Hero bans are one way to avoid dealing with a pesky Sombra in Overwatch 2.
Blizzard Entertainment
One feature that many Overwatch 2 players have been yearning for since… well, since the game debuted is coming in the near future. During today’s Overwatch 2 Spotlight stream, Blizzard confirmed that a hero ban system will be enabled in Competitive Play starting in Season 16 (i.e. in April). Not only that, the company plans to introduce a map voting system this summer, in Season 17.
“Hero Bans target strong or frustrating heroes, while Map Voting lets players choose their preferred maps, adding a new layer of strategy to the game,” Blizzard wrote in a blog post.
Hero bans and map voting are commonplace in other live service games. I don’t have an issue with map voting, especially if the system allows players to pick from just a few options. It’s probably just as well that Clash won’t be in Competitive for a while, because I can’t imagine those maps would be picked at all as things stand.
Overwatch 2 Hero Bans Pros And Cons
I don’t think it’s a huge surprise that hero bans are coming to the main game, since they were introduced at the pro level recently. In the 2025 Overwatch Champions Series, teams get to ban one hero per map. I have mixed feelings about hero bans, though.
Sure, it would be nice to block enemy teams from using particularly annoying heroes like Sombra. If players vote for a certain hero to be banned often enough, that will also likely prompt Team 4 to take a closer look at that character to see if some adjustments are needed to make them more palatable. The system will also encourage players to get comfortable playing as several heroes, just in case their main is banned for a match.
On the other hand, I’ve always loved that Overwatch allows players to swap heroes whenever they want. This really helps players to counter the heroes that opposing teams are using to try to gain the upper hand. Hero bans mean we lose a little of the game’s core essence. That said, there are now more than 40 heroes in the game, and blocking even a couple in each match shouldn’t cause too much disruption in the grand scheme of things.
My biggest concern is for those players who find that their main hero is banned in a disproportionate number of matches. If they’re locked out of playing their favorite character a bunch of matches in a row, they might get disillusioned and stop playing entirely.
I hope Blizzard has taken this into account before rolling out hero bans. We should out much more about the system in a couple of months.
Be sure to check out all the rest of my coverage of today’s Overwatch 2 Spotlight Event:
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