6 again, a feature the team seemed reluctant to bring back. Game director Aaron Keller explained in excessive detail the pros and cons of role queue 6v6 in a blog post, belaboring the idea of long queue times for Damage heroes. This line of thinking led to Blizzard implementing the idea of an open role queue system where a team could have a minimum of one of a certain classic and a maximum of three.
This does not work well and often devolves into bedlam because so many have an aversion to playing Tank or Healer. The queue times are shorter, but that doesn’t even begin to compensate with the more sporadic matches. Players have to be corralled in games like this — especially free ones — because playing as a team isn’t something many will do naturally.
Keller’s moaning about queue times is somewhat understandable, but that’s an acceptable sacrifice. Complaining about Damage hero queue times comes off as a little selfish since there are other classes to play. While there is an appeal to getting quad kills as Cassidy or racking up headshots with Ashe, keeping everyone alive as Mercy or protecting a whole team as Ramattra are both rewarding. It’s the magic of Overwatch’s excellent hero design and encouraging players to keep their blinders on doesn’t let them experience the full extent of that magic.
Softly encouraging others to experiment with different roles would complement the priority ticket system Blizzard also removed. This interesting system yielded consumable tickets that gave priority to those who had played the less “desirable” roles in case they wanted to shorten queue times when trying to play a Damage hero. Maybe these exact systems don’t need to be reimplemented, but there’s a way Blizzard could mess with incentives to get more even queue times across the board. The match quality is worth it.
Overwatch Is Still Too Dependent on Tanks in 5v5
Overwatch technically has role queue, but it’s only consistently for the 5v5 modes, which opens up a whole other batch of issues. As was the case when Blizzard made this awful decision in 2022 for Overwatch 2’s launch, this mode is still too dependent on Tanks. If a team has a bad Tank, they will almost assuredly lose both on the micro and macro level. Having a Tank die during a skirmish often leads to the whole team quickly crumbling shortly after, while having a worse overall Tank will usually lead to losing the match. All the pressure is on them to perform.
That pressure is halved when playing with another Tank and is why 6v6 is the superior Overwatch mode. So even though 5v5 in its current state forces the more rigid structure that leads to a better experience, the actual experience of 5v5 is inferior and doesn’t let the benefits of role queue truly shine.
Overwatch is almost back completely back on track. After colossally screwing up the sequel, Blizzard has spent the last year or two improving Overwatch and making it a more rewarding experience both in and out of matches. However, the team has to take the next step and truly implement a role queue system for 6v6 without hemming and hawing over issues that can be addressed in other ways. Blizzard already dropped the “2” from Overwatch, but it still needs to add this last feature to capture the essence of the game that originally had that plain title.
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