In Overwatch, the Hero Pool offered until now two different rotations of heroes, one for the Overwatch League and the other one in competitive play. This system allowed Blizzard to push regular meta changes.
However, it's coming to an end as Blizzard announced the arrival of a unique Hero Pool, alongside the disappearance of the Map Pool in Competitive Play.
Hero Pool
From next week, the Hero Pool will be identical in the Overwatch League , in the Contenders, in the Open Division, but also in Competitive Games.
Each week, 4 heroes including 2 DPS, 1 Tank, and a Support will be temporarily removed from the pool.
This change is made in particular to allow OWL players to train with the heroes available in scrims and also in Competitive Game, while the entire Overwatch community can have a common experience, either by watching the competitions or playing the game.
The first unified Pool hero will be announced on Sunday, April 12, just after the last game between San Francisco Shock and Los Angeles Gladiators, during the Watchpoint show.
This hero pool will be effective in Competitive Play from Monday, April 13.
The Hero Pool will be determined by a new algorithm, which will compile the game rates of the heroes in the high competitive level of the previous 2 weeks. A minimum rate will be required to be eligible for withdrawal, and the higher the rate of play, the more likely the hero will be removed. The randomness will, however, be kept. Just like before, a hero cannot be removed from the Hero Pool for 2 weeks in a row.
End of the Map Pool
Initially introduced to greatly reduce the number of games played in Paris and the Lunar Horizon Colony, the Map Pool helped addingto the different seasons of Competitive Play a unique flavor.
Following the community's comments, Blizzard decided to completely remove the rotation in order to allow a greater variety of maps in Competitive. Indeed, at the end of the season, the maps have already been played over and over again by seasoned players who wish to have a quicker change than once every two months.
From April 14, the Competitive mode will contain all the maps, with the exception of Paris and Lunar Horizon Colony.
In an interview with our IGN colleagues, Jeff Kaplan spoke about Echo — also known as Hero 32. He confirmed that she would be the last character to be released in Overwatch, until the release of its sequel.
