Hi everyone, Gavin here. You might remember when I introduced Hero Bans for all Ranks in Competitive game modes during the Overwatch 2 Spotlight and it’s finally time to dive deeper into this big update, which debuts in Season 16. The system is designed to give players strategic agency without punching down at weaker niche picks. I’ll explain in more detail how we approached this design and how Hero Bans work in-game.
One of our main goals for Hero Bans for Overwatch 2 is to encourage banning Heroes that you see as too strong or annoying without encouraging you to ban Heroes solely because enemy players enjoy playing them. As such, you will not be able to see the enemy team during the Ban Phase. Match text chat, which communicates to the whole lobby, is also disabled in the Ban Phase of a Competitive Play match.
Before you vote for your Hero Bans, you will select your “Preferred Hero.” Selecting a Preferred Hero does not protect it from being banned in any way—it just lets your team know you'd like to play this Hero. Your Preferred Hero isn't locked in; you can still change it during the Ban Phase and you aren't required to play this Hero during the match. Team text or voice chat can be used for communicating, and your team will be able to see your Preferred Hero during the Ban Phase.
In an effort to make each match feel unique we’re going with 4 total bans (2 per each team). We also want the Hero Ban Phase to play out quickly, we’re using a ranked choice system that helps achieve speed. Unlike ban systems you may have seen in other games, teams do not take turns voting to ban. Instead, you'll choose which Heroes to ban simultaneously, with each player selecting three Choices. The first Choice carries the most weight while the second and third Choices carry proportionally less.
Behind the scenes, each of your three Choices are worth a different number of votes. The first Choice is worth seven votes, the second is worth five, and the third is worth three. While the results are revealed simultaneously after all the votes are cast, the system instantaneously goes through several steps applying the teams’ Choices to determine which Heroes are banned. We think it’s important to explain how these steps work behind the scenes so that you have a better understanding of why each Hero was removed from a match.
- The team with the most votes for one Hero will be considered the “first” team, and their most voted Hero will be guaranteed to be banned. If both teams are tied for the most votes for a single Hero, the first team is decided randomly.
- The other team becomes the “second” team, and both of their bans happen next. If the Heroes they voted to ban were not the first team's most voted Hero, then their most and second most voted Heroes will be banned.
- If the second team's most or second most voted Hero was also the first team's most voted Hero, then the second team's third most voted Hero is used instead.
- Finally, the second most voted Hero on the first team will be banned, with the same caveat the second team had when banning their Heroes.
- In cases where the number of votes for a Hero are tied, the Hero that was voted by the most players in the lobby (not the total number of votes) for is banned.
- If Heroes are still tied, ties are broken randomly.
- No more than two Heroes in each role can be banned. If two Heroes in the same role have already been banned and a team's next most voted Hero is in the same role, those votes are ignored and this team's next most voted Hero in a different role is banned instead.
You can choose to pass at any time during the Ban Phase by pressing the Ready button. Pressing Ready without making any Choices will leave the voting up to your allies, which is fine to do if you're not worried about being countered by any specific Hero. The only scenario in which no Heroes are banned is when all players opt out of choosing any Heroes to ban. Based on our internal testing, we've found it's very rare to play matches where fewer than four Heroes are banned.
Finally, we've built tools to help us gather information from Hero Bans, such as how often Heroes are banned in each rank, region, platform, and map. This information will help our designers to gain a more objective understanding of which Heroes the community believes are strong or frustrating to play against. We're also looking forward to hearing your feedback on the system itself this season. I’ll be back in a future Director’s Take to breakdown what we are seeing.
The new Competitive Season with Hero Bans premieres when Season 16 launches on April 22. Until then, be sure to check next week for another opportunity to earn new Signatures and bonus Competitive Points for our Season 15 Drives starting on Thursday, April 17. May your wins always be Uphill Battles, and your losses Consolations.