Every couple of months, the discussion around hero bans arises anew in Overwatch. This time, a panel of Overwatch League experts made up of coaches, team staff, and broadcast talent led the charge, with some of them arguing it's the right time to introduce the change though it comes with a twist.

The suggested system proposed by Overwatch League desk analyst Jake "Jake" Lyon aims to create a more diverse meta at the top level.

He argued for his system only to be used in esports competitions, leaving the general ranked experience untouched, and therefore counterintuitively bringing the casual and pro player experience closer together.

How hero bans could work

Not all hero ban systems are created equal. As the panel argued, the specific system chosen for hero bans is crucial to the discussion - with the blanket term of hero bans inadequately defining the scope of the suggestion.

Hero bans systems may differ in the number of heroes banned, when those bans have to be chosen and announced, if they last for the entirety of the map, and more.

Only after defining what a hero ban system may look like, the panel argued a discussion could be had on the merits of it. "I think a lot of people are down for hero bans," shared President of Esports at the Florida Mayhem, Albert "yeHHH" Yeh, though it depended on the implementation.

Director of Competition and former head coach for the Houston Outlaws, Choi "Junkbuck" Jae-won cautioned against too heavy-handed changes. "Hero bans have too many random variables," he said and provided the opposing position during the panel.

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Jake explains his system

Former professional player and coach, Jake provided his own suggestion of a ban system that appears to be on the less heavy-handed side that a hero ban system may take and that the panel discussed later on. 

Jake's suggestion

1. One hero per team per map is banned. The ban has to be submitted with the roster.
2. It's done blindly without the knowledge of the other team. That means both teams could theoretically also ban the same hero and only one is banned for said map.
3. A team can only ban a hero once per match
4. The system is already technically possible via the lobby settings system, requiring no additional adjustments from the developer and could be implemented by the organiser without assistance

The goals the system aims to accomplish are twofold, as Jake explains. In his mind, the skill worth rewarding in Overwatch is not mastering one particular hero and composition but in playing the breadth of the game's characters.

Throughout Overwatch's competitive history, the gambler's aspect of teams rolling into a meta comp in which their team is most suited to, resulting in domination, especially in Playoff scenarios is a well-documented phenomenon, with Season 4's Grand Final 4-0 between Gator's Atlanta Reign and the Shanghai Dragons. These meta-states may be less prevalent in Jake's hero ban system.

Secondly, for esports play to get closer to the experience a viewer may have in their average Overwatch game, the rulesets need to be altered. While in other esports, the competitive meta leaves an impression of ranked play at various levels, it has less so been the case for Overwatch.

According to Jake, his system forces teams to think hard about the types of heroes they want to ban for each map in the context of the team they are playing against. Also, it does not entirely mute the ability of star players to shine on their signature hero. 

Jake cited MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota 2 to be examples in which hero bans work. 

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Junkbuck counters

The MOBA angle allowed Junkbuck to counter on the same grounds. He argued that maps and map types added another dimension to the balance discussion. As such, certain heroes or meta archetypes were already limited in their viability based on the terrain they could function in.

Moreover, the competitively viable MOBAs in esports already had a cast of hundreds of characters that roughly work in similar ways, making it so that banning one hero did not mute an entire playstyle as other champions remain interchangeable.

Junkbuck remained concerned about the randomness this may introduce as Overwatch compositions work synergistically. He argued that banning one hero would not just remove said hero from the game but may make it impossible to play various other heroes due to the ban as they are only made viable due to the synergy with another.

Suffice it to say that the debate is far from settled. As the panel argued, further field tests of those suggested hero ban systems will be required to land on a ruleset that facilitates a healthy and attractive competitive environment.