The queue

Play Now is 4v4 ranked pickup only — eight players from your region. 1v1 and 2v2 are tournament formats; they don't have a casual queue.

Join the 4v4 queue and wait. Lobbies form from your region and your skill division. For the first few minutes you only meet your own division. The search then opens one division up or down, and after a longer wait to any division the rules allow in the same lobby. Eight players are split into two ad-hoc squads balanced by SR. Those squads exist for that match only.

The lobby then opens a 30-second veto: two random maps and two random modes, plus a Classified map and a Classified mode. Veto what you don't want. The fewest vetoes is played, and a tie is a coin flip.

Set your region on your profile before you queue. You can change it any time; if you're already waiting, your seat moves to the new region's pool.