So, I am currently in a situation where me and 2 other friends play OW on console and are unable to play on PC. I also have 4 friends who play on PC and, yep - you guessed it - are unable to play on console. This is going to carry through with OW2, which we all intend on playing constantly.
This would all be fine of it werent for the match pools in competitive. We are all players who want to take the game seriously and hone our skills ready for OW2 so we can grind comp as a 5 stack with great, already existing chemistry. However, as most of you will be aware, the comp match pools are single-platform, meaning PC players only go against PC players, and same for console.
I understand why this is in place, as certain platforms have advantages over others however I would like to propose a solution.
OW2 should have 3 main pools. PC, Console and Mixed.
PC and Console pools would be self explanitory and work as they do currently, however, players should be sent into this newly proposed Mixed pool queue if their party has multiple platforms in it. This would then mean that the ONLY way a PC player can encounter a Console player in comp is if they also go into the game with a Console player.
Whilst i can understand this would have some advantage issues, the only people affected by it would be the people who are wanting to play with other platforms anyway.
I also recognise the queue time issues this could possibly cause, but personally, I’d rather wait an extra 5-10 mins between games to be able to play comp with all my friends than not be able to play comp with them at all. Despite this, I actually believe the queue times likely would not be too bad.
This is because OW2 will be free to play. That means that anyone on any platform will be able to play it, and so the game will likely see a large number of people wanting to play cross platform with their friends, only to find out they cant play comp purely because they dont have the money to pay for a whole new platform to play with their friends on.
This Mixed platform pool idea would also be implemented into quick play, as I have never truly understood why the likes of console players HAVE to be put into PC pools if theyre playing with a PC user, no matter what. It gives them less of a chance of having fair fights, meaning that they are going to die more, leading to tilt, leading to them not wanting to play. This issue would be improved on (though not completely tackled) if the players in the Mixed pool had an even chance that they are fighting a PC or a Console player.
Also I would like to refer to the other game we have all heard of that allows crossplay in its competitive mode - Fortnite. We all know the popularity of Fortnite over the years, and so its a good referance point when looking at crossplay impacts. Fortnite has ‘Arena’ which is its competitive mode, allowing completely free crossplay capabilities, and that has never been a problem, and the developers dont seem at all interested in removing it.
My Mixed match pool idea would have positive implications, allowing for new people coming to play OW2 the ability to play the competitive gamemode with all their friends no matter what, which would likely only increase the popularity and lifespan of the game. I know me and my friends arent the only group in our situation, and so this would likely be an idea worth considering.
Would love to hear more opinions on this and how it could be improved, but i personally think that there are a lot of good points to be made about OW2 Comp being crossplay.