A new week means a new Hero Pool in Overwatch. After several tests in Competitive Mode, the model already present in the third season of the Overwatch League — since Washington Justice Homestand (March 7-8) — has been selected for a collective Hero Pool since April 13.
With Hero Pool, Blizzard offers a new method to keep novelty in-game. Metas won't last for long for a greater diversity in compositions and strategies. In addition to more regular updates and patch notes, this feature seems to be the solution chosen to address one of the biggest issues of Overwatch: a highly static meta.
For this week, Hero Pool will only affect the Overwatch League. As the recent changes to the system couldn't be implemented yet, it has been disabled in the Competitive Play.
Also, this week it's not the algorithm that will decide of the banns, but it's the return of the Hero Pool Draw, which will be done by the international casters.
To be banned, several conditions must be taken into account.
- The hero must have an in-game attendance rate of at least 10% over the previous two weeks.
- A hero can't be banned for two weeks in a row.
Once the list is ready, the heroes will be chosen randomly from this list. Each week, four heroes will be removed from the Hero Pool: 2 DPS, 1 Tank and 1 Support.
Last Week Hero Pool
This week Hero Pool will affect both the Competitive Mode and the Overwatch League differently. While last week's four heroes are back again, McCree, Widowmaker, Wreckingball and Mercy won't be available this week.
Support
This week, five Support could be selected:
- Brigitte (46.3%)
- Ana (43.9%)
- Lucio (43.6%)
- Baptiste ( 29.2%)
- Zenyatta (26.9%)
Brigitte is removed from next week Hero Pool.
Tank
Many Tanks could be banned this week:
- D.Va (56.5%)
- Reinhardt (43.2%)
- Winston (37.0%)
- Sigma (30.2%)
- Orisa (18.7%)
- Zarya (10.4%)
Reinhardt was chosen by the algorithm.
DPS
Despite her recent arrival in the Overwatch League, Echo is making a comeback in the picks that could be taken out of the Hero Pool this week:
- Echo (43.9%)
- Mei (36.0%)
- Ashe (20.4%)
- Tracer (25.7%)
- Sombra (18.4%)
- Reaper (15.3%)
Ashe and Reaper leave the Hero Pool for this week.
Original content by Jean-Vincent "Durvil" Cannata.
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