FACTS & RUMORS - Discussion of Hero Bans (updated)

General Discussion
1

Hey everyone, I have been seeing a lot of discussion about the concept of hero bans coming to Overwatch. I myself am not too thrilled with the idea of hero bans, but I do want to share a few key facts and separate rumors:

WHAT HAS HAPPENED RECENTLY

Popular Twitch Streamer Emongg recently mentioned on stream that “I think that things will improve with Overwatch. I don’t know how I know this.” - raise eyebrows -:

Since this shared moment on stream, popular YouTube content creators including Stylosa and Freedo from Your Overwatch have gone wild with speculation that possibly hero bans might be what Emongg is referring to. While Emongg has been exposed to internal information before, he is NOT a representative of Blizzard Entertainment (just as I am not a representative of Blizzard either).

There has also been a tweet from a person known to provide “leaked” information (such as the BlizzCon Overwatch 2 leaks) however he does not necessarily confirm this is for sure a feature coming. It can be noted some information he has delivered in the past has not been true however.

THE PREVIOUS KNOWN DEVELOPER STANCE ABOUT HERO BANS

This was one of the few posts I saved from the old forums but I can say that Jeff Kaplan has mentioned that the team did not support the idea of Hero Bans at the time:

There have been other posts confirming this as well, but I do not have those archived.

Of course, nothing regarding Overwatch development philosophy is set in stone and things could change, but as we can see from the developer post in this thread, this is not the case for hero bans at this time.

UPDATE! NO HERO BAN SYSTEM IS COMING, BUT UPDATES ARE COMING SOON TO OVERWATCH

Game Director Jeff Kaplan did respond to this thread below in a very detailed about about Hero Bans. Here are the key takeaways:

Click here to see the full post below.

I hope you all find this information helpful in your discussions.

Notice: Since the developer response from Jeff Kaplan, parts of this starting post have been updated to reflect the information that has been provided today (January 22nd). Furthermore, because this thread is now in a state of active discussion due to the developer response, I may not be able to directly respond to any replies that reach out to me personally, thank you for your cooperation.

120 Likes
2

I hope we’re not getting bans.

49 Likes
3

And this thread should be pinned at the top of the forums until further information from a credible source is presented.

Thanks for the archived post. New it was previously mentioned.

5 Likes
4

They also didn’t support a lot of things at first but later added to the game. This post is SUPER old. We are in 2020 not 2016.

11 Likes
5

seconded or thirded or whatever :slight_smile:

and thanks, WM…the game is bad enough now with 222, hero bans would be even worse

2 Likes
6

You are right The post is super old. however just because something is old doesn’t mean it has made any less irrelevant and until something is said otherwise it is still the stance of the development team.

20 Likes
7

Wasn’t the development team against 2-2-2 lock too? and look where we are. Most of them were even against Hammond and even then he was added to the game.

3 Likes
8

That and deathmatch. But there have been many things that have remained the same. I am not here to deny the possibility that a hero bans is possibly coming. There’s just been a lot of posts here on the forum saying it’s been confirmed when it really has not.

23 Likes
9

And also invisible heroes. Then again they hate sombra to they’re partially right on that front

I can’t heal through stupid ~WildPants

2 Likes
10

I forgot about that. I think they mentioned the fact they would not want to have any invisible heroes before the game was released, is that correct?

6 Likes
11

Deathmatch was another one

12

Maybe. I honestly can’t say for certain as I cant find where he said it because I’m too lazy to look for it

I can’t heal through stupid ~WildPants

13

I rather put up with longer queue times than bans.

If they for whatever reason, decide to intro hero bans, please just put it in arcade and not comp.

Having something like a limited hero pool for a season as an arcade mode would be much preferable than having a ban system.

2 Likes
14

Thank you, a lot of these streamers like to stir the pot to get views for their podcast to make money. The people on the forum just like to make noise lol

2 Likes
15

Id rather not have Hero Bans with Role Lock being in play. If you want main heals or tanks, you are too limited already and it might even butcher your team synergies. But in OWL, it could be good to watch.

I worry about even if Hero Bans can make the metas flexible, the heroes banned will only enable other heroes making a circle and in the end the meta wont be changed what is the point.

4 Likes
16

Thank you. I am not too hot about hero ban for casual players.

4 Likes
17

well shoot, now i just want to see a whole masterpost of developer contradictions.

1 Like
18

They also said they would never remove hero limits.

They said that role queue was unlikely back then.

I feel like the developers forget their own statements sometimes.

19

The developers remember what they have said in the past, but things do change. Hero bans might be the next thing that is introduced despite having past responses showing them against it. Again, I am not at all thrilled about the idea, but that is purely my opinion.

7 Likes
20

I don’t think it’s hero bans… at least for now. The thing is, even more so than role queue, hero bans are extremely controversial. And I mean by that by it seems more people are against than than those that are for it. I don’t think Emongg would get this excited for hero bans. IIRC he said on a stream one time that he wouldn’t be too thrilled about hero bans.

And I don’t think they would force a change this big on the community that is this despised.

2 Likes