Listening to the recent Spilo dev interview made me think about different reasons why people ban specific heroes. The dev said that bans tend to be rather emotional for the overall community, and directed at characters who players feel are annoying to go up against. But the higher you climb in rank, and in e-sports as well, it seems like that pattern changes. The bans become more a way of applying strategies and deciding on what team comp you want to use and get the most benefit from.
For me personally, I tend to ban heroes that I feel are hard for the average player in my ranks to deal with. They tend to be dive or flank characters like Wrecking Ball or Anran. Occassionally I’ll also ban heroes like Bastion, because for some reason some people still think it’s a good idea to approach him in turret form.
I also have a personal grudge with Widowmaker. Or any sniper character for that matter. I simply do not like to go up against long range characters who dominate a lot of space without actually entering it.
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I ban for much the same reasons, right down to always sticking Widow as my first ban on any of her maps. Sometimes I’ll ban stuff that would make the tank’s life harder if he’s bothered to prefer a character. If it’s a map like Nepal where I don’t really care what we run into, then I might mirror the characters that are going to get banned anyway in the hope of building quick ‘n’ easy solidarity with teammates.
Cause I have no trust in my team knowing how to counter them. I know because then I see in QP how people have zero idea what to do against a Sombra or Symm, cause they’re always banned in comp.
In what universe are people always banning Sym?
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Normally annoyance/game breaking stuff. Like Cats turning the game into a meme for example, or pocketed vendettas just pressing W etc.
In an universe full of dummies. Sometimes you get 2-3 of those in a match … but when the number goes to 4-6 , you see weeeeird bans happening.
I vaguely remember the devs mentioning that Sym was a regular ban in metal console? That was from ages ago, though, so it might no longer be true.
I see the occasional Sym ban, and every time it’s always a Genji one-trick, but it’s definitely not some constant ban wave crashing down on her.
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Yeah, that’s my own experience on PC in the metal ranks. Every once in a hundred games or so, a salty Genji will manage to get Sym or Moira banned because everybody else voted for the same characters or something.
I always ban the same heroes, no matter the map or hero I want to play.
I ban them because they’re annoying and/or should not be in the game, and I will always ban like this, no matter the Rank I am.
Used to ban Mercy and never another hero, no exception. Now only whatever the tank bans, no exceptions lol
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I ban none of the heroes because I know it would make me a weaker player in the long run!
But if I play a hero that gets regularly banned like Cat then I may have no choice but to ban other supports to protect my hero from potentially getting banned!
Meow!
sierra, hog, zarya because Annoying gameplay.
zarya bubbles are just hated.
Sometimes I bann lw and mercy to protect cat. and force gameplay.
For me it depends on the map. I ban heroes that can be surpressing or annoying on certain maps. Also I usually always ban my tanks main counter to hopefully help them out. And sometimes I just let my teammates take the reigns and choose 
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I don’t have issues with any hero, so I just ban what my tank bans.
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Mercy/Dva/Soldier. Every time. I ban who are least likely to win if my team picks them. The picks I see the most often not contributing. It also amuses me to no end hearing the Mercy mains crying about it, but every time we’re getting stomped and someone’s on Mercy, they’ll never swap and just stand there with their piddly beam trying to rez and failing every time the tank over extends and dying with them.
Sorry, mini-tangent
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As long as Sombra exists, strategic bans are silly. Never trust your teammates for anything.
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