In an effort to balance queue times, Blizzard will enable same-faction battlegrounds in World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Classic starting tomorrow. In the original TBC, players queuing up for battlegrounds could only face off against members of the opposing faction. This meant that the Horde would only ever fight against Alliance members, and vice versa. While TBC Classic has retained that feature thus far, a significant disparity in queue times between Horde and Alliance players has proven to be a source of contention. On the Alliance side, players can queue for any battleground and immediately begin playing. However, for members of the Horde, queue times have steadily increased to the point where most BGs have a wait time of an hour or more. The large disparity in queue times between the two factions is due to the large number of players queuing on each side. With many Horde players becoming frustrated by their inability to participate, Blizzard has decided to test a potential fix. Beginning tomorrow, Blizzard will enable the ability for the Battlegrounds matchmaker to pair members of the same faction against one another.World of Warcraft: Classic - The Burning Crusade!
While Blizzard's official post today states that it will prioritize pitting players against members of the opposing faction, it also states that it will not force a large number of Horde players to wait for a small number of Alliance players. “If an opposite-faction match cannot be made quickly, you will be matched against a team from your own faction,” Blizzard stated.“Rewards such as Honor and Reputation will be assigned in the same manner as before.” This change will apply to the Warsong Gulch, Eye of the Storm, and Arathi Basin queues as well. Because of the large number of faction-specific NPCs involved, Alterac Valley queues will continue to be the only battleground where Horde vs. Alliance matches are required. For the time being, this change is only a test. After this weekend's same-faction testing, Blizzard will restore queues to their previous state and "analyze what happened" over the weekend. If everything goes according to plan, it's likely that same-faction queuing will become a permanent fixture within a short period of time.