Overwatch 2 devs finally testing “polarizing” hero ban system after years of pushback

Overwatch 2 devs are finally testing out a new “polarizing” hero ban system despite major pushback from the community in recent years. 

The idea of hero bans has long been a point of discussion surrounding Overwatch. As the game’s hero pool expands season after season, it all but means there needs to be a way to simplify the roster. 

In 2020, the now-defunct Overwatch League experimented with hero bans much to the dismay of viewers, and was eventually removed the feature when it transitioned to Overwatch 2 in 2022. 

However, it seems conversations around hero bans are bubbling up once again, as the devs are teasing a new implementation in the future. 

Answering questions in a Reddit AMA on the Overwatch subreddit, Lead Hero Designer Alec Dawson took some time to explain where the dev team was at with hero bans after teasing it in a recent interview. 

“Want to clarify here that the first time we do this it will be for a limited time as an experiment,” Dawson explained, saying hero bans won’t be thrown at players immediately. 

“With that said, we’re still discussing how exactly it will work in the match flow and where we put this experiment. Should everyone get a ban against one hero in their role? Should this experiment actually run in competitive for a weekend or should it get its own queue?” 

Dawson added all those questions about the hero bans have been worked on by the team, and if hero bans come into Overwatch in the future, it will have to go through experimentation in the community first before being rolled out in full. 

“I think any sort of ban system in Overwatch has the chance to be fairly polarizing, especially when your main gets banned,” Dawson said of the upcoming feature. 

“The point of the experiment will be to gather some initial feedback and make sure that if we ever move forward with permanently adding bans, we’ve covered all our bases.”