And he got his very own Zen Skin for compensation - sounds fair. 
I’m sure many balance reworks are due OWL, because 90% did never affect me in my quick play career. OK, except that I ruled with old Brigitte like crazy… 
But some changes like Torbjörns recent nerf makes me really wonder, it can’t be because of OWL because nobody plays him there (ignoring Dafran of course). He also is not that dominant in normal plays but he still got his nerf. Just one example of many. Sym is another example. She basicly doesn’t even exist in OWL
Owl or ladder those are two different things
The old kit was much more effective in ladder but the new one has potential for owl if it were buffed in the right ways
Both for Symmetra, She’s never had a better kit.
Well that’s wrong in the sense of ladder she was much more effective in comp with 2.0 in all ranks
Maybe if she were buffed but currently no
Well, except maybe bastion and that iron clad fiasco.
Yes people said that but people were also saying that mercy was now the most overpowered thing in the game, and as it turned out she was. I haven’t seen a single person claim new brig is any form of op. either people are saying she is to weak or she isn’t as weak as everyone thinks.
I don’t think that any rework was made only because of OWL.
The only rework which would come close to that, is Mercy’s. Since in S4, where she became a bit more viable in high rank games, streamers/Pro players hard pushed the agenda that she is total BS and should be changed… And then the rework was pushed to live way earlier than it would have been good, probably because of OWL pressure (since it started around that time).
That’s the only incident in which you could say that Pro play really affected a heroes rework… But all the other reworks were done to make the heroes better and not to cater to the enjoyment of high level play.
In any way… The only good rework so far is Torbjörn’s. (And i still think that’s thanks to Josh… That new Dev which also made Sigma)
All the others are bascially just trash, since they either did nothing, splitted the entire OW community, made players leave and did the opposite of what they should have done (making the hero better).
There is a reason why they don’t want to make big reworks anymore… because almost non are really good.
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Patch notes tend to be designed to sound good.
When staff end up being asked questions you’ll occasionally see other reasons pop out.
For example, here’s the patch notes on Sombra.
If the patch had occurred closer to when the Sombra rework, it might not have caused much of a reaction but, it’s been around a year since her last significant changes. This raises the question of why exactly the changes are happening now. If you look at her winrate it’s pretty much the same at most ranks as it’s been for the past year or so with it being bad. What has changed recently?
Sombra became a significant force in Overwatch League.
If you look at Jeff’s recent comments with Seagull the OWL factor is confirmed.
It starts talking about Sombra around minute 48:30
This also is not the first time high level play has caused or prevented changes to Sombra.
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Lmao remember when dva and mercy mains said the reworks were a huge nerf?
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Tbh, everyone knew they’d become too strong after a rework, and the nerfs that followed after became a huge nerf
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I’m pretty sure I’m having way more fun playing against current Doomfist than the one before the nerfs.
The mercy rework took place before OWL so
It wasn’t before the planning for the League started as the League was first mentioned in 2016.
https://www.thestreet.com/story/13860794/1/activision-blizzard-atvi-ceo-kotick-talks-future-of-vr-esports.html
It’s possible they decided that Mass Resurrect Mercy wasn’t compatible with being a major E-Sport.
That would also help explain why they never backed off even when the changes did the opposite of what they wanted in some areas.
It’s also possible that the reworks were primarily for other reasons that may have happened to benefit OWL.
Why does EVERYONE forget about Lucio’s rework?
That one was excellent.
Mercy needed to change imo. Mass rez was not very healthy for this game, also torb’s rework made him less of a throw pick . Brig was one of the pieces of a broken meta and needed to be nerfed quite a bit to be honest.
It was absolutely miserable in QP. Shifting the circle constantly to try and keep people that are moving in various directions in the circle was such a pain I stopped playing him. It was effective but, it was not fun.
It also failed to end his must pick in pro play.
Well… If i think rework, i mostly think about changed abilities. So like with Mercy’s Res which went to her E, Torbs new Ult, Sym’s new beam and so on. Lucio was largely more a rebalancing of what he had. Nothing was really removed or added (only the visible aura, but I’m more talking raw gameplay).
That’s why i don’t see him as one of the reworked heroes, just as much as i don’t see Brigitte on the PTR as a rework.
You’re not looking very hard.
Mercy rework was way before the OWL.
Sym and Torb reworks were long overdue and were bound to happen anyways because those characters were garbage, now they’re actually playable.
Brig rework is because everyone but troglodyte Brig players hates that nasty goblin. Why would they wait until she ruined OWWC 2017 and 3 stages of the OWL 2019 regular season? Now nobody needs to deal with her cancerous kit and she will be playable in 222.
Lots of pro players hate Sombra, and for good reason.
Even teams that use her a lot like the Houston Outlaws have a some of the most vocal Sombra-haters in the entire community.
