Marvel Rivals studio doesn't want to limit players, so no role queue yet

One of the most popular hero shooters ever, Overwatch, introduced the role queue functionality back in 2019. Unlike before where players could choose to play in any role in their matches, role queue made restrictions to the number of classes each round can have, namely two tanks, two supports, and two damage dealers.

While this approach has continued to be used in the series for balance purposes, and reduce irksome match ups without healers or enough tanks, it doesn't look like Marvel Rivals studio NetEase Games is going for the same approach.

The freshly released class-based shooter featuring heroes and villains from the Marvel universe has been enjoying a wildly successful launch, seeing over 10 million players within 72 hours of launch.

Since beta, the title has been letting players choose whatever role (Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist) or character they prefer without restrictions. While some players have been challenging this direction, saying team compositions in 6v6 public matches are unbalanced, the studio has other ideas.

"Right now, we’re not considering a role queue," says Marvel Rivals creative director, Guangyun Chen to Dot Esports. "The team’s goal is to offer a wider variety of team composition through team-up skills and their own designs, to let people play their Marvel superheroes rather than limiting players to choosing a role."

Chen doesn't rule out role queue eventually making its way to Marvel Rivals, perhaps just for ranked play, but it doesn't seem like a priority either.

"From the data we’re seeing in our back end, things are going pretty solid," Chen continues. "We want people to have a Marvel experience where they’re free to select what they want. [Since the closed beta test] things have been rational and within expectations. In our Competitive play recently, there is a lot of different compositions emerging from players and we’d like to continue to monitor these fun compositions and how they impact our game."

Marvel Rivals is available across PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5 as a free-to-play third-person shooter. It's first season is slated to kick off in January, 2025, with more content.