Overwatch 2 finally has enough heroes for a major gameplay change

With the upcoming release of Overwatch 2’s 42nd hero, Hazard, the cast will have doubled since OW1’s launch. Now, it seems that public opinion has shifted on hero bans, and players desperately want the feature added.

The Overwatch Champions Series 2024 wrapped up at DreamHack Stockholm in November with Falcons emerging victorious, in large part due to their dominance with Mauga and other teams not being able to ban the powerful tank.

Earlier in the year, however, the world of Overwatch esports got a taste of what hero bans could look like at the Esports World Cup to great success. As such, many players have been eager to see such a policy implemented both in-game and at other events.

Overwatch 2 players call for hero bans

Coach-turned-caster Kim ‘NineK’ Bum-hoon expressed his interest in such a feature during the OWCS Finals by tweeting: “We need Ban system.”

This sparked numerous threads across social media with many others arguing in favor of hero bans, especially with the event lacking hero diversity. Even those who were previously on the fence about hero bans believe that the game has enough heroes now to implement such a feature.

“The game has currently 41 heroes (almost 42), with so many abilities, playstyles, combos, strategies, compositions and different ways to express skill. The infinite replayability of the game comes mainly from all the possibilities that such a wide cast allows,” one said.

“And yet, in the World Finals, once again we see just a tiny fraction of that in display, with only 5 heroes being played 90% of the time. I mean, would you be interested in playing OW if it only had 5 heroes? Wouldn’t it become incredibly stale pretty fast?”

“We need hero ban in pro play, PERIOD,” urged another.

“I was on the fence about a ban system…and my reasoning in the past was that we didn’t have enough heroes. I wanted to wait until we had 50+. BUT….I think we may need it sooner rather than later,” someone else agreed.

Others are using an official OWCS feedback survey to make their demand for hero bans known.

Devs tease ‘fundamental changes’ coming to Overwatch

However, while the demand for bans in pro play has grown stronger, some are still unsure if it would be the right call for ranked with some believing the system would make competitive less fun.

“Stopping people from playing the characters they like is just going to make people not want to play,” one argued. “And it will lengthen the already long ranked match experience by adding an extra X seconds at the start.”

The devs, on the other hand, may view things differently. Game Director Aaron Keller, has hinted at having a plan to “fundamentally change” Overwatch.

Additionally, when he spoke with Dexerto earlier this year, he listed a hero pick-ban system as an example of how the team could add more “strategic depth” to the game.

We’ll have to see what the future holds, but with the roster of heroes doubling in Season 14 once Hazard is officially out, it might finally be time for the devs to try out bans in some capacity.