In the first week of a unified hero pool between Overwatch League and in-game Competitive Play, two shields and two hitscan DPS heroes will be off the table.
Last night’s Overwatch League stream ended with the ban picks at random from a selection of heroes with pick rates higher than a certain threshold. The heroes banned for the week of April 13 are Reinhardt, Brigitte, McCree, and Widowmaker.
McCree and Widowmaker have been the first and third most-played DPS heroes. Reinhardt and Brigitte were the most-played heroes in the tank and support roles, respectively.
With the Reinhardt-Brigitte duo banned, that doesn’t mean there will be any less shields in the game. This upcoming week in Overwatch will now likely be filled with double shield compositions with Orisa and Sigma.
These four heroes will be banned until next Monday (April 20) morning after this Sunday night’s bans are announced on Watchpoint.
Blizzard announced the unified hero pool for the game last week, saying that the feedback about hero pools was positive but confusing for some. This unified pool should clear things up for everyone, maintaining consistency between the league and in-game ladder.
“We’re always listening to the community on how we can improve your Overwatch experience; please continue to reach out and let us know how you feel,” Blizzard said. “These changes are coming very soon to live play, and we’re excited to hear what you think.”
