Before last year, Overwatch used to allow players to pick any number of characters from any class in a competitive setting. Teams could be composed of anything: four Damage-dealers and two Tanks, all Supports — anything.
However, this freedom resulted in overpowered teams like three tanks and three supports dominating competitive matches. So Overwatch's devs enacted the 2-2-2 role lock, which prevents players from creating teams with more than two of the same class on them. This means that all teams must have two Tanks, two Damage-dealers, and two Supports — no more, no less.
The ability to compose unrestricted teams disappeared for some time after that. But devs recently brought it back as something labeled "Open Queue" and moved it over to Overwatch's Arcade Mode with the April 14, 2020 update. Open Queue has since become Arcade Mode's most popular game type. It's become so popular now that the game's developers are apparently considering bringing Open Queue back to competitive.
The news comes from Overwatch insider OverwatchNaeri, who posted the information to Twitter. According to them, if Overwatch's devs did this, it would do it by moving Open Queue from Arcade mode over to Competitive, while keeping it labeled "Competitive Open Queue." The mode would work the same way that 2-2-2 Competitive works. Players would rack up seasonal points from participating in matches, go up in rank, the whole nine yards. The mode also wouldn't replace 2-2-2; it would be a separate and alternative way for players to play competitively.
Most fans would probably consider a Competitive Open Queue as a welcomed addition. It would not only give them another way to play competitively, but they would also be able to play it whenever they want. They currently don't have the freedom to do that since the game type only exists in Arcade right now. Arcade only has five game modes available at one time, and it rotates them every week.
All that said, it's important to remember that Overwatch's devs are only considering the idea. Open Queue has drawn a lot of positive attention since it arrived; however, Overwatch doesn't have any reason not to implement it. If anything, the devs could market it as new content for the game or something around those lines. The only question would be whether or not it appears in the Overwatch League.
Overwatch is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
