Role Pool
Hey,
As an avid fan of the HotS franchise over the past few years I have noticed that there is a tendency for popular heroes to dominate the meta and they dictate the environment for which games are played and won.
Many older players, or vets, have come back to the game to enjoy its unique experience among games. We have amassed a large hero pool. Creating a league where our hero pool is restricted to a pool of heroes that the player selects each season would be an interesting experiment.
I thought about it like a reserve league, but it could very well be a premiere league play-style alternative.
Breakdown
Season duration runs alongside the Storm league season.
Each entrant chooses their 15 heroes to start. (incentive available)
Heroes are locked in the entire season unless certain objective/incentive outcomes are met)
Entrants would enter the game pool with their 15 heroes to start (three heroes to choose from that at the beginning of their season is selected from each staple role: Tank, Healer, Ranged, Melee, Bruiser)
For example: Fan enters the pool with
- Tank slot: Tyreal, Johanna, Muradin
- Healer: Tyrande, Stukov, Malfurion
- Ranged: Chromie, Sylvanis, Azmodan
- Melee: Gazlowe, Valeera, Quira
- Bruiser: Xul, Dehaka, Thrall
He is matched with a team and is randomly assigned a role (roles will always attempt to be filled before repeating a role)
He is assigned Melee and chooses Valeera.
His team chooses from their roles as does the enemy team.
a. your team’s hero pool is combined and replaces the main hero pool during draft. This should amount to the team choosing between 15 heroes to form their strategy for the game.
b. bans are increased to five for each team (one for each role), and come in three phases 2-2-1 and 1-2-2 depending on your side.
The bans are done and these heroes are removed
- Tanks: Johanna, Diablo
- Healers: Rehgar, Medic
- Ranged: Cassia, Medivh
- Melee: Alarak, Zeratul
- Bruiser: Zarya, Rexxar
Fan and team end up with Blaze, Imperius, Valeera, Brightwing and Kel’thuzad.
The enemy team ends up with Arthas, Leoric, Deckard, Tassadar, Kerrigan
The new mode would bring an expectation and appreciation for the heroes chosen in each players’ pool and be an interesting puzzle to put together for those who like to mix and match drafts. regardless you would be playing with heroes that your team should be very comfortable with, especially at higher ranks.
In the end, it would just be another challenge in the HotS world that can add player prestige and QoL to your routine grind or playing time. Not everyone is great with all the heroes, but if your deck of cards has a few rares in it, it’s a nice thought to see how the best cards work together and even more so against each other!
I thought of some incentives for this system that would integrate into the heroes engine:
- heroes played in a player’s pool during the season gain special rings like the mastery rings (outside of the Role Pool league?)
- placement in the season allows for swappable heroes after performance outcomes are met.
2a. Fan swaps out Gazlowe for Murky after obtaining silver. He later swaps Tyrande for Ana at Gold, etc, etc. - A grandmaster level player will permanently be given a 16th and 17th slot in consecutive seasons.
- A master level player will permanently be given a 16th slot in consecutive seasons.
3-4 b. Extra slots do no stack and are for cosmetic and QoL (you earned it!) - New players could immediately enter this mode and select a pool of heroes of their choosing.
In essence it looks like a brawl, just with the best of the best from your MMR pool.
I haven’t thought about map rotations, but most like to practice standard maps anyway.
Thoughts?
Averyn