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Hero bans is not good in it’s current state, not only do most people find them inconvenient rather than meta-changing, but even if a particular hero isnt banned they are still strongly directly affected by who is; this effectively bans more the 4 heroes. Like support synergy or direct counters. Ex- even though rein isn’t banned you can’t as viably play him wthout lucio
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Also another reason hero bans are bad is cuz the week’s pickrate stat that is used is automatically skewed towards heroes that were banned last week. Ex- widow and cree are banned, people may play them simply because they couldnt for a week, increasing their likelihood to be banned next week like a cycle.
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Another reason pickrates are bad is cuz like i said some bans indirectly affecting another hero. Ex- tracer is banned this week so genji can viably be played and is picked a lot, but is banned next week even though he isn’t that strong. Ex- hitscans are banned so pharah is highly picked and banned next week even though she is weak.
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If a one-trick or someone who likes to play mostly 1 hero has their hero banned, then they most likely won’t play for the week or play very little. This would remove them from everyone’s avoid lists and force them to possibly play a game with someone they dislike to. Also, if the one-trick decides to play, then they create unbalanced games for those who otherwise wouldnt avoid them.
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Heroes that are the most enjoyable tend to have a higher pickrate, even if slightly higher than non-meta heroes when non meta. This causes the more enjoyable heroes to be banned disproportionately high independent of each hero’s balance/strength.
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Another reason against the current hero bans is that it doesn’t really keep meta fresh, it just alternates between 2-3 metas, with slight deviations. Because of the way pickrate influences hero bans, “real” meta heroes (atm: rein, ana, cree) will be highly picked again as soon as they come off ban, and they will all be banned together, making double shield the meta again. If one of the “real” meta heroes happen to not be banned it will still be all the others and replacing one, say cree with ashe or ana with moira.
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Hero bans can cause highly played, meta heroes to be even more played next week. If high picked, meta heroes are not banned and a barely viable 2nd option is banned (ex- orisa banned instead of rein, Moira banned instead of ana), then the only remotely viable option would be a single hero. This causes even more of the same heroes and comps being played, which causes the exact opposite effect of what was intended with hero pools.
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It also doesnt keep the meta fresh because, like this week, low pickrate heroes can be banned because the threshold is very low. Meaning heroes picked in 90% of all games (right now ana and soon rein) aren’t banned sometimes. This by definition keeps the game stale, because there is yet another week with a hero that is picked in every. single. game. zzzzzz
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Also, Hero bans makes heroes harder to balance. Without a heroes counters or enablers on the roster is can be difficult to determine if a hero is a little too strong or weak. Without the entire roster playable, it is impossible to determine who needs balance changes (ex- echo: is she too strong or just has never played with widow/cree or with no mercy?)
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A last reason hero bans aren’t good how they are is because there havent been any substantial changes to any heroes in the patch notes based on pickrate/hero ban rate. Also, even if they were, pickrates are skewed and may result in an inappropriate nerf or buff.
[It may sound like im saying it’s bad to ban highly picked heroes because it causes 2 alternating metas, but at the same time saying it’s bad to not ban highly picked heroes because it causes 1 stale general meta. Actually, I’m saying it’s bad to not ban highly picked heroes because it is even worse to have 1 meta than 2, and there could even be more than 2 in a season if they balanced around who is picked every game, which they aren’t, as said above.]
Solution: change hero bans in some way such as every game or every day, or remove it altogether