Overwatch Hero Bans: Jeff Kaplan Explains Hero Pools Philosophy

Overwatch hero bans arrived in Overwatch Patch 1.45, but they won't work the way fans expected them to. Rather than allow players to ban heroes in each match, Blizzard will remove a few heroes from the list of playable options each week to shape the meta game.

The new system ignited discussion across the Overwatch community, prompting game director Jeff Kaplan to explain Blizzard's philosophy on hero pools.

Overwatch Hero Bans: Jeff Kaplan Explains Hero Pools Philosophy

Where the development team previously took a back seat to player innovation when it came to shaping the meta game, it has since realized players are unhappy with the pace of meta shifts.

"If the thing that the community decides is 'the most egregious' is a 'static meta' and they 'want the dev team to do something about it'… we're going to take steps towards change," Kaplan wrote.

"Last year was great proof that player creativity and balance changes alone weren't enough to move people off of 3/3 fast enough for the community to feel satisfied. The meta would moved on [its] own… just slowly."

"Also, we're super open to change with Hero Pools," he wrote.

"If there are things we don't like about Hero Pools, we can change it. Maybe they don't come back for Season 22? Maybe they rotate faster? Maybe more or less heroes heroes should be in the pool? We'll all find out in Season 21."

Blizzard announced the hero pool system Thursday in a development update about the upcoming Patch 1.45. The Overwatch League revealed its approach to hero pools in a separate blog post published alongside the dev update.