Hello, I’m here to make another suggestion on something that could be added later to improve the quality of life of the new Role Queue.
The idea is to have 2 queues for Competitive play (and perhaps Quick Play). One solo/duo- with a hard lock on the roles as there is currently in PTR, and one for groups of 3+ stacks- where players would select a role each (there must be more than one role selected in the group), then in hero select, you have the ability to switch roles with the players in your group. You cannot switch with anyone outside your premade. So, the 2-2-2 composition would still be enforced.
So for instance- in hero select it would show an option that says “switch role” on top of your group teammates’ icons. You could click on it and your friend would receive a message saying “Accept role switch request?” with Yes/No options. This could be something that only occurs in the hero select screen at the beginning of a match and when the map switches (in the case of control maps).
How would this improve the system? Basically, each map is played differently, and switching within a match can allow players more variety on what hero to play according to what they’re better at- so you wouldn’t feel pressured to play a character you’re not comfortable with (or don’t want to play if we’re talking about a QP scenario).
What I mean is- defense and attack in assault and escort/hybrid maps have different tank, support and DPS picks. Same thing goes for control maps, different map, different strategy.
A real life example is when I play Lijiang Tower with friends.
Night Market- I usually play tank (Orisa or Zarya depending on what the other tank plays), Friend 1 plays Doomfist, Friend 2 plays Ana.
Gardens- I usually either play support or Pharah, a few times tank, Friend 2 plays DPS, Friend 1 plays tank.
Control Tower- I play Ana or Orisa (depending on whether Friend 1 goes DPS or not), Friend 1 goes tank or DPS, Friend 2 plays DPS.
We could switch within our trio between maps to see what heroes we want to run according to what heroes we are best at for the situations- which sometimes happen to be outside of our ‘main roles’.
Then there’s the problem where you never know what map you’re going to play, so if you queue to play (for example) support, and end up playing a map where you play a better tank or DPS than support and end up under performing.
Of course there is always the argument that this would encourage players to step outside their comfort zone in the hero pool, however I personally feel as if that the game has always encouraged that, and been successful.
Additionally- queue times are always a concern, of course, however the game could pair premade groups with solo/duo players in a similar way that it does currently, thus it shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
What do you think? Would this be a viable change that could eventually come into the game?