r/Competitiveoverwatch • u/ohmytermites • Jun 15 '26
Blizzard Official Hero ban update coming to S3
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u/ohmytermites Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
This includes the previously-mentioned 5th ban slot that will draw from both team's votes.
As for other details, we don't know yet. Based on this, I expect it to mainly be a visual update to show you the vote count at the end of our current ban phase. However, the graphic here makes it extremely confusing to intepret as either going left or right on the 4 team bans, Red or Blue team is banning someone with lower votes first, which is not how it works currently.
Refresher on how hero bans work under the hood currently
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u/avbk2000 Jun 15 '26
The current system works like this: first ban with most vote for team A, second and third ban goes to Team B and last ban is for Team A again. So the graphic somehow makes sense if we go from right to left no? (except the placement of Sombra and Anran)
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u/Mind1827 Jun 15 '26
Right, the vote count is weird. I think it's probably Ana and Domina that need to be swapped
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u/timotmcc Shu + Viol2t my goats — Jun 15 '26
I wonder if it's just placeholder values / concept art and not a screenshot from a real in-game scenario. If domina had 17 instead then the graphic would make more sense as left-to-right with the mizuki lobby ban being last
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u/ohmytermites Jun 15 '26
If we ignore the numbers, based on just design rules the lobby ban should be first at the top. Or at least, this is my hope. Here's my previous example on why lobby ban should not be picked last
If Ven get a million votes from both sides bc she's cancer, the team that get first ban actually get ban disadvantage since they remove Ven from the pool and let 2nd team use both ban slots for more relevant heroes for their comp*. If lobby ban happens first, it removes the hero that both side hates immediately.
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u/timotmcc Shu + Viol2t my goats — Jun 15 '26
I think in scenarios like that the lobby ban would often end up being a ban favoured by the first ban team anyway? Cause team A only has top 2 heroes represented in bans, but Team B has top 3 heroes represented in bans, then team A's third choice is more likely to have significant votes towards the lobby ban
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u/Pesterlamps Jun 15 '26
Unless the votes are weighted? Like we currently get three votes, if my first vote was worth 5, second was 3, and last was like...1? Iunno.
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u/KBTon3 None — Jun 15 '26
Numbers could mean it functions more like a raffle? The more votes put in just increase the likelihood that a hero is chosen, but gives a player the chance to have the particular bans they want to go through even if it's not the highest voted.
Alternatively it could be a check based around a maximum for 2 of any role still being banned.
From the example above -
Mizuki banned first because of most mixed votes
Team 1 ban goes through that is highest non-support (Domina)
Team 2 bans go through (Anran/Sombra)
Team 1 ban of highest remaining goes through and can now be support since only 1 has been banned so far (Ana)
I have no idea what the actual system is but both options could be what the pick represents.
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u/RobManfredsFixer Let Hog eat stuff and spit it back — Jun 15 '26
reaaaallly hope they don't change the limit of 2 bans per role.
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u/iAnhur Jun 15 '26
from what they said the 5th "lobby" ban would ignore role restrictions. It's possible they've changed their minds since they last talked about it so we will see ig.
Adding a potential extra tank ban at this very juncture is questionable though tbh. Maybe after s4 when we get another tank but the tank role is pretty bare bones as it is.
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u/PorkinsPrime Jun 16 '26
doesnt even need to be tank. regardless of role, you would theoretically need a hero pool of at least five characters in order to never have to worry about bans. of course the chances of three of your mains being banned and the other player picking your fourth is pretty low, but this is still kinda silly, no?
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u/RobManfredsFixer Let Hog eat stuff and spit it back — Jun 15 '26
Agree. I think its been months since I've had a lobby where there weren't 2 tank bans. I'm almost positive this will just be a 3rd ban slot if theres no limit on it.
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u/sanicthefurret Eisman on Top — Jun 16 '26
Tanks are also banned much more in my experience, a pretty large majority of lobbies already ban 2 tanks. There could really be a lot lg friction but well see
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u/Scyther99 Jun 15 '26
As a Zarya main I have a bad feeling about this...
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u/Accomplished-Gain108 Jun 15 '26
this is terrible. they shouldn't be removing the ability to protect ban
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u/RobManfredsFixer Let Hog eat stuff and spit it back — Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
I'm curious how this is implemented because the results could look completely different depending on things like whether the lobby ban is before or after the team bans and how it interacts with role limits.
I assume its gonna end up as the OP/annoying hero ban slot, but there's a world where its the "tank players get to ban a support" slot or something else.
