Overwatch League Hero Pool: What are the First Banned Heroes?

The first banned heroes of the Overwatch League hero pool is a hot button issue. Nothing of this caliber has been seen yet in the game's history.

Overwatch's competitive Season 21 has opened with its first ever hero bans on the scene. Each role is now missing at least one character from its roster—and those who were picked will put a significant dent in some players' rank. It appears that the Overwatch team has a deep desire to force its player base out of their meta comfort zones once again.

Prepare yourself to learn a whole new meta for Season 21 and Overwatch League.

What are the First Banned Heroes in Season 21?

The first banned heroes include Orisa from the Tank role, Hanzo and Mei from Damage, and Baptiste from Support.

If you spent your time honing the strategy between Orisa and Roadhog then it's time to pick another tank. Players will most likely find themselves defaulting back into Reinhardt, D.Va, or even Winston.

Hanzo and Mei have been prolific annoyances when enlisted by the enemy team. Hanzo was a counter to normally difficult to delete heroes like Tracer and Mei's wall has been an age-old standby for players looking to crowd control their opponents. She had the capability to shut down dozens of other heroes and stay in the fight with admirable survivability.

Baptiste's Immortality Field is now out of rotation for support players. It's likely we will see a lot more Ana and Moira on the battlefield in Season 21 to make up for this. Ana has been a support staple in competitive from the game's release and Moira's pure healing power is a consistent force to be reckoned with.

Widowmaker may step into Hanzo's one-click-kill role and these cancellations might pave the way for Tracer to step into the spotlight once again now that her counters are nearly gone.

What are the Banned Heroes in Overwatch League?

While these bans are supposed to change every week or so, players are up in arms about two of its most popular modes no longer mirroring each other.

The banned heroes for this week of the professional scene are McCree, Widowmaker, Reinhardt and Moira. These are some of the most powerful heroes in the game and have become staples in their roles.

It's likely players will begin to default to other previously popular champions such as Soldier 76, Ashe, Doomfist, and the Roadhog-Orisa partnership. The bans for the OWL have left large holes to fill for professional players who have most likely built multiple strategic battle plans using the selected characters.

It appears Blizzard is trying to separate the two and create the distinction needed to force them into their own categories. It looks like players will need to be on their toes this season.