Sick of the Role Queue discussion ignoring massive issue with adding it

People keep asking for role queue, and like to bring up arguments like "the queue times" and "the creativity", while presenting their own counter-arguments. But are we forgetting what the hell comes AFTER role queue gets implemented?

Let's look at our direct competitor, Overwatch, and the absolute shitshow that came after Role Queue's introduction.

Queue times are dogshit. This is completely unargued. It's also something that no company will ever ignore because that risks them losing players and losing money. So, they were presented with an issue? How to fix queue times?

EZ, just remove a tank. And that's how 5v5, and the concept of super tanks was introduced. It was and still is the biggest flaw in modern overwatch's gameplay. Nobody enjoys playing against super tanks, and super tanks still feel miserable because now there are even less targets to pump all those cc and tankbusting abilities into.

Then, came the support buffs. I'm going to be completely, 100% blunt with everyone here. It's not balanced. Support, as a role, in Overwatch is completely overpowered. In fact, if the game were to be properly balanced, almost every single support except for Mercy, Brig, Moira, and Lifeweaver would need nerfs of varying sizes. Some of the nerfs would be smaller, but others would either get nuked or entire effects or abilities completely removed (ahem Kiriko).

They also completely demolished the DPS role by making hitscan poke the only viable dps option if you want to actually have an impact on the game. Flex dps is dead everywhere except pro play except for MAYBE Tracer, and even SHE has fallen off somewhat. The season 9 dps buffs did not fix this. If anything, it made poke even stronger and more oppressive.

"They can make them separate modes" The problem with this is that the devs will need to choose which version of the game they will support even before the mode is released. They likely don't have the manpower to manage both, since they need to be balanced differently. Also, whatever they choose, the playerbase will likely follow. People play whatever the devs are working on actively. (This is also why 6v6 is not doing great despite it returning - the devs refuse to give it active support even with near universal praise.)

The problem that I have with role queue is that it demolishes the game's balance because no sane company is ever going to allow bad queue times to continue long-term. So they will balance and redesign the bad queue times out of the game, even if it demolishes the core gameplay loop. And I'm so damn sick of nobody bringing up this obvious example of how role queue completely demolishes a game not designed for it.

Posted Jun 13, 2026, 11:34 PM UTC

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