Many players have been waiting for some time for Overwatch developer Blizzard to implement a hero ban system in the game. In Rainbow Six: Siege, Dota 2 and League of Legends (LoL) titles, for example, users are already allowed to vote on the characters of the opposing team that they deem it fair to temporarily remove them during the match. Although this already occurs in the aforementioned games, strangely, the developer of Overwatch is not using the functionality for some reason.
Blizzard Creates "Hero Pools" for Overwatch
But, to the delight of Overwatch players, Blizzard has announced that it will be testing a system called "Hero Pools" in the game. The functionality consists of carrying out a poll per week, where some characters will be removed from the game choice for 7 days. The forecast is that it will be implemented in the next competitive season, which will last two months from the beginning of March.
Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan discusses upcoming
additions to the game, including the Experimental Card,
Hero Pools, and more.
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Blizzard believes that with Hero Pools, players can use a wider variety of characters. It is important to note that it will still be possible to access the complete list of fighters in Quick Play and Arcade modes. Details on how the new system will work in the Overwatch League are yet to be provided.
While the new weekly hero selection system is interesting, there's a chance it won't stick beyond Season 21. Everything will depend on the acceptance and behavior of players when using Hero Pools. Game director Jeff Kaplan says on the Blizzard forum:
"You don't choose what the enemy team does. The challenge is to overcome the enemy team with teamwork, ingenuity and skill. I let the other team dictate how or what I play."
That is, the purpose of Hero Pools is not to give advantages to the teams in the game, but to level the playing field so that both teams have the same pick list.
According to Jeff, this ban on heroes in Overwatch will take considerable time from the game's developers, although much of the team's effort will be in Overwatch 2. Because of the additional configuration change before a match starts, the practice of vetoing of heroes may increase the cooldown, however Blizzard intends to reduce the cooldown and not make it longer.
Blizzard even promises that there will be more balance changes more often and that they will be "impactful" so the game stays fresh. In addition, the studio is also implementing a way for all players to experience major changes before their arrival in the main game (not too different from public beta testing). Called Try Card, it will be released soon and will have the player trying to balance the updates, game modes and rules that the developer is considering implementing in the main modes.
There are also plans to have more anti-cheat systems in the game in the next patches. There will also be an improvement in replays (it will be possible to save and share in the game) and in the look for the career profile.
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Source: Engadget
