I think Hero Pools are a good idea.
But it’s a solution to a problem that only exists in Masters/GrandMasters and maybe some portion of Diamond.
Plat and below don’t really “suffer from the meta”.
As such I’d suggest the following restriction:
Hero Pools should only apply to games where the cumulative SR of both teams is above 3250SR.
I think lower ranks would still enjoy Mei/Doomfist/Rein being out of their games for a week. Hero pools are good for everyone
Certain heroes are overpowering/annoying at all ranks though. Mei and Moira are two examples.
nah I think its fine everywhere
plat and below do suffer from the meta. just because you cant implement it well doesn’t mean people aren’t trying it, or barking at you to swap to meta heros.
yeah kinda agree, hero meta are only occuring on master and above rank
i dont think we 95% player base need to suffer for 5% people
It encourages people to learn new heroes, which will help them climb in the long run. So its good for low ranks
I don’t think ranks where people are struggling to learn just one hero, need hero pools.
Yes… Good idea. I am not at all biased because I play right below that. Not at all.
While lower ranks dont suffer with full metas, they still suffer with meta picks.
For instance Orisa + Sigma was a big issue in Masters for me, and not so much Plats, but Orisa was still way too strong for lower ranks.
Similar with Baptiste.
This change should help both Masters+ for eliminating meta comps, and ranks below by reducing the overtuned nature of some meta heroes.
Specific hero picks are still seen as good/bad across different ranks. You’d probably find Gm and bronze players both agree that Mei is annoying to play against. It’s for different reasons but still there.
For one week, then the hero goes back to being unblocked for at least the next 2-4 weeks.
No. I want to play an ENTIRE WEEK without having to worry about enemy team picking Mei to farm a free win.
I disagree, I think at all ranks there are heroes who are problematic
Mei is a problem at pretty much all ranks for people
But on weeks where, say, Reaper is locked out that doesn’t do anything to affect high ranks, he’s already not viable. But people in low ranks are affected, and that week could end up being a really positive experience
But it does mean that you can run other comps and win almost as easily.
And if GM is running entirely different metas, then the lower tiers won’t be able to follow what the upper tiers are doing as well.
Especially since there will barely be enough time for that to trickle down to the consciousness of lower tiers, before GM switches metas.
Nope. Bad idea. This would be bad for those players on the grind, climbing to improve only to find out that the game they were playing in the low elo is different from what the big guys are playing.
Pools is a cheap band-aid solution. It will give the impression of variety at first, but will only lead to lopsided pools and circumscribing “sub metas”. Role queue and role lock were much better conceived options, and even they proved to be fool’s gold.
Overwatch can’t really be fixed until the devs start addressing core issues.
It’s something.
This is why I’d have preferred a 1-2-1 hero ban system (1 tank, 2 dps, 1 healer) as it has the same effect for all the ladder and let’s you make sure one or two heroes dont run rampant for months at a time.
Meta isnt an issue just at high ranks though. Meta compositions are. There will always be one or two problem heroes who get too tight a grasp across the whole ladder. I know plenty of friends who play in Gold-Low Diamond who for instance cant stand seeing so much Orisa, Baptiste or Mei etc. I’m sure they will welcome the occasional break.
which is an issue why?
other comps being able to have their time in the spotlight is a great thing.
hero pools allows not only comps to have time to shine, but heros as well.
genji and sombra banned? bastion mains rejoice!
brig and baptiste gone? dive can be played for the first time since brigs release!
aren’t you the one who was perusing the forums crusading against hanzo because he was “oppressive and forced meta and diddnt allow other heros to be played” why are you against this change then? this allows diversity everywhere
unless ofcourse that sentiment was a lie and you just used it to push your hanzo bias 
I don’t like hero pools at all and hope it never actually goes live, especially when they’re balancing more aggressively. But since it most likely will, at the very least there will be weeks where I don’t see D.Va and Bastion every other game.
Well, I’ll admit, you do have some good points.
At this point in time, I’m willing to see it happen, and judge it after the community has some good playtime with it.
But I do like having solutions to problems prepped ahead of time.