I have seen a ton of threads that have been ignored or responded to by the developers and the community in different ways. Most of these threads are typed out of anger or are short and un clear. My hope is that the following forum post is responded with great attention and hopefully leads to the change or full on removal of hero bans altogether. This thread will be edited with responses to questions, fixed error mistakes and also serve as listing good ideas brought up in the comments.
Hero bans
In most competitive games there are heroes bans. Certain heroes have undesirable traits that can make the game un fun and thus are almost always chosen to be removed from the match. Others choose to remove a hero due to the matchs being to similar to one another and over time this proves to become boring.
Why Hero Bans Dont Work In Overwatch
“Almost” every hero in this game is very different from the next. Their interactions with one another affect the game drastically and at every sr certain heros are chosen to counter or push odds against another hero. Strong examples of this could be a ana being chosen to counter a zen ult. Or a sombra to quickly shut down a doom-fist. This back and forth switching of heroes is what makes for some of the most decision hardened matches. While the argument can be made that a a solider can shut down a tracer with a pulse rocket and a good ole punch just as well as a genji can blade dash through her head. Few will argue that a McCree wouldn’t be preferred for dealing with the little time warper. All heros are capable but even at the highest levels of play the amount of time (even seconds) that is necessary for dealing with these threats can change the course of team fights.
It Is done To Prevent Repetition
“In repetition Strive for perfection”. Even with these changes matches have stilled played out the same way. The tank line up will always have 2 protectors mostly with shields the dps roles will always have a high and low damage target-er and the healers will always be the backbone saviors.
The matches dont change. Its the players decisions that do.
Final Remarks
2 2 2 Limited the options that people could do in terms of creativity or “meme” strats. But overall it increased the win rate of most matches and helped people fit into a role they are more comfortable with. But by removing heroes you are limiting the choices that people can make. Its no longer how can I stop this winston thats pushing back our tanks and team. its what can I do with my options. What can I do with my limited options. What Can I do with my limited options and my teammates limited options.
Interactions are changed. Some have no solution now. Each hero brought something else to the table. EACH HERO has powerful move-sets that can stop other heros but in turn can also be stopped by heros forever on.
If you want to make the matchs less boring for owl keep the bans. But for the rest of us it servers no purpose besides limiting what players can do and eventually driving them away from the game (which it has done).
Thank you for reading. I do hope this gains traction by others and blizzard does respond but if not I have said my piece (All be it not as well as I would have liked to.) I look forward to continuing the discussion in the comments with my fellow players and hearing their opinions and solutions as well.