So, Blizzard’s been up to something new with Overwatch 2. They tossed in this hero ban thing back in April. And if you’ve been slogging through those intense season 16 matches, I bet you’ve seen certain heroes vanish — like, poof! — more often than others. I mean, Sombra, Zarya, Symmetra, Ana, and Mercy, anyone? Makes ya wonder. And now Blizzard’s sharing some numbers, putting it all out there, sort of. Turns out these heroes catch the ban hammer quite a bit.
Anyway, get this. Sombra? She’s got a whopping 85% ban rate on PC. I mean, that’s wild, right? On consoles, it jumps even higher to 93%. Zarya and Symmetra don’t get off easy either — 59% and 23% on PCs, just in case you’re curious. And I find myself thinking, okay, Blizzard, what’s your game plan? Rebalancing heroes because they’re getting banned left and right? Kind of seems like the logical next step…but then again, logic and video games? Can’t always put them in the same room.
Oh! And there’s this guy, Gavin Winter. Apparently, he’s a senior systems designer over there — fancy title and all. He says they’re eyeballing last month’s ban data to tweak game balance. Hmm. Sounds serious, right? But then he kinda backpedals, mentioning they’re not solely relying on this info to make changes. Convenient, I guess.
And what does this mean for our poor Zarya and Symmetra? Who knows! If folks aren’t playing Sombra because she’s benched 85% of the time, what even is the point? Feels like a waste, maybe? I dunno.
Yet, Blizzard isn’t hitting the panic button. They say they’re cool with how the hero ban system’s doing. Winter even quipped they’re thrilled to watch it evolve. Yeah, “evolve” — such a fancy term for “we’re figuring it out as we go.”
Oh, and look forward to this: come late June, season 17 rolls out with a map-voting feature. Now that’s something! We get more say in how matches go down. Baby steps, Blizzard, baby steps.
