“There is a hole with one-versus-one, it's missing from first-person eSports,” says Willits at PAX East, where the game is being demoed publically for the first time. “The title fights are great for Quake so our Duel mode is going to be uniquely Quake, but will still incorporate the champions.”
To show that they are serious about duel, id Software have already lined up a number of professional players to play-test the mode in order to collect quality feedback.
“We have Duels [working in-game] but we need to get more pro players to play it, just to make sure they like it. We have some coming up to id next week,” explains Willits.
Source: PCGamesN
But this article makes it seem like they will put some real energy behind it
If they want to attract the masses and build a big player base duel is not the right way.
If they focus on duel they will not have a relevant scene outside from sponsored tournaments, instead they will (at best) have an elite group of a few hundred duel players. Probably less after a while.