I'm out here trying to get my 2vs2 win for one of the Idle Arenas and these are the two games I was given:

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=24265342
https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=24257106

In both I came up against the same Italian pair and my teammate either surrendered or got booted before even making picks. And then on turn 1 I am told it is 2vs1 (different one each time).

I have no idea if others have been seeing this as well but given I have only played 3 of these games and these were 2 of them (the other ended up being a 1vs1 because we each lost a teammate), it seems like a little bit too much to be coincidence, but maybe I am just a natural sceptic

Anyone even know if you can queue up as a pair for the 2vs2 QMs?

Doesn't seem like you can do that. I recall playing with at least one of them on my team. My guess is that they join together (disabling every template but the 2v2) and count on getting on the same team.
As for the boots/surrenders, yeah, that happens quite often, so I doubt it's foul play or anything.