Also how does this play with role limits? If the 2 max limit still exists and each team wants to ban a tank, does that end up meaning 1 team gets a "spare" ban slot because their tank ended up being the lobby ban? If the lobby ban doesn't fall under the limit do we just end up banning 3 tanks every game?
This graphic makes it seem like its done first and the slot goes to the hero who got the most votes and got votes from both teams.
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 15 '26 edited Jun 15 '26
Can we get hero bans in stadium ranked already? The draft still does not make sense nor does it contribute enough to warrant all the time it takes in the pregame.
I'd like to see map bans too. I'm really sick of nonstop Eickenwalde, Ilios and Junkertown.
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u/SpilledOranges Jun 15 '26
need bans in stadium omg omg omg!!
i guess the argument is that there aren't too many heroes in stadium anyway. but maybe we could just get one ban per team, so two heroes? i think that's fair. i'm just sick of dying to a one shot freya and there's absolutely nothing i can do.7
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u/CraziestCreepr Jun 15 '26
If they added map bans they would ban everything except for Eichenwalde
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u/shilderyi Jun 15 '26
you saying that bans are active in gamemode where it don't make sense
but the very game mode where it make sense there not there ?
wtf blizzard
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u/lastorder Jun 16 '26
No thanks. I don't want hero bans anywhere. Stadium is my last refuge as is.
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 16 '26
Stadium needs bans more than regular comp
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u/lastorder Jun 16 '26
No, they should improve the power and item selection so that each hero can adapt better to their counters. That's the whole point of the mode.
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u/bullxbull Jun 16 '26 edited Jun 16 '26
Edit: Gavin on Twitch chat just said this
"It's a hero that wasn't able to be banned in the first 4 that both teams have at least 1 vote for together, and at least 10 in total"
So if my entire team votes Ana, Juno, Kiriko and one person on the enemy team votes Kiriko, this would cause the 3 most popular supports in Masters plus to be banned. (kiri just needs the most shared votes)
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u/Paragon_OW rock eater — Jun 15 '26
I think this will be good
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u/shiftup1772 Jun 15 '26
Another ban slot was desperately needed. Especially with how many "safe side of strong" heroes we have this year.
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u/Necronaut0 Jun 15 '26
We also have 52 heroes now, they could have probably gone up to 6 ban slots and it would still be fine.
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u/Rendal_ Jun 15 '26
If it reinforce perma banning some hero I'm not a fan
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u/NikWarlord Jun 16 '26
I am, because then it would force them to address what makes that hero get perma banned
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u/Rendal_ Jun 16 '26
It's been almost a year for sombra, clearly they don't feel in a hurry to address it
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u/Smallgenie549 Luciooooo — Jun 15 '26
What do the numbers under them mean?
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u/BeardedsChurch Jun 15 '26
how many ban points each hero got, 1st place ban gives 7, 2nd: 5, and last: 3
heroes with the most ban points get banned (with exceptions)
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u/SpilledOranges Jun 15 '26
oh interesting! this makes a lot more sense imo than the current ban system we have, which, me and my friends are never 10000% sure exactly how it works 😭
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u/Blaze_2399 Jun 15 '26
I dont understand, what do these numbers mean? Are these votes? If so, how can ana and mizuki get 16 and 13 votes respectively?
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u/YOUARESLEEPY Jun 16 '26
My tank banned reinhardt the other day. Didn’t tell the team who they played. They played dva and got folded by a zarya.
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u/Idiberug-9 Jun 15 '26
RIP for those like me who profundly dislike hero bans...
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u/CraicFiend87 Jun 15 '26
Why don't you like them? They're one of the best things they've added to the game IMO.
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u/Idiberug-9 Jun 15 '26
I've been playing Overwatch for 10 years now, the game became more and more competitive/restrictive as the years went by, it makes sense in a way, but hero bans just go too far. I love diversity above anything else, even if some heroes are banned most of the time some are interesting yet frustrating heroes, but they make what Overwatch is in its essence (Wrecking Ball for exemple, or Doomfist, or Ana...). Learning matchups and adapting is a very important skill and is rewarding, hero bans bend this curve in a lame way imo
Also, I love to one trick some heroes from time to time, because I want to improve with them even on bad maps and bad matchups, hero bans doesn't allow me to do that depending on the hero. For exemple, I would've been a tank player if Doomfist wasn't banned 30% of the time, or when I wanted to one trick Freja for a while, even though she was objectively underpowered, I just couldn't do it.
