What the hell happened to Ashran groups?

[Assumi]

I took a break from the game for a little bit, just came back and decided to Ashran for quick PvP gear on my Priest. Now I know they removed raid queuing, that happened before I left but I was still able to join 5 man premades in the Group Finder any time easily, just open, hit Join Group and I'd be in within seconds usually. Did this a lot across my Paladin, Warrior, Mage, Monk and Druid.

Now I come back most Ashran group finder grounds say "Avenger" in the title and every single one says it requires a password to join.

What the hell is all this that I missed?

[Bareno]

Just by googling 'ashran avenger password' i found this:

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/18716985533

Might have something to do with it?

[ItachiZaku]

Alliance need Avenger groups to beat a Hydra group... well, to try to beat a Hydra group. Organized Horde is always >>> Organized Alliance. That's a pure fucking fact.

Get your voice chat apps and join the slaughter.

But really though, there are groups that will tag their premades, so you might not want to join X, but you'd always join Y and Z. And to get in, you have to hit vent and verbally ask for a password and provide it when you request to join a posted group. It is to ensure you are there and can listen to commands. Usually, we'd also have someone typing out in /rw or whatever, but not 100% of the time. Usually, those not in vent are pugs anyways, and we are fine with them taking all the dirt naps for not being part of the team.