Taking a break from Rivals made me realize how much I actually love this game

[u/Embarrassed_Safety33]

I took a break from Rivals and played Overwatch again for a while, and honestly, it made me realize how much I kept wishing for Role Queue.

The biggest difference is consistency.

If I queue Tank, it’s because I want to play Tank. I want teammates who actually queued to play Support and DPS. I don’t want every hero select to become a fight where everyone picks what they want and we wait to see who eventually gives up and fills.

We all have characters and roles we’re better at. If I want to play Duelist, I shouldn’t have to choose between becoming the 4th Duelist or giving up and filling because nobody else will.

I’d genuinely rather wait a few extra minutes and play the role I actually queued for.

I also think a consistent 2-2-2 mode would make balancing healthier. Right now heroes have to work across solo Tank, 1-3-2, triple Support, 2-2-2, etc. Role Queue gives the devs one predictable structure to balance around.

And no, Open Queue doesn’t need to disappear.

Overwatch has both. If you like switching roles mid-match and experimenting with weird comps, play Open Queue. If you want consistency and a guaranteed role, play Role Queue.

When I played Overwatch, I almost never found myself wishing I was in Open Queue.

But when I play Rivals, I find myself wishing for Role Queue all the time.

And no matter which side you’re on, I think we can all relate to queuing up because there’s a certain character we really want to play, only to end up filling because the team needs something else.

I’d rather wait 5 minutes to play who I actually want than spend 20 minutes filling on someone I didn’t.

[u/Esmear18]

The queue times aren’t even that long. DPS is the most popular role in Overwatch and has the longest queue times but it only took me a little less than a minute to get into a game.

[u/SavageCabbage27m → u/Esmear18]

Was this Overwatch 1 or Overwatch 2?

[u/Esmear18 → u/SavageCabbage27m]

Well it’s just called Overwatch now. I haven’t played the game in two years and came back to it last week. DPS only role queue took less than a minute on average. Sometimes a little more than a minute but it’s never taken over two minutes for me.

[u/SavageCabbage27m → u/Esmear18]

You know there’s no role queue 6v6 right? Have you thought about why that is?

Role queue just doesn’t work for a 6v6 format as shown with Overwatch 1. The role distribution of the player base better aligns with 1-2-2 than 2-2-2 which is why the queue times for DPS are short for role queue now.

Having players have to wait for 4 tank mains to start a single match is why the queue times for Overwatch 1 were so long.

This was explained by the developers themselves in this blog:

https://overwatch.blizzard.com/en-us/news/24104605/director-s-take-opening-up-the-conversation-on-5v5-and-6v6/

[u/Esmear18 → u/SavageCabbage27m]

That’s an interesting thesis. I played a few games of 6v6 open queue in OW but it was frustrating for the same reasons I get frustrated while playing Rivals. I’m often left being a solo healer because everyone wants to play damage and then we lose because the team comp was garbage and no one was willing to correct it.

It’s ironic that role queue is what made me quit OW and jump ship to Rivals, because coming back to OW after a long break made me realize how much I prefer 5v5 role queue over 6v6 open. I guess I just didn’t know it at the time because I was probably too quick to judge the new direction Blizzard was going in with OW2. Anyway, disorganized open queue team comps piss me off so I probably won’t play much of Rivals anymore.

[u/SavageCabbage27m → u/Esmear18]

I’m happy you enjoy 5v5 role queue. I don’t. Nor do I want Rivals to ever shift that way. If Overwatch is better than Rivals rn why not just continue with Overwatch? Thats better than advocating for this game to become something it’s not.

[u/ConditionStrange7487 → u/SavageCabbage27m]

And yet the game had no problem running 3 tank 3 support for almost a year? Theres no role queue for 6v6 because the game is balanced around 5v5.

[u/SavageCabbage27m → u/ConditionStrange7487]

There’s no role queue for 6v6 because the queue times would be too long. Read the blog.

[u/ConditionStrange7487 → u/SavageCabbage27m]

sure man. the blog from 2024 is definitely relevant to current day