Is Overwatch 2 removing role queue? Blizzard survey raises concerns

Amid rising queue times in the Overwatch 2 beta, Blizzard has begun asking players if they’d rather have role-queue or open queue, with the other being deleted.

Role-queue was a long-requested feature back in the original Overwatch that aimed to balance team compositions by forcing players to queue as either tank, DPS, or support to create a well-rounded team.

Despite the change making it so that teams no longer had six players running around as DPS, it greatly increased queue times, leading to the advent of a classic open queue system.

Now, with Overwatch 2 buffing tanks and changing the game to be 5v5 with only one tank per squad, it seems like Blizzard might be experimenting with the idea of only having open or role queue by eliminating one or the other.

Official Overwatch 2 poll asks players to delete open or role queue

Spotted by popular Overwatch news insider Naeri, the official Overwatch Korea YouTube channel asked players: If they could only have one match method in OW2 and esports, what would it be?

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So far, 78% of respondents choose no restrictions, with role queue being eliminated.

Additionally, a second poll asked if players would prefer no restrictions being the main form of matchmaking over role-queue. It wielded similar results, with 77% of players saying they’d prefer open queue as the primary form of matchmaking.

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Overwatch 2’s queue times have become a problem already.

Overwatch 2 players concerned over role-queue poll

The polls, however, don’t seem to take into account how strong tanks have become in the switch to 5v5 – and the possibility of having three tanks with two supports could give birth to another controversial GOATS-like meta.

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“Open queue 5v5 would be broken with how good tanks are at sustaining themselves now. We would just get GOATS 2.0 with like Rein, Doom, Zarya, Lucio and Moira,” a concerned player responded.

“Overwatch 2 is designed with 5v5 1-2-2 in mind. For competitive integrity, if nothing else, the main ranked mode should stay role queue,” said another. “Sure 5v5 goats sounds fun every now and then, but it’s something I would play in QP classic occasionally. Definitely role queue ranked for me!”

It remains to be seen what Blizzard’s plan with Overwatch 2’s ranked play will be, but the devs revealed they’re making some major overhauls to the competitive system. If they plan on removing role queue, it will be interesting to see if teams are limited to one tank still or if other restrictions are put in place.