Overwatch Grand Master Rank Will Be Solo/Duo Restricted

In an update today on the Blizzard forums, Overwatch developer Scott Mercer posted that the ranked queues in Season 16 of Overwatch will be restricted to solo and duo queuing only. 

Overwatch ranked queues have always been unlocked for parties of almost any size. You have always been able to queue up with one, two, five, or however many friends that you want. This, unfortunately, makes the ranked queue times absolutely ridiculous, sometimes going as high as 10-minutes long. 

The changes in Season 16 will only affect the Grand Master ranked players, for now. Blizzard claims that there are so few players in the Grand Master rank that matchmaking is a bit broken at that high of play. It gets even more difficult to matchmake if Grand Master players queue up in larger groups. 

Blizzard has been on the prowl for any and all information regarding the public perception and feedback on their current ranked matchmaking and competitive environment. With so much focus on the Overwatch League, plenty of players feel like the general public gets forgotten when it comes to game tweaks and hero balancing. Things like the in-game matchmaking and ranking systems are solely for the public though, and those changes are for everyone. 

Mercer writes in his forum post that they hope this change to Grand Master queues will create better quality matches for everyone at that rank. 

“Hello everyone!

Starting with Season 16 of Competitive Play, Grandmaster players (players with SR >4000) will no longer be able to queue for competitive matches in a party size larger than two. In an effort to have higher quality and more fun matches for everyone, Overwatch actively tries to place parties of similar sizes together to create fair matches. For the vast majority of players this feature of the matchmaking system works reasonably well. For our Grandmaster players, making fair matches is always more difficult simply because there are fewer players of their skill level to place together. It’s even harder if we allow Grandmasters to queue with larger groups. We believe this change will help create better quality matches for all Grandmaster players.

Thank you and please continue to share your feedback about Competitive Play!”

Most comments on the forum post seem very positive. Folks at the Grand Master ranks have been having a hard time in ranked play for a while with the abuse of three stacks and larger queue groups. So the restriction seems to be very welcomed across the board. 

Though, some less happy comments have a point.

“Overwatch is a team game. What's the point playing a team game if u can’t play it with ur team ? And I don’t care if the matchmaking is longer to find another 6 stack to play against” writes user Justin374

The most positive responses do bring up the idea of Blizzard finally separating team queues and solo queues in ranked play, which would not be a horrible idea overall. 

“Wouldn’t it be better to just have solo queue and group queue separated?” writes user Shelonoir.

What do you think about the change to Overwatch’s ranked queues at Grand Master tier? Do you think this might be something that could benefit other ranks? Let us know in the comments!

Overwatch ranked Season 16 is set to start on May 1st, 2019.