Everybody probably remembers Jeff Kaplans statement on Mass Rez: “It felt disheartening”. AKA “unfun to play against”.
When I first heard this statement, I thought it was ridiculous. What is fun to play against in this game? Nothing.
But after the addition of Doomfist and Brigitte, I truly understood what “unfun to play against” meant. There are just some things that are more unfun to play against.
Throwing balance aside, I despise Brigitte with a passion. Her main damage source is based around a CC and OHKO combo. The same goes for Doomfist.
Would you rather be killed by Brigittes one shot combo, or a McCree double dinking you? I’d pick the latter.
In my opinion, CC and OHKO abilities are the epitome of unfun in a video game, which is why Doomfist and Brigitte are my most hated heroes.
Video games are competitive but are also meant to be a source of enjoyment. The main reason why I’m starting to enjoy competitive less and less is because of the constant additions of one shots and CC mechanics.
If Overwatch continues down this trend of adding heroes with OHKO or CC mechanics, no matter how balanced the abilities are, the game will die because, and I think I can speak for all of the player base here, nobody likes rounding a corner and getting one shotted or stunned. In the words of Nateson: “If I wanted to get killed every time I rounded a corner, I’d play Dark Souls”.
So yes, reworking a core part of a heroes kit because it felt unfun to play against IS a valid reason.
BUT
Here is where the controversy comes in: If you remove/rework something that half the playerbase thinks it’s the worst thing to happen to the game and the other half of the playerbase loves, that’s where you run into trouble.
I’m pretty sure if the dev team were to remove or rework Brigitte/Doomfist, one half of the community would cry with joy, while the other half would be outraged. You can’t have that happening. The large majority of the playerbase needs to agree on what they find “unfun to play against” for the dev team to rework it. The same can go for Tracer or Genji, and just about any hero in the game really.
TLDR: Removing/reworking heroes because they are unfun to play against is a valid reason, but what’s controversial is what is and isn’t considered unfun by the community.