Overwatch Is Bringing Back 6v6 Role Queue for a Competitive Mini Season in Season 6
Overwatch is giving competitive players a third way to queue up. Game director Aaron Keller confirmed in a new Director’s Take blog post that a 6v6 Role Queue Competitive mini season will launch on Day 1 of Season 6, running alongside the game’s standard 5v5 mode and the existing Open Queue 6v6 option rather than replacing either of them.
A Third Competitive Option Arrives on Day 1
Starting with Season 6, Competitive players will be able to choose between three formats: the familiar 5v5, Open Queue 6v6, and a brand new 2-2-2 Role Queue 6v6 test. The Role Queue mini season is scheduled to run for the first four weeks of the season, while Open Queue 6v6 keeps running in parallel and receives the same balance patch built for the test.
Keller was clear that the two team sizes aren’t meant to compete with each other for survival. Rather than framing this as a step toward abandoning 5v5, the studio is positioning 6v6 as a permanent companion mode players can dip into whenever they prefer a bigger team fight.
There doesn’t have to be a ‘winner’ between 5v5 and 6v6.
Aaron Keller, Game Director
Why Blizzard Is Testing Role Queue Again
Overwatch’s relationship with team size has shifted more than once. The game launched with six player teams before moving to 5v5 to help queue times, and Open Queue was later switched over to six players per side, where it has stayed for close to two years. That mode has only grown since, and Blizzard says it’s now the second most played mode in Season 5, trailing only Mystery Madness.
What Open Queue hasn’t offered is a structured Role Queue experience, something a large part of the 6v6 community has kept asking for. Blizzard already ran two experimental queueing formats, Flex Queue and Dynamic Queue, earlier this year to explore the idea, but neither fully solved the tension between match consistency and queue times. Post launch surveys also showed the playerbase is split almost evenly between the two camps, with roughly a third of respondents firmly backing their preferred format in each case.
Tank heroes like D.Va are at the center of the Role Queue debate, since finding two of them per match is the main bottleneck behind longer 6v6 queue times.
What Players Can Expect From the Mini Season
Beyond the new queue option, Blizzard is also shipping a dedicated balance patch built specifically for 6v6 rather than just carrying over adjustments made for 5v5. The team noted that some heroes already perform noticeably differently between the two formats, citing D.Mon as stronger in 6v6 and Domina as weaker, and wants this patch to smooth out those gaps for both the Role Queue test and Open Queue.
Queue times remain the biggest open question, since Role Queue 6v6 needs two Tank players per match instead of one. Blizzard says several matchmaking changes are shipping alongside Season 6 that are intended to keep wait times manageable, and the team will be watching them closely once the mini season goes live. Running both 6v6 options side by side is also meant to help Blizzard figure out whether players gravitate toward Open Queue for its flexibility or simply for its faster queues.
For now, Blizzard isn’t committing to making 6v6 the game’s main format, but Keller describes it as a mode that will keep getting dedicated attention going forward. Season 6 is also set to bring a new Hero to the roster, with more details due during the OWCS Finals broadcast.
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Picture Source: Blizzard Entertainment
