Going into week 5 of the Overwatch League, hero pools are being introduced. Essentially, every week 1 tank, 1 support, and 2 attack heroes will be banned, and no teams can pick either of those characters. The bans take any hero with a pick rate of 10% or higher and are randomly banned for each role. In this blog, we will talk about how the current hero pools will affect the current metagame in the Overwatch League, and predictions for potential team compositions teams may run. For week 5, the tank Reinhardt, support Moira, and attackers McCree and Widowmaker are banned.

Hero Pool Bans for Week 5

First, Reinhardt, who had the highest playtime out of any hero in the League so far, has been banned. He was run before for his ability to shield his teammates and push into another team, so teams will either seek to use a different tank to mirror the same playstyle or to run a different composition. The only two characters who could be run in a similar way to Reinhardt are Orissa and Sigma, however, both of these have much less power to prevent damage for their team. Orissa’s shields are stagnant for about 8 seconds and have much less health than Reinhardt’s, and Sigma’s shield is more of a reaction tool, and also has less health, so it is unlikely for them to be run individually. This means dive or double shield compositions are more likely.

Reinhardt with Shield

In a dive composition, characters with high mobility and high burst damage are run in order to pick a specific target on the enemy team, and “dive” them to eliminate them. The tanks that fit this playstyle are a D.Va, for her defense matrix and rapid boosters that allow her to move quickly, and either a Winston or Wrecking Ball, as they have high vertical mobility and can output lots of damage. For teams less comfortable with dive, they may run double shield, as it can cover up for the lack of team shielding caused by a lack of Reinhardt. In this composition, an Orissa and a Sigma are both played, with alternating shield placements to cut off damage from the enemy team. The teams will likely run either of these compositions based on their main tank; if he is good at Winston or Wrecking Ball then dive will be played, and if not Double Shield is more likely.

DV.a holding her Defense Matrix, which can stop enemy fire

For attack heroes, we have an interesting situation where McCree and Widowmaker were banned. Both of these characters fulfill the role of a ranged “hitscan” hero, which means that when the character fires their gun there is no delay for the bullet to travel to the target. The other character type is “projectile,” and these characters have a delay from when they shoot for the objects they fire to travel to their target. With the two most impactful hitscan heroes being banned, it opens up teams to run Pharah, an aerial character who shoots projectile rockets, but is easily countered by strong hitscan heroes. The only other character who fills a similar hitscan role is Ashe, however she is in an extremely weak state and easy to counter, but may still be run by teams trying to counter an enemy Pharah. Because she is more of a dive hero, we may see Pharah alongside other dive heroes, like Doomfist, Genji, and Tracer, depending on the map.

Example of Pharah Flying Above the Ground in game

Another character we will see lots of playtime from is Mei, the attacker who has the current most playtime in the League because she has already proved herself to be extremely powerful in her ability to isolate enemies and slow them down. She was typically paired with McCree, but since he is banned Reaper is likely to be the character pick with a Mei, for his large close range damage with his shotguns. For longer ranged maps, the Reaper would likely be swapped for a Hanzo, as he is a character with a lot of range and potential damage. Especially for teams running double shield compositions, these two would be a very strong attack line.

Mei’s Ice Wall Ability

Finally, in the support slot, there is a much less interesting change. Moira, a support character with just over 10% playtime, was banned. Most of the successful teams have been running a support line of Ana, for her high single-target healing output and ability to stun a single enemy for a large amount of time, and Lucio, for his large area healing and his ability to increase the speed of his teammates. Moira is a character that teams tend to swap to for an overtime push or to stall on an objective in the game but tends to be less impactful than the other supports so she is played much less. The only change we will see is a boost in Mercy playtime, as she is typically paired with a Pharah to boost her damage and heal from the air.

Mercy Damage Boosting a Pharah

Overall, the hero bans should provide more variety in the team compositions that are being run, as they ban some of the overplayed and powerful characters. This will reward the teams with more flexible players who are able to play many different heroes and hurt those who are unable to play heroes other than what is considered powerful. The matches this weekend will again be streamed on YouTube on the Overwatch League, so tune in to see how they play out!

Schedule of Matches for Week 5