Hero Pool is coming to Overwatch. To allow a greater diversity of composition, the third season of the Overwatch League has also adopted this system which will start next Saturday, for the fifth week and Washington Justice's Homestand (March 7-8).
To be banned, several conditions must be taken into account.
- The hero must have an in-game attendance rate of at least 10% over the previous two weeks.
- A hero can't be banned for two weeks in a row.
Once the list is ready, the heroes will be chosen randomly from this list. Each week, one Tank, one Support and two DPS will be selected. The Hero Pool will be announced on Sunday, during Watchpoint, before the start of the matches.
For next week, here are the heroes that could have been banned:
Tanks
Three tanks could have been banned:
- D.Va with its absolutely insane 94.4% hero use
- Reinhardt right behind with 87.2% hero use
- Winston just over 10% hero use
Reinhardt was randomly chosen. With this ban alone, we can already imagine a more dive-oriented composition, with a Winston or a Hammond.
Supports
As for the tanks, three supports could have been selected:
- Lucio with 88.7% hero use
- Ana right behind with 85.4%
- Moira at last with only 10.8% hero use
For this second ban, chance chose Moira, removing her from the possible choices for the next week.
DPS
A little more choice on the DPS side with 4 heroes on the list:
- Mei was first with 84.3% hero use
- McCree follows with 59.5% hero use
- Doomfist with 10.4% hero use
- Widowmaker also with 10.4% hero use
Out of these four possibilities, McCree and Fatale were drawn.
With two ultra dominant picks and two more occasional ones, so the first Hero Pool will be composed of McCree, Widowmaker, Reinhardt, and Moira. A dive composition seems to be a possibility as the absence of a shield won't impact Widowmaker and McCree. The absence of a Mei ban remains rather embarrassing for the composition, which could be countered by Sombra or Hanzo. A more defensive composition based on Orisa could also be imagined.
WARNING: This ban only applies to the Overwatch League, and unless there is a huge coincidence, it won't be the same on the live servers at the beginning of Season 21.
To see the impact of these changes, you can watch Week 5 matches on March 7 at 12:00 pm (PT) with Toronto Defiant vs Florida Mayhem followed by Paris Eternal vs Houston Outlaws.
Experimental Mode is now available in Overwatch as well as Ashe's Mardi Gras Challenge. Some heroes have been modified to match the new composition currently being tested: the Triple Damage.
