Rebekah D. August 14, 2019
The Role Queue beta has arrived in Overwatch.
While the 2-2-2 role lock has been standard in Overwatch League for weeks, the new matchmaking system has now come to the retail version of the game available to casual players. It’s a big update on its own, but it comes with a collection of additional changes to support it.
As the name suggests, role queue allows players to choose whether they will play DPS, tank, or support in their next game. Teams are restricted to two players in each role, with each player being restricted to selecting heroes from the role they queued for. In the current version of Role Queue, players will not be able to swap rolls with teammates in the middle of a game.
At the moment, Role Queue has replaced ranked mode for a test run. Once fully implemented, the new system will be applied to both quickplay and ranked games.
To avoid longer queue times, Blizzard is giving players extra incentive to play the less-desirable roles by giving away bonus loot boxes to support and tank players. Competitive Points, used to purchase golden weapon skins, will also be increased for anyone that completes five competitive placement matches across each of the three roles.
Players will also receive separate competitive rankings for DPS, tank, and support. This means that previous SR rankings, while still recorded, are going to be reset for players to climb the ladder once again. Similarly, the hidden rating for quickplay games has also been cleared.
The new system will be applied to the game in two weeks’ time with the start of Competitive Season 18. Blizzard will use this time to iron out any matchmaking issues that arise in the Role Queue beta.
Competitive season 18 will begin on September 1, provided no serious issues arise which delay the rollout.