In the top 2% of players sure.
But the bottom 95% would scream bloody murder if somebody picked Hammond.
Especially since Hammond would need to have his defences cut dramatically, to account for the lack of CC.
Much less giving him a CC reduction passive.
No, what’s more likely is since Overwatch was never a conventional shooter but suddenly is trying to be one that people in any rank below Masters will cry and throw whenever someone doesn’t go rectangle man. Every death and loss will be blamed on the tank of choice.
Which is exactly why he shouldn’t be in the game at launch. Force the support and DPS mains to play around different tanks and not have the choice to screech for their tank to play Reinhardt.
(This probably also means my own main, Orisa, would have to be delayed too).
Nor would it necessarily be indicative of Ball in a 5v5 in OW2, since he could face significant changes for the OW2 format.
I initially was of the same opinion, but the more I think about it the less sense it makes. If the new levels are emphasizing more natural cover, then people are going to play more spread out, which is exactly what ball doesn’t want. He’s going to struggle to get adaptive shields, and the scattering of cover is going to hurt his maneuverability. Will that make up for him being less vulnerable to CC (between the passive and less general CC in the game)? I don’t think so.
Him and orisa are the best solo tanks in the game. He will be in a good spot
Well that’s their problem then.
Tbh, that’s a horrible way to run a business.
Better off letting a handful of ball players quit.
Ball has the potential to be as fast as DPS, and is also knockback resistance (one assumes), so go crazy and take duels. Not seeing an issue.
This is that I’m wondering. I think they mentioned something about how Ball’s CC is integral to his kit but I forget the details.
I’d like him to be mostly the same as he is currently, but I also don’t want people yelling at me to go shield tank instead when I pick him. 
Give Hammond the ability to run around after he de-mechs and bite people’s faces. That’s all I need really.
With dps having increased walk speed passive I think Genji and Tracer will have a literal ball with Hammond.
Mei no longer freezing be a stealth buff too.
So I don’t know if they are going to have to slow his roll or keep him the same to let him be free since he wouldn’t have man tank protection.
Less cc makes things look more into his favor.
Have to see what his full kit and CD length will be.
Hope they rework the absolute design mistake that is Hammond from the ground up like they’re doing with Bastion in OW2.
Ball will be fine.
Just switch Adaptive Shields to project a sphere of bubble (like Winstons) around him instead of ‘on’ him like Live. And he’ll have a bit of a tanky LoS shield.
As long as his primary fire is scary enough (which is isn’t, currently), I think he’ll be okay as a main tank.
The context has to be OW2, ofc, so we’ll never know until everything has fallen into place.
He’s probably metal in OW2
Ball is surprisingly a very good solo tank. Before role queue there was a brief meta called 411 with 4 dps, a ball and a mercy. I fully expect him to be the META or to be the worst depending on how the rest of dive tanks shake out after buffs.
Maybe Ball will give adaptative shields to allies that are near him as well as himself.
There’s no way Rein is going anywhere, they’ll just rework his abilities to give him more mobility and allow him to be more aggressive. We’ve already seen glimpses of this with things like giving him 2 charges, and more ability to turn when charging.
As somebody who started maining Zarya after they broke Sym, this isn’t even remotely fair.
the answer to these questions is: off tanks will play more like main tanks and main tanks will play more like off tanks
So ball will probably give shields to his team somehow, probably adaptative shields will spread to his team or something but he’ll still be focused on distraction and offense