With Mei once again avoiding a ban in the new Overwatch hero pool format, high-ranked players may be deliberately trying to get the ice queen removed from rotation with a genius strategy.
Ever since hero pools were changed to apply for high-ranked hero play rates, the bans have remained consistent for damage characters with McCree and Widowmaker constantly getting the ban hammer.
Unfortunately, Mei’s play rates at the highest levels of ranked play are not high enough for her to be ban-eligible, despite being a staple in organized Overwatch League matches where she dominates.
Now, players have decided they may go out of their way to play Mei in ranked in order to get her banned in ladder and ultimately the Overwatch League.
“McCree gets banned every other week because he gets banned one week and then he doesn’t get played and then he gets unbanned the next and everyone plays him,” streamer Connor ‘Avast’ Prince explained to his viewers during an OWL companion broadcast. “Mei is never going to get banned! Or Reaper! Mei and Reaper will never be banned because all the comp players will just play hitscan and Echo.”
He then begged high-ranked players to use Mei in ladder. “It’s in ranked players’ best interest to just play Mei,” he stated. “Not only because it’s good so you will win more games, but you can even get it banned.”
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“Ranked players, this is our cry for help,” he urged. “Please, this is us imploring you to play Mei so this stupid f**king dog s**t hero pool system can ban Mei.”
Meanwhile, on Reddit, users reached the same conclusion and formed a pact to play Mei as much as possible, though there seemed to be some sarcasm in the tone.
“This week, if you’re a high SR DPS player (2200 and above), lock Mei. If your buddy locks Mei, lock Torb. We need YOU to do your duty,” user rydarus wrote, perhaps joking my suggesting gold players were high SR.
Mei has already been nerfed several times during her reign of terror in OWL and the hero has a freeze nerf currently being tested in the Experimental Mode.
It will be interesting to see if the upcoming changes are enough to end her dominance in organized play, but until then players seem tired of seeing her avoid bans week after week.