Blizzard takes first crack at banning heroes from Overwatch competitive play

By Aaron Mamiit March 7, 2020

Blizzard revealed the first batch of heroes who will be temporarily removed from the Overwatch roster during competitive play.

Recommended Videos

Overwatch directors introduced the idea of hero pools earlier this year, with the aim of forcing competitive players out of their comfort zones to “keep the meta fluid.” In addition to the game’s competitive mode, hero pools will also be added to the Overwatch League.

Overwatch hero pools will make one tank, one support, and two damage heroes unavailable for matches every week. With the launch of competitive mode’s season 21, the first of heroes who will be removed from the roster are Orisa, Baptiste, Hanzo, and Mei. Meanwhile, for week 5 of the Overwatch League, the temporarily banned heroes are Reinhardt, Moira, McCree, and Widowmaker.

A constantly shifting meta

Overwatch’s principal game designer Scott Mercer said that creating changes in the Overwatch meta remained difficult even after the decision to switch to the 2-2-2 team composition and to be more aggressive with hero balancing. “Hero Pools are part of a solution to address players’ desire to have a constantly shifting meta,” he explained.

Mercer, however, said that heroes will not be out of the rotation for more than two weeks in a row. In addition, whenever significant balance changes are applied to heroes, they will be available to allow players to experience the nerfs or buffs.

Mercer also explained that the Overwatch development team went with the hero pools system, instead of allowing players to ban heroes before the start of each match, as they did not want the pre-match phase to devolve into arguments on which characters they should or should not pick.

The idea of hero pools initially drew controversy, including among Overwatch League teams who will be stressed with the extra preparations that they will need to make each week. However, some players applauded the initiative, as it will reward teams who are more flexible with their game plans.

Meanwhile, in season 21 of Overwatch’s competitive mode, hero pools may force one-trick players to sit out weeks when their mastered hero is unavailable. The limitations, however, may also make players learn different heroes, which will expand their horizons and make them more valuable for their teams.

Topics

Contributor

Aaron received an NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was four years old, and he has been fascinated…

Gaming

Despite its rocky start, I’m still optimistic about Overwatch 2’s future

Lucio and other heroes attack enemies in Overwatch 2 story missions.

Overwatch 2’s launch year didn’t exactly go as planned.

In the lead-up to its October 2022 launch, the excitement for the hero shooter sequel was sky-high, largely thanks to a planned Hero mode. As its release date approached, several choices during development would erode that hype. That would include the departure of Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan, a controversial swap to five-player teams, and plans for a revamped battle pass and microtransaction system. Even more complaints arose when new characters were initially locked behind a battle pass and Blizzard ditched its planned PvE campaign -- which was arguably the biggest justification for creating the sequel in the first place..

Gaming

Why Overwatch 2’s show-stealing new hero took an extra four years to debut

Mauga poses in Overwatch 2.

With the switch to 5v5, Tanks became a make-or-break part of any Overwatch 2 team. While Support and Damage players can rely on another player of their class to pick up their slack when they struggle, tanks no longer have that privilege. As a more casual Overwatch 2 player who’s not competitively viable, this has discouraged me from playing as a tank. While I do like the abilities of characters like Junker Queen, I’m hesitant to play as them because I’m worried about being the player that causes my team to lose. Mauga, the latest Overwatch 2 hero, looks to change that, but it took years of ideas and concept reboots on Blizzard’s end.

Unveiled at BlizzCon 2023, Mauga is an aggressive Samoan tank allied with Talon that can tear through enemies with his two chainguns and dash that makes him invincible. That makes him enjoyable for those who like more offensive Heroes, but Support fans will find some stuff to love with abilities that can heal other players or give them infinite ammo. I had the chance to play Mauga at BlizzCon 2023, and for the first time since Overwatch 2 was released, I’m eager to go back and play as a Tank.

Gaming

Overwatch 2’s story missions are the light at the end of a very long, dark tunnel

A giant turret in set up in Gothenburg in Overwatch 2's story missions.

Overwatch 2: Invasion finally brings three PvE story missions to the competitive shooter, but it was an arduous process to get here.

When Blizzard Entertainment first announced Overwatch 2 in 2019, the game’s main hook was new cooperative story missions that would finally give players the Overwatch narrative content they yearned for alongside more replayable Hero Missions and a Talent skill tree system. When Overwatch 2 eventually launched into early access in October 2022 after several leadership changes, it was free-to-play and lacked any narrative content. To make matters worse, a May 2022 announcement from Blizzard that it canceled work on the Hero Missions system put the future of PvE story content into question for many Overwatch players.