Overwatch Role Queue given new launch time due to potential issues

Overwach’s new role queue feature will now be launched earlier than expected. 

Originally slotted for September 1, the controversial feature will now be available in competitive on August 31, and then on September 3 for quick play. 

“As you may have read previously, we’ve been planning to enable Role Queue for Competitive Play and Quick Play simultaneously. However, Role Queue is a huge change to Overwatch gameplay and we want to ensure a smooth launch for both Competitive and Quick Play. To this end, we’ve decided to separate the launch times and delay Role Queue,” community manager Molly Fender said. 

Fender continued to say that staggering the two dates would allow Blizzard to “fully support and respond” to issues that popped up in competitive play. 

Finishing at the end of the month, the Role Queue Beta Season introduced the concept to players two weeks ago. Players can choose between DPS, support, and tank hero categories. Each of the roles has their own individiual queue time. The Overwatch community has already complained about the prolonged wait time for DPS heroes, which has led to a lot of debate around the issue. 

One player felt that Blizzard took too long to implement the change, and that too many players were already hooked on DPS since they never had a meainingful reason to switch up their roles before. It’s possible then that, given more tim to experiment, these players could slowly pick up more tank and support heroes, evening out the imbalanced queue times.

When Season 18 goes live, players will receive their positional rank by completing their placements. Players can climb the ranks by receiving competitive points.