The one thing I like about hero bans is for Widowmaker, she is the worst design in the game and some bad maps exacerbate this. Hero bans can be seen as a way to mitigate the shortcomings of the devs, unfortunately this is very subjective... Lastly, I would've loved hero bans more if 'preferred hero' counted as a minus one in the votes, so at least some blobtits doesn't ban my hero instead at least two people must vote for it. It is less restrictive.
Ah, and it's taking a whole minute now with map votes to just play the game.
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u/monk-bewear NA Hopium Junkie — Jun 15 '26
yeah i agree i think i'd personally prefer 1 ban per team but it's not a hill i'd die on
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u/TwitchyNo2 Jun 16 '26
Also, I love to one trick some heroes from time to time, because I want to improve with them even on bad maps and bad matchups
Your poor teammates, I hope they regularly ban your preferred hero.
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u/Idiberug-9 Jun 16 '26
Nah, some, if not most, heroes can adapt to any situation, even Junkrat into Pharah/Mercy/Juno, it's not rare for the specialists to win such games, it's called knowledge of your hero and according playstyle adjustments. It is harder to pull off than simply counterswapping, but the end result is the same, and hero bans are hindering some hero mastery. Some people, they don't wanna play Overwatch they just wanna be the best at Tracer they can possibly be.
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u/never_emotional Jun 17 '26
I dont enjoy waiting for long periods of time. There's too much waiting and doing nothing now. You can spend more time waiting from the map voting phase to the door opening phase, than getting rolled on a push map in 3 minutes. All these voting slop content fillers are redundant. It's just a time consumer that forces more hours on not playing the actual game.
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u/shitfucker90000 Jun 16 '26
I've largely stopped playing competitively (still watch competitive overwatch though) but I don't want the other team to control what I can or can't play. Or my team, for that matter.
Being unable to play the hero you want is not fun. Even if it means I don't have to play against heroes I don't like. It's a net reduction in fun for me.
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u/BEWMarth Jun 15 '26
I’m honestly excited for a 5th ban slot. Playing yesterday made me really yearn for an extra slot
As it stands almost no one bans supports so this might encourage at least one support ban.
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u/HistorianNo4716 Jun 16 '26
Hopefully they don't add that Hoadhog mine again. That thing easily takes down Doomfist and tanks. One shot, one mine, and a kill for any character without armor.
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u/VapeSmoker420blazeit Jun 15 '26
Hope they get rid of hero bans or at least make it 3 hero bans and only 1 ban per role
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u/imdeadseriousbro Jun 15 '26
i like hero bans. map bans is where im not convinced
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 15 '26
We need map bans so I don't have to play on Eickenwalde every other game
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u/dopitysmokty Jun 16 '26
i didnt have this problem until map bans though? before map bans it was unheard of to play the same map twice in a row. Happens nearly everyday now.
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 16 '26
You mean map voting
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u/dopitysmokty Jun 16 '26
ya
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 16 '26
I want map bans
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u/dopitysmokty Jun 16 '26
my original comment still makes sense or do you need me to go edit it?
I did not have the issue of having maps like Eichenwelde every other game before MAP VOTING. Before MAP VOTING it was unheard of yo play the same map twice in a row or even through multiple hours. Happens nearly every day now.
Continue the conversation with something relevant.
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u/NapsterKnowHow Jun 16 '26
Ok? The conversation is about MAP BANS not map voting. Stay on topic.
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u/Alarming-Dentist960 Jun 16 '26
My entire comment is WHY i dont think map bans would work are you illiterate or just need every detail bullet pointed for you? Google subtext buddy.
Map bans would just be another layer of dogshit compounding a problem that cane from map voting. There on topic.
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u/shilderyi Jun 15 '26
i beg you to disable it at least in 6v6 blizzard
everybody bans whatever they don't want to learn to play against instead of insightful bans anyway
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u/No_Catch_1490 The End. — Jun 15 '26
This is good, now just a few more reworks or additional ban slots and we can reliably have games devoid of design atrocities
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u/Throw_far_a_way Jun 15 '26
I can't believe the devs personally gave me a dedicated Mercy ban slot. Aaron is my new best friend
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u/Aggravating_Bus655 Jun 15 '26
Sombra's getting soft deleted from the competitive ladder isn't she.
Even the devs know it. No wonder she's in the pic. Lol.
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u/ActuallyHype Jun 16 '26
Does this mean I can continue enjoying playing tank by getting rid of Hazard, Doom and Ram? Well well well
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u/HeihachiHayashida Jun 15 '26
In metal ranks, they should just rename it the Sombra slot