With the league counterpart of the game facing pressure from the media and its talents, the Overwatch dev team is keeping its focus and trying not to get distracted. Headed by Jeff Kaplan, the FPS game’s Game Director, news that changes will be making waves in the next few planned patches.
Well known to the community as a leaker, Metro recently suggested a new gameplay alteration to Overwatch. “Big update for OW is rumored in a few weeks,” he tweets. “It is very likely that hero bans will be added to the game as the dev team has been working on them for a while!” Hero banning is one massive change to the multiplayer game. It will change how every match starts, but, moreover, it will shift how the fanbase sees the meta.
It is, of course, not new to eSports or a video game. League of Legends, Dota 2, and even Blizzard’s own Heroes of the Storm all have a hero ban mechanics catered to the title’s needs. Metro warns his followers to take the leak with a grain of salt, as it is from a different source than his BlizzCon’s. Before the annual convention, the anonymous revealer also tweeted details regarding Overwatch 2.
Following his tweet, he weighed in on the subject, saying that it would be great for the game. He emphasizes that the current player base is abusing how several heroes are over tuned and are one tricking. He further explains that it will force players to learn new heroes and mechanics to improve their MMR. Metro clarifies then that hero banning will not balance the game, but at least, players have a tool to combat broken heroes.
On the same day, another famous Overwatch streamer, Emongg, teases his viewers that “things will improve” for the said game. Trying to avoid to let out too much information, the former pro player explains he doesn’t know how he knows this, but changes will come in more or less than a couple of weeks. With his history, Emogg’s knowledge is not far fetched as he has worked on promotional streams along with Kaplan before.
The Overwatch League pro players and authorities are asking for the same game mechanic, as well. Chris “HuK” Loranger, President of Gaming for the Boston Uprising, also took to his Twitter account how he thinks the hero ban should work. “One team chooses to ban one hero every map (for both teams). Max 5 heroes for a longer series in OWL.” The 30-year old Canadian also highlights how the Home team would have first ban advantage.
