UPDATE, 1/9/2019: Season 18’s start date has been delayed due to a bug with Role Queue and SR. Read more here.
With the Overwatch Role Queue beta set to end in the coming days ahead of Season 18’s September 1 start, there’s much chatter around about how the current beta season impacts overall rankings. Thankfully, Blizzard has clarified the impact the beta will have on overall SR.
As current Overwatch players would know, the Role Queue beta season is the first opportunity to test out the new Competitive system across the three roles in Damage, Support and Tank. Five placements across each role will generate an SR ranking, meaning you have three seperate rankings.
The system has been met with mostly positive feedback, although there is still confusion as to how the beta season will impact Season 18 and future season.
Overwatch developer, Scott Mercer, took to the official forums to clarify, and the reality should please most players that dived into the Role Queue beta.
“The results of your matches in the Role Queue Beta are not being thrown out and will be used by the matchmaking systems to help determine your skill in season 18,” Mercer explained.
While the reaction is mostly positive, some sections of the community are frustrated by the decision, given it’s come so late in the beta’s life, and so close to season 18.
Some players said they threw matches as a means to fall to a more accurate SR that was reflective of their skill, as there had been reports of the beta either grossly over or under rating player’s role skills.
Mercer did his best to quell concerns, explaining that stat tracking and implementation is necessary to ensure the system is eventually improved.
“To help us seed your role’s SR after initially completing placements we’ve been tracking your match results as you play the three different roles for several months,” he said.
“This also means that the more games you played on each role, the more accurate we could be with your new role SR.
“We appear with the Role Queue Beta to have done a decent job overall with seeding, but of course there will always be exceptions.
“We’re already looking at making some adjustments to the formulas to better match the live data we’ve been seeing, such as temporarily increasing variance and being more aggressive with our adjustment for roles with prior data.”
As for a complete reset, which some players have argued is the only way to make a completely fair application of the season, Mercer said that previous resets had effectively turned Blizzard off ever doing it again.
“Match quality would be harmed for months until everybody played a lot of games and the matchmaker could properly identify everyone’s skill again.”
It stands to be an important next few months for Blizzard and co. as they look to improve and evolve the Role Queue experience for players.
What are your thoughts on the Role Queue beta and SR carrying over into Season 18? Sound off in the comments below!
