It's Hero Pool time in Overwatch! For a greater diversity of composition, Overwatch League Season 3 has also adopted this system — which started during the fifth week — with Washington Justice 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.
Starting this week, the Hero Pool evolves and the number of possible tickets per hero now depends on the percentage of use.
- 10-25% = 1 Ticket
- 25-50% = 2 Tickets
- 50-75% = 3 Tickets
- 75%+ = 4 Tickets
Also this quarantine period means special rules. Indeed, it's Zoe's cat, Nori, who took care of the randomness and who drew the four banned heroes!
For next week, here are the heroes that could have been banned:
Tanks
Six tanks could be banned, in a meta which was very varied these last weeks! Only Winston, who was banned the week before, could not be chosen, with the exception of Chopper, which is still being shunned by the teams.
- Orisa (49.8%)
- D.Va (43.9%)
- Sigma (37.8%)
- Reinhardt (87.2%)
- Zarya (15.4%)
- Wreckingball (14.4%)
Wreckingball was chosen by Zoe's cat.
Supports
Lucio was banned the week before, so he'll be playable this week.
- Brigitte (65.3%)
- Zenyatta (56.5%)
- Ana (40.5%)
- Baptiste (24.7%)
For this second ban, the cat chose Brigitte, removing her from the possible choices for the next week.
DPS
Only five DPS heroes were on the list this week.
- Tracer (49.8%)
- Mei (37.1%)
- Hanzo (30.1%)
- McCree (59.5%)
- Doomfist (10.4%)
Out of these four possibilities, McCree and Mei were drawn. Mei receives her first ban of the season.
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, see you on Saturday April 4 for the rest of the competition.
Due to the numerous issues brought by the coronavirus outbreak, Overwatch Legaue matches had to be scheduled online. Jon Spector answered many questions about that in a recent Q&A.
