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Rated Solo Battlegrounds Have Been Requested a Long Time Now
The WoW PvP community has been asking for a rated solo queue system for several years now. In fact, back in Legion, even then PvP Lead Dev Brian Holinka addressed it during a developer update. During Shadowlands, Solo Shuffle was introduced as a brawl and became Rated Solo Shuffle with the launch of Dragonflight, finally giving the player base its first rated solo queue feature.
This feature has done well despite some early issues, and, as I am writing this, currently the most actively rated PvP bracket. Overall, it seems to be getting mostly positive feedback.
Blizzard also seems keen on addressing the issues with consistent updates on Rated Solo Shuffle.
With the early success and frequent fixes and updates Blizzard has done to Rated Solo Shuffle, the question now becomes: Will rated battlegrounds also see a solo queue option soon?
I asked around the PVP community about the pros and cons they see if Blizzard implements a solo queue option for rated battlegrounds. Let’s take a look at some of them.
Will rated battlegrounds also see a solo queue option soon?
The Cons
Toxicity
The first thing I see mentioned a lot is the toxicity that may come with solo queue rated battlegrounds.
I honestly could address this by itself and may even do so in the future. But let’s take a quick look at this concern because it can be an issue.
Toxicity is something that occurs in any game that requires direct communication with other players. Unfortunately, there is no real way to get rid of it completely.
Specific Player Targeting
Some people are worried players whose characters that are not meta specs (the non-favored class specializations with current ability balancing) will receive unwarranted hate, toxic chat, or other kinds of abusive behavior that could result in a negative experience for these players or players just leaving matches before they end.
We already saw players leaving matches which caused issues with Rated Solo Shuffle, and Blizzard is implementing multiple ways to combat this, even going so far as account reviews for repeat offenders. Harsh penalties for leaving are needed to deter this, and I think, at least, should be in place.
Toxic chat is an ongoing issue, but there are options in place for players to use already to combat this.
"Are you even meta, bro?"
Now players playing non-meta specs being wrongfully attacked or treated in a toxic nature is interesting to me. This already happens in RBGs now, but also occurs in another way as well that is often not talked about. Non-meta specs are often not even invited to groups, especially the higher up the bracket you get.
The results are players, who want to play a certain class spec (usually non-meta), who can’t find groups or climb in RBGs. There are so many things toxic players use to gatekeep others from playing: achievements, experience, and class/spec. A solo queue function eliminates that.
Team Balance
Another concern is battleground team makeup. For instance, say one team has a tank class that is far better (where “better” means efficiency with current meta/ability balance) than another, or one team has better classes than the other team to sit bases on a map where it’s required to guard bases.
There are a few things that could happen here to help combat this.
For instance, during a match, each team will have the same tank class placed on their team for example Guardian vs Guardian Druid or Prot Paladin vs Prot Paladin. As far as the base sitter issue I honestly like people having to adapt to having a class that isn’t as strong as a base sitter on their team. However, say Guardian Druid is a strong base sitter. Having a tank matched with the same tank class addresses that.
There also could be a system that just always places certain classes into matches to combat composition imbalance but honestly, that is a little much and creates a lot of queue time issues for a lot of classes. Not realistic in my opinion.
Those who Leave or AFK
So this kind of falls under the toxic area category, but I wanted to address this separately since it was such a big issue on the release of Rated Solo Shuffle.
People leaving or AFKing during matches unfortunately is going to be a thing no matter what when things go badly. It happens already with groups created with the Looking For Group tool, so it’s not like this would be a sudden solo queue issue.
However, I believe Blizzard has already found ways to combat this in Rated Solo Shuffle with harsh MMR (match making rating) and CR (current rating) penalties, and they have announced account reviews for repeat offenders. They have also acknowledged that they need to have a way to address people continually AFKing during matches, because even though they are not playing, by not leaving it is not showing them as leaving the match.
I think this would fall under the account review section by players reporting them as AFKing, which of course, Blizzard has the resources to research and prove. It would require players to use the report feature, which honestly I don’t think many players use because the report feature is too complicated to use, or players are just simply unaware something can be reported.
The Pros
Just Queue Up
Those are some of the negatives, but let’s look at the positives of a solo queue rated battleground feature.
First, it would allow players to queue and play without having to form a manual group. Many worry about barriers put up by other players who form groups, like achievements, experience, and class/spec. This would be when players use tools or addons to look up your character outside the game to filter through the above mentioned. A queue system eliminates this type of discrimination.
Don't need to be part of the "Cool Kids Club"
If your class is not considered meta, you don’t have to worry about not getting invited because of this, or if you are trying to climb brackets you don’t have to worry about having to try and find a group that will take you even though you don’t have much previous experience.
You Won't Need to Make Your Own Group
As someone who made their main mode of rated PVP rated battlegrounds since their release in Cataclysm, and even do them 2 to 3 times a week currently, I can tell you putting groups together at times is painful. The rated battleground bracket in general is quite dead because of barriers and having to find 10 players as well.
It’s extremely frustrating to find and then maintain groups, because if a match does go bad, you will certainly have to replace people or reform altogether.
The solo queue feature eliminates this because you can do other activities between queues, unlike if you are sitting in a group waiting because many times you are in a raid and can’t do things like quests or world quests.
A solo queue system eliminates most, if not all, barriers players may experience when trying to play rated battlegrounds.
In Summary
Pros
- Allows players to queue without having to form manual groups
- Prevents other players from uninviting you based on your (or lack of) achievements, class/spec, experience (ie “barriers”)
- Allows automatic groups to be formed instead of manually finding a “perfect 10 players” each time.
Cons
- Toxicity towards players who play non-meta specs
- Battleground Team Makeup (class imbalances) if a queue is left to a random matchmaker.
- Consistent match leaving or AFKing, allowing for system abuse.
Conclusion
A solo queue rated battleground system is probably the next step for Blizzard when it comes to rated PVP content. In my opinion the upsides far outweigh any downsides people can give especially with the state RBGs are in. At a minimum, this will give people a way to just queue for RBGs.
Battlegrounds are some of my favorite content, so the easier it is for people to do them with fewer barriers, the better. A lot of people still believe content like battlegrounds should be kept to the current format of forming your own groups, but video games are just played differently in this day and age.
When I look at the content, I look at how to get the most people engaged. The social aspect is still there, and just like in the old days, it’s up to the player and Blizzard to create social spaces for people to thrive.
I would love to hear from you on topics and PvP concerns you would like to see me cover. Twitter is a great place to let me know issues you see in PvP and what you would like to discuss. Hope to see you there!
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Mhortai
Mhortai is a PvP writer for Bonus Roll Productions and an admin in the Oasis WoW Community. He is also an active member of the Technically PvP podcast community and can be found via his twitter or chatting in Bonus Roll’s TPVP discord channel.
