Hero pools are coming to Overwatch League in March, according to Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan. He announced the new mechanic in a developer update on January 30th, 2020.

Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan discusses upcoming

additions to the game, including the Experimental Card,

Hero Pools, and more.



📽️ https://t.co/bxYYnwiMQ7 pic.twitter.com/wMoIPdgZ99 — Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) January 30, 2020

According to the press release announcing hero pools, “Our expectation is that a rotating Hero Pool for Overwatch League matches will foster a wider range of team strategies and showcase more heroes in competition as players adapt and teams experiment with new compositions when some of the most-played heroes are no longer options.”

The new hero pool mechanic means Overwatch League fans will soon be treated to a much more diverse meta, changing every single weekend. According to the official press release, starting on March 7th the Overwatch League will have to play with “one tank, one support, and two damage heroes being unavailable for selection during matches each weekend.”

The hero pools will be selected randomly from a predetermined groups of heroes.

Those heroes will be eligible for removal based on their play-rate over the previous two weeks of Overwatch League play. This is to ensure that the hero pool only removes heroes who see regular play. No hero can be made unavailable two weeks in a row.

The hero pool will only apply to regular season matches.

Teams will be informed of the hero pool one week before the match.

Hero pool brings amazing change for spectators

This change will make Overwatch a more diverse, strategic, and interesting game to watch for fans. Up until this point, there has been no mechanic in Overwatch that allows for an outright ban on a hero, leading to conservative and slow-moving OWL metas. Teams have always been able to stay in their comfort zone and, in some cases, were punished for leaving it. With these new League selected bans, OWL teams will be rewarded for creativity, thinking on their feet, and adapting to new challenges every single week. That is nothing but good news for viewer entertainment.

The hero pool is an elegant solution to OWL fans number one complaint: a stale meta.

Throughout its second season, Overwatch League struggled with a stagnant meta game. First there was the rise of the GOATs composition, which consisted of the same three tanks and three support heroes. GOATs was infamously boring to many viewers, since every encounter felt more like a marathon of high health pools than an incisive team fight. After months of trying to balance GOATs out of the game, Overwatch developers said “fuck it” and just forced players into a 2-2-2 role lock.

After the release of the role lock feature, the Sigma/Orisa “Double Shield” meta dominated the Stage 4 playoffs as the new “must play” competitive composition. Ever since the Stage 4 grand finals, Double Shield has remained the high level competitive meta. Even though the role lLock brought back DPS into the game, it didn’t fix the stagnant meta issue.

The hero pool will force the meta to be more dynamic. Rather than teams selecting a strategy for a map and using it every single time that map comes up, teams are now forced to adapt to a dynamic hero pool. The hero pool feature will create a more fluid and diverse playstyle for the League and help satisfy fans with new and interesting strategies.

The hero pool will help broadcast talent provide more interesting insights before, during, and after OWL matches. Commentators need something of substance to talk about during broadcasts. When the meta is exactly the same week after week, it becomes increasingly difficult for the broadcast talent to share new and interesting insights. In a world with hero pools, every week will bring an exciting new adventure with a ton of interesting topics to talk about. This means that Overwatch League broadcasts will likely improve in Season 3.

The hero pool brings the best of both worlds, because teams can still use their specialty strategies in the playoffs. This change doesn’t sacrifice team agency when it comes to the playoffs. The regular season teams will be forced to explore different metas, but for the playoffs, anything goes. Who knows, maybe in the process of exploration, OWL teams will figure out some incredible strategies. The hero pool also makes the regular season and playoff season distinct from each other and may draw more interest to regular season play.

Will the hero pool put an end to the OWL's stale meta? Yes, it will make teams stronger 74%, 58 votes 58 votes 74% 58 votes - 74% of all votes

Yes, but many players will quit 14%, 11 votes 11 votes 14% 11 votes - 14% of all votes

No, all teams will adapt similarly, defeating the purpose 12%, 9 votes 9 votes 12% 9 votes - 12% of all votes Total Votes: 78 Voting is closed Poll Options are limited because JavaScript is disabled in your browser.

