Echo, Tracer disabled in Overwatch’s April 19 Hero Pools

Before she could make her debut in the Overwatch League, Echo has been disabled through the Hero Pools system alongside three other heroes.

The April 19 Hero Pools, which apply to both the Overwatch League and Overwatch’s competitive mode, were drawn on April 19 after the Flash Ops Echo Tournament was completed. Each week, two damage heroes, one support hero, and one tank hero are “disabled” from play to change up the game’s meta.

Echo and Tracer are the damage heroes disabled through the next week of competition. Tank Orisa and support Moira will join the two speedy heroes on the bench this week.  

Losing Echo is an unfortunate twist for competitive mode players, who have been enjoying the hero’s inclusion in the game this week. Overwatch League players will likely not miss much as Echo hasn’t debuted in professional play. Since a hero can’t be disabled two weeks in a row, this does guarantee that Echo will see Overwatch League play during the final week of April. 

Last week, Overwatch League players and competitive mode climbers had to do without two of the game’s most critical hitscan DPS, McCree and Widowmaker. Reinhardt and Brigitte were also banned. For the league, this meant a return to quick “dive” compositions using Tracer, Winston, and D.Va. On the other side, compositions were created to counter that idea. Teams made use of Torbjörn and Ashe, throwing a wrench in the usual meta seen at the professional level. 

With Echo and Tracer out of the lineup, those dive compositions may be incredibly rare this week. Teams may opt to run different setups with quick heroes like Genji or Sombra. Orisa’s removal means the popular “double shield” composition, in which she is run alongside Sigma, may be less omnipresent this week. McCree and Mei are still the most popular choices for most damage dealers, and we’ll likely see a lot of those two in this week’s games. 

As of last week, the Hero Pools for both Overwatch League and competitive Overwatch have been combined. Each week, heroes with a large percentage of play time are put on the chopping block and chosen at random to be disabled. These Hero Pools change after Overwatch League competition ends every week, normally on Sundays.