Ingenious ideas to fix flawed Overwatch Priority Pass system

Bill Cooney

Overwatch’s new Priority Pass system hasn’t really worked out as anyone intended, but players have plenty of ideas for how to improve the new feature.

When Priority Pass was first announced by Blizzard, it seemed like a good idea to decrease queue times for DPS which are the longest in the game.

Instead, when it came out, it actually led to an increase in queue times, since everyone and their grandma was using the passes at what seemed like the same time, causing wait times to spike.

Oni Genji Overwatch skin
Long queue times for DPS are pretty standard in Overwatch, even with Priority Passes.

Basically, it takes about 2-3 hours of playtime to rack up the maximum of 40 passes, give or take. Once you have them, they don’t expire either, so you can queue up for quicker DPS times anytime you feel like it.

This might seem convenient, but having no expiration date, along with the high cap on the number of passes you can have and how easy they are to obtain, could all contribute to the problems the system is facing.

One Reddit user named ExtraterritorialFrog came up with three suggestions that seem like they might work focused on each of these areas — namely reducing the maximum amount of passes, lowering the reward per match, and having them decay after a week similar to high-level Competitive rankings.

Players at different Skill Ratings report various amounts of success with the system, and Blizzard has promised to keep making changes to get things right, which could even include some of the ones listed here.

Even though Blizzard and even Jeff himself have said they’re working on fixes for the problems that immediately arose as the Priority Pass came out, there’s still no telling exactly when they’ll happen, not mention what exactly they’re going to try and “fix.”

We would wager that they’re definitely taking a look at all of the suggestions above though, and then some. The Priority Pass system isn’t a terrible one, but it’s clear it still needs a little bit of work to get it working as intended.

About The Author

Bill is a former writer at Dexerto based in Iowa, who covered esports, gaming and online entertainment for more than two years. With the US team, Bill covered Overwatch, CSGO, Influencer culture, and everything in between.