Hero Pool adds significant difficulty to being a professional OWL player

This is a huge change to the workflow of a professional Overwatch team. Rather than preparing a single set of strategies and drilling them, Overwatch teams will now have to come up with new strategies every single week. Players will almost certainly have to play a more diverse set of heroes, which means more practice, more adaptation, and ultimately more time devoted to mastering the game.

The hero pool adds even more pressure to OWL professionals. Players already experience massive pressure in OWL, even without the uncertainty of the new feature. In season 3, OWL athletes are expected to travel exponentially more than in Season 2, and, come March, spend far more time drilling brand new strategies. This change will only increase the amount of preparation needed every week to succeed. Adding that pressure might have a negative impact on some players’ performance, while other players might excel in the new competitive environment.

Some Overwatch League players might retire based on this change. Season 3 represents a big test for OWL players. The hero pool feature, in combination with the added travel expectations, may lead to some players retiring. In the past when big meta’s have changed, some players have found themselves struggling to perform on the new meta heroes. Many of those players left the professional scene to stream full time. With the hero pool, this reckoning could strike at any time for any player, if the stars align poorly enough.

Winners and losers of the OWL hero pool system

The hero pool system will reward teams with flexible players and quick strategic coaching. Players will be forced to play a greater variety of heroes, so teams that have played more diverse compositions in the past will be less affected that teams that have strictly played the meta. As for coaching, it is the wild card behind the scenes that we rarely get to see. A good coach becomes even more crucial when the meta will be shifting every single week.

Winners

Chengdu Hunters

Some teams will likely find that the constant shifting meta plays to their advantage. The Chengdu Hunters are renowned for their off meta plays, even during the height of GOATs Chengdu was running a 3 DPS, 1 Tank, 2 Healer composition. Basically, Chengdu has always done what they wanted and this change rewards flexible players and coaches for their creativity. I predict that Chengdu will find greater success due to the hero pool format.

Atlanta Reign

Similarly, the Atlanta Reign are known for their ability to adapt to changing metas. They were even able to take down the Season 2 grand champion San Francisco Shock line up the first week of the new Stage 4 playoff meta. They bring a decently deep roster, with 4 DPS and 4 Tank players, which gives them the man power to master a diverse set of heroes going into the hero pool system in Season 3.

San Francisco Shock

The San Francisco Shock has an amazing coaching staff, with Dae-hee “Crusty” Park leading the way as their head coach. His ability to adapt their playstyle to whatever meta Blizzard has thrown out has been the key to the Shocks consistent competitive dominance in the league. I think the Shock will find great success in the hero pool format.

Losers

Washington Justice

The Washington Justice struggled mightily during Season 2 and that struggle isn’t going away anytime soon. The Justice only have a roster of eight players. With only eight players, it is doubtful that they have the depth of team talent to draw upon when the hero pool doesn’t go their way.

Vancouver Titans

The Titans dominated in the 3-3 meta, but we have never seen them dominate outside that meta. Yes, they did reasonably well in the Stage 4 playoffs, but they were trounced by the Shock in the grand finals. I am not confident that the Titans will succeed in a league where their strategies have to change every week. On top of that, the Titans have a surprisingly small roster, making it even more difficult to adapt to change.

Hangzhou Spark

The Spark had a great Season 2, but with only eight players on their roster they are facing the same challenge that the Justice are. Under the constraints of the hero pool, having fewer players is just a disadvantage. You are less able to master and cover all the possible hero combinations when you have fewer players to work with.

One thing’s for sure, the hero pool feature is going shake things up for OWL Season 3 competitors. The hero pool makes OWL matches more difficult and more fluid for players and coaches alike. The switch up in format is a big win for the audience, but also a big question mark for OWL teams.

It will be interesting to see which teams flourish under this more dynamic format and which teams struggle to keep up when the hero pool drops for OWL in March.

