The information in this post has been updated for 2024.
In Season 23, Blizzard decided to restore the beloved competitive Open queue, the original competitive mode for Overwatch where players were given the liberty to choose any hero, irrespective of their roles. This format had been replaced by the Competitive Role Queue in 2019, owing to the developers’ inability to effectively manage the infamous three tank/three support strategy, popularly known as the “GOATS” meta.
Since the reintroduction of Open queue, there’s been a notable shift in the player base. Many Overwatch warriors are embracing Open queue, bidding goodbye to Role queue for a variety of reasons. The most pressing of them is the infamously long wait times in Role queue, which can last anywhere between a taxing 10 minutes to an agonizing hour.
Furthermore, in Role queue, players don’t have the flexibility to fill in for a role that a teammate might be struggling with, or switch roles during a match. On the contrary, Open queue’s format allows players to take up any role or hero during the game, enhancing their overall gaming experience. But despite these advantages, Role queue remains the official competitive mode for Overwatch, offering a more structured gameplay where role restrictions and role queues are upheld.
As a result, adding a new open competitive queue made the process of finding a team faster in both Open and Role queues. But what is more important is that now all kinds of players can enjoy playing Overwatch and players which were not happy about playing a locked role will now be able to play another mode where they can still play competitively without being forced to play a specific role or hero the full game.
In the flexible world of Open queue, players have the freedom to experiment with heroes in any combination, given they avoid duplicate hero selection. Interestingly, the ranks in Role queue and Open queue are separate, and achieving a rank in one does not guarantee the same rank in the other. As per Blizzard’s Overwatch team, the coexistence of both modes is expected to reduce long queue times overall, as Open queue seems to attract more damage players than tanks or supports, which assists in balancing out the roles.
Taking strides to enrich the gaming experience for all players, the Overwatch developers have continually added an array of game options. With the release of Overwatch 2 in 2023, the excitement is mounting and a lot of players came back to play Overwatch again.
Adding to the nuances of selecting between Role Queue and Open Queue, there’s an important factor that needs consideration – ow boosting services. These services provide an option for players who may be seeking to enhance their rank or performance metrics, but do not have the time or experience necessary to reach their desired goal.
So if you got level 25 and want to play some competitive ranked games, which queue should you choose in 2024? Role queue or Open queue?
The choice it completely depends on your preferences, Role Queue allows you to select what role you want to play before you search for a game. Then, when you find a match, you will be paired with players who also play their own prefered roles, you won’t be able to switch role during the game while in Open queue you can team up using different compositions, roles and heroes during all the game. From different feedbacks and posts from players on forums online we can see that players are complaining that Open queue is not being taken as serious as Role queue and players don’t really try hard in this option, but try both queues and choose the one that suits you the most or maybe play both!
Good luck, have fun!
