Overwatch Has Started Banning Heroes In Competitive Mode

The competitive mode of Overwatch will be quite different now. Back in January, Blizzard announced their plans to ban Heroes in the ranked playlist. This week's bans are finally here. Baptiste, Hanzo, Mei, and Orisa are going to be missing from the Hero Pool for now. All the banned heroes won't be from one group, as devs confirmed that one support, one tank, and two damage heroes will be banned each week. This will make the game less stagnant as players can't rely on using the same heroes for every game.

“Every week when players log in to Overwatch, it’ll be a slightly different game,” Overwatch Principle Game Designer Scott Mercer said in a blog post. “There’ll be more variety. What we’re trying to address is the feeling that the game isn’t changing rapidly enough. This is one part of—along with more aggressive balance changes—helping make Overwatch an ever-evolving game.”

Mercer continued, adding that this should make Overwatch even more fun to play. “A lot of players find an ever-evolving game more exciting. They don’t want to play the same heroes and compositions every time. When they feel like the meta gets more static, it’s not as fun for them. We’re trying to do this to make our game more enjoyable to both play and watch.” he said.

While this change is not the best news for players that prefer Baptiste and Mei, it will definitely force them to try out other heroes and get them out of their comfort zones. Do keep it in mind that these bans are only there for competitive play. You can still play the banned heroes in Quick Play and Arcade mode.

Hero Bans in Overwatch League will be different, though. Blizzard will look at previous data and see which characters are chosen frequently, then a random one of these heroes will be taken and banned for a week. “For example, from all of the tanks that are played more than 10 percent of the time during weeks three and four, one will be randomly chosen and taken out of the rotation for week five," Mercer said. The same will happen with two damage heroes and one support hero.

So what do you think? Are you interested in these hero bans? Do you think that they will make the game more interesting? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.