Hello,
In Season 3 Blizzard decided to scrap groups from Hero League and allow 3 + 2 player groups in Team League. At first it seemed like a good change, but as always it has it's benefits and negatives. They also tried to redistribute players across the Leagues.
Hero League:
In general I feel like my HL games greatly improved with removal of groups from the game mode. I feel like it made Matchmaker work better as it doesn't have to work with huge disparity in hidden rating between players in a group, which also helps with point gain and loss after a game be it victory or defeat. I really hope it stays this way.
Team League:
At first I was glad they are going to introduce this, but I feel it is horribly implemented. I will ignore the queue times as I don't think they are relevant to the topic. My issue is the quality of games, I always find myself guessing as it feels totally random. One game I play against Bronze 5 and next game I play against high Platinum or low Diamond player. You have no idea how to ban or draft because you are unsure about the skill level of a team.
Without making a hard or soft reset just for TL, the Matchmaker seems in a massive stress of trying to juggle average hidden rating of players while also trying to reduce queue times. On the other hand, I have no idea how would a phase of teams and groups finding their place go. Blizzard also had to temporarily remove restrictions just to allow players place themselves and play together, which I don't think is a good sign.
I just know, the current system doesn't work properly for sure. Also the psychological effect of groups makes decision making really hard. When in a game of 2 + 3 groups, when you oppose a certain decision, you are basically making a massive rift in communication as the players will bond with their friend instead of right decision. If I remember correctly, all the TL games were mostly one-sided and pretty bad in quality.
It might be too early to comment on this, but please share your opinions.