This is compiled from thoughts I have seen across the web. A lot of the analysis holding up these points contradict thoughts in other points. It is nearly impossible to say what will win out. And while I expect few to read this, I am publishing this as a way of making predictions to look back on in December of 2020.

Hero Compositions and Meta

Cheese compositions will thrive

Metas aren’t birthed fully formed. They are created in layers. As an example, GOATS originally came onto the scene, it was with Moira. The Zen iteration only came later because it was seen as stronger but only against other teams playing with GOATS with Moira. In this way, during scrims, many heroes seem overpowered for a day before being nullified the next. Only eventually does the understanding settle on what composition is least easily countered.

In that way, hero interdependence and counter picking — leads to a very delicate and fragile understanding of the ‘best’ heroes. Removing one piece from that puzzle suddenly changes everything around it.

In the past, it has taken at least a few week for these layers to form. In OWL, with every team in the same location scrimming 4 times a week, that was severely reduced. Now however, that scrim time is already reduced because of travel so we are likely to see wacky compositions that work for a weekend because no one had time to dismantle it even though it will never work in future weeks.

Mirror compositions might not go away (or they might)

This is 50–50. On one hand, teams tend to pick up compositions that beat them. It takes a lot more discipline and time to be confident with your own strategies and their strengths.

On the other, with teams scrimming in different pockets through the OWL season and especially with each team having a different hero pool schedule. Teams might never get a good picture or the experience their opponent has their their composition styles.

Consistency in heroes will make for staple picks

Certain heroes that end up getting a lot of playtime because of their stability. However, they will never quite be in the state of being broken enough that they end up on the cutting board of the hero pool. My guess is heroes like Widow, Soldier, Sombra will see not-insignificant playtime as pocket picks.

Also, this would probably only apply to Damage heroes since Tanks and Supports all have enough of an overlap of team utility at this point.

Viewers will have no time to build knowledge

GOATS took a few months for viewers to understand what was going on. You might argue that a large portion of the audience never saw the intricacies in the team fights even by the end of Stage 3. In the process of learning GOATS though, the spectators got to learn more about the fundamentals of the game: namely ultimate rotations, pathing, bubble usage, etc.

With the hero pool changing every week, I think the analysts will barely have enough time to understand decision making let alone explain it to the audience. With previous metas, the audience got to see them develop and with that, they got to create a scaffolded understanding of the game. That is likely to go out the window. Each game might be more interesting to watch, but there will be little learning you will be able to carry over to a following week.

Roster and Team Management

12-man rosters will look a lot more appealing

If hero pools severely impact team performance, we see more teams putting their full roster on stage. In a sense, teams could work on a two week cycle where they alternate their DPS duos each week. Assuming we will be able to somewhat predict what heroes are likely to leave the following week, their players who are sitting on the bench for the coming weekend are already scrimming that hero pool two weeks out.

Teams might scrim for pools two weeks ahead

In the current system, a hero will never be banned two weeks consecutively. This might give a massive benefit to teams who have exactly one week off. Assuming that it is an overpowered hero that gets pulled from a week that you’re not playing, you know with a certainty that it is a hero that you will play the following week.

In a similar vein, teams who were only playing more single-game weekends (the same ones that have less breaks) were already thought to have an easier schedule, as they had more time to prepare for a single opponent. Now they have the added advantage that if that week’s hero pool doesn’t suit their playstyle or player depth, it is one less loss that luck assigns them.

Each team will have a wildly different experience

It’s already been heavily discussed how teams being around the world will impact the league-wide understanding of the ‘best-meta’. Largely, that there is likely to be pockets of metas around the world like we saw with Contenders regions. Now, hero pools are going to make it so virtually every team has a different scheduled pool through the season. If you’re a team that doesn’t play the next week, how much does it become worth scrimming a team that does? One team in that situation will have to scrim with a hero pool that is not relevant to their next weekend of play.

Depending on how Contenders emulates the hero pools, we might see T2 teams getting a lot more scrim time with OWL teams.

No more breaking the game

Previously, teams would spend enormous amounts of time wringing every hero and hero combination for the edge that would add a W to their record. Now, especially with the limited scrim time afforded by travel, it is likely that teams are instead going to invest their time in ways that will make a return over multiple weeks, not just the following one.

Long stretches off will be a lot less beneficial

In a weird twist of events, one of the factors that was previously seen as a risk to competitive integrity might be a mostly moot point. Previously, teams that had long breaks were considered to have a huge benefit over teams that don’t since they would be able to see the meta develop without their record on the line. While those extended breaks will still be beneficial, the hero pool might be impactful enough to mean you’re learning very little.

League format

The off-season rewards different skills and strategies

So hero pools will not be implemented for midseason tournaments, the play-in tournament, playoffs, or Grand Finals. If the skills of flexibility are what are to be most prized during the regular season, is there suddenly going to be a mentality shift once you become at least a play-in team? We’ve already seen that certain teams in the League are better at adapting to new metas and certain teams who lose their footing at first, become the meta-kings. We’ve seen with the Shock in 2019, where they fumbled with the meta both at the start of Stage 1 and their first playoff game. The mixed format sends a mixed message to the teams about how to prepare for a podium finish. The scrim expectations going into the playoffs will be a lot higher knowing that every broken synergy you can find might amount to $100,000+.

Is a tournament format around the corner?

The CDL has been lauded for their tournament-league format, even though their launch weekend was marred slightly with controversies surrounding patches and developer intervention. A hero pool per tournament makes buckets more sense. It puts every team competing on an level playing ground (though some will be more suited to clay versus hardcourt) and the teams will likely have multiple weeks to prepare going into a tournament, ideally knowing the hero pool they are working with. As it will happen over multiple days, we would get to see metas develop and teams adapt quickly within each game as well as within each weekend. Additionally, each tournament would have a significant more hype because you are guaranteed a different meta from the previous one.

If hero pools do manage to be here long terms, a tournament format might be significantly more likely.

Miscellaneous

Hero pools better than map ban system?

For ladder, certainly. This eliminates any animosity that arises from a team having to select what hero to ban per match.

For OWL, I would say yes as well. At least if we’re looking for good and competitive games to watch. In the world of per map/game-hero ban, teams have to scrim with a lot more uncertainty not knowing what hero will be banned by the time they are on stage. Teams having more certainty means better practice, and better practice means better games. Not to say that this is better than what we have currently, but it is better than map ban.

Ultimately, weekly hero pools will instill chaos, but of what kind?

I think in the best case we get to see moments like Carpe successfully 1v4 the enemy team on Night Market to cap point. I’m scared however that instead we end up with a lot more matches like the 2019 Stage 1: Week 2 London versus Justice that has been imprinted in every spectator’s mind for purely how awful of a game it was to slog through.