The Overwatch 2 site had been updated with a new blog post from Gavin Winter. In it, he explains the process of hero bans for competitive play, a new feature coming in Season 16: Stadium.
“You might remember when I introduced Hero Bans for all Ranks in Competitive game modes during the Overwatch 2 Spotlight and it’s finally time to dive deeper into this big update, which debuts in Season 16. The system is designed to give players strategic agency without punching down at weaker niche picks.”
One of the goals of this feature was to ensure that the banning targets heroes that are seen as too strong or annoying. As opposed to, say, targeting heroes just because the enemy team enjoys them. Thus, you will not be able to see the enemy team during the Ban Phase. Match text chat, which communicates to the whole lobby, is also disabled in the Ban Phase of a Competitive Play match.
Before you vote for hero bans, you will select your “preferred hero”. It doesn’t protect them from being banned, but it signals to your team that you’d like to play them. Team text or voice chat can be used for communicating, and your team will be able to see your Preferred Hero during the Ban Phase. Unlike ban systems you may have seen in other games, teams do not take turns voting to ban. Instead, you’ll choose which Heroes to ban simultaneously, with each player selecting three Choices. The first Choice carries the most weight while the second and third Choices carry proportionally less.
“In effort to make each match feel unique, so we are going with 4 total bans (2 per each team) to increase variety.”
This is how these steps work behind the scenes:
- The team with the most votes for one Hero will be considered the “first” team, and their most voted Hero will be guaranteed to be banned. If both teams are tied for the most votes for a single Hero, the first team is decided randomly.
- The other team becomes the “second” team, and both of their bans happen next. If the Heroes they voted to ban were not the first team’s most voted Hero, then their most and second most voted Heroes will be banned.
- If the second team’s most or second most voted Hero was also the first team’s most voted Hero, then the second team’s third most voted Hero is used instead.
- Finally, the second most voted Hero on the first team will be banned, with the same caveat the second team had when banning their Heroes.
- In cases where the number of votes for a Hero are tied, the Hero that was voted by the most players in the lobby (not the total number of votes) for is banned.
- If Heroes are still tied, ties are broken randomly.
- No more than two Heroes in each role can be banned. If two Heroes in the same role have already been banned and a team’s next most voted Hero is in the same role, those votes are ignored and this team’s next most voted Hero in a different role is banned instead.
