Seasoned Overwatch players know the rise and fall of the meta, the incremental shifts in the viability of characters that can redefine the landscape of competitive play. Now, a significant change is on the way. Because it was just announced, Overwatch 2 will feature a hero ban system in Competitive Play with Season 16 beginning on April 22nd. This change is sure to bring yet another level of strategy and unpredictability to the ranked play of the game.
The core of the new system is a vote system. At the start of each match, all players in both teams will be allowed to vote for at most three heroes they will not play. Votes are cast all at once, introducing an element of personal taste and planning. The system compiles the votes, and as many as four heroes can be excluded from the list of playable characters for a given match.
The banning process is not a simple majority vote. The most voted hero from each team will be banned. Then the two most voted heroes from the opposing team will be banned. Lastly, the second most voted hero of the original “first” team will also be banned. In case of preventing the banning of more than one role at a time, the system will permit banning only two heroes for the same role (Tank, Damage, Support) at a match. In case of a tie during voting, the hero voted by the majority of individual players will be banned, and in case of a tie, the banning will be random.
This new hero banning system is a total shift from the traditional Overwatch competitive environment. Players are used to learning how to cope with overpowered metas for years now, constantly having to push through the same powerful or strategically good heroes on a repetitive cycle. This new system can shatter these habits and compel players to develop out their collections of heroes and adjust their strategies on a game-by-game schedule. It promotes heightened understanding of hero interaction and composition, as players will now have to account not only for who they wish to play, but also who the opponent will possibly introduce to the battlefield and how to counter potential bans. Its long-term effect on competitive meta is yet to be seen, but the initial reaction is one of a community hungry for this added layer of strategy.
