In Overwatch’s first developer update of 2020, lead designer Jeff Kaplan announced a groundbreaking new feature that would give a giant impact on the game: hero pools. Hero pools will be introduced into both competitive mode and professional play in the Overwatch League, so I thought it would be a good idea to look at the winners and losers of this new update.

So to start off, what are hero pools? Although most Overwatch fans have probably heard of them by now, I’ll give a quick recap. Hero pools are similar to the map pools introduced a couple of months ago; for every week, certain heroes will be banned. Then the next week, a different set of heroes won’t be playable while the first set return. This new feature is made specifically to change up the meta, so I imagine that metas, rather than individual heroes, will be targeted (banning Orisa/Bastion to ban bunker, Rein/Lucio to ban deathball, etc.) In the Overwatch League, two DPS heroes, one tank hero, and one support hero will be banned at a time. Everyone got that? Then let’s get started.

Winners

San Francisco Shock

When looking at the winners of this new update, the Shock were an easy pick. First off, they have a large roster who can cover up any holes. For example, looking at their main tanks, Matthew “super” DeLisi has a superb Reinhardt, but his Winston and Orisa aren’t as strong as Myeonghwan “smurf” Yoo’s, so the Shock can rotate them in and out depending on the pool. In addition, the Shock can cover any DPS hero to the highest level thanks to their 5-man DPS line, which includes Dongjun “Rascal” Kim, who can play almost all DPS by himself as well as a few support heroes. And while they only have one player for the off tank, flex support, and main support roles, all three of those players– Hyobin “ChoiHyoBin” Choi, Minki “Viol2t” Park, and Grant “Moth” Espe, respectively– can play every hero within their roles. And with head coach Daehee “Crusty” Park at the helm, I have no doubt that the Shock will be just as good– if not better– with hero pools.

New York Excelsior

The NYXL are another team that benefits from this update, albeit for a different reason. While the Shock has an abundance of players put together specifically to make up for each others’ weaknesses, NYXL simply has very flexible players. Main tank Donggyu “Mano” Kim is probably the best main tank in the world when it comes to flexibility and stability across metas, and flex DPS Haesong “Libero” Kim, the “Korean Swiss Army Knife” is one of the most flexible players in the game. Hell, even off tank Hongjun “HOTBA” Choi is flexible, able to play not only off tanks but a good amount of DPS as well if needed, although in 2–2–2 this requires subbing in another off tank, namely Dongwook “BiaNcA” Kim. In addition, with their new coaching changes, letting go of Hyeonsang “Pavane” Yu while promoting Yongcheol “IMT” Jeong to head coach, signifies a new change, abandoning their previous one-dimensional passive playstyle for the ability to mix it up and be aggressive when needed.

Guangzhou Charge

While the Shock and NYXL were already ranked by many towards the top, I could see the Charge, ranked by most in the 8–10th place range, moving up a few spots thanks to hero pools. Main tank Seungpyo “Rio” Oh is known for his prowess on all four main tanks, and newcomer off tank Kicheol “Cr0ng” Nam is also known for his flexibility, finding success on D.Va, Zarya, Roadhog, and even Hanzo back in Contenders as well as showing a strong Sigma at the Shanghai Masters Invitational. While the Charge’s DPS setup doesn’t have as much depth as the Shock’s or NYXL’s, they still balance roles well, having Jungwoo “Happy” Lee for hitscan, Charlie “Nero” Zwarg for projectile, and Yiliang “Eileen” Ou for flankers. With Jinseo “Shu” Kim having a great Zenyatta and Ana and Alberto “Neptuno” Gonzalez Molinillo having a fantastic bloodthirsty Mercy in addition to a strong Lucio, I can see this team going far thanks to the new update.

London Spitfire

In addition to the benefits just from having a 12-man roster, the lower-ranked Spitfire also has some fairly flexible players. Right off the bat, all eyes immediately go to top prospect flex DPS Gilseong “Glister” Lim, who has shown a gigantic hero range, being able to play both hitscan and projectile heroes at a high level. In addition to Glister, they also have Sewon “BERNAR” Shin, a well-rated off tank who has also shown us solid flexibility. The main tanks seem to balance each other out well, with Daehan “JMAC” Choi playing your traditional heroes like Reinhardt and Winston while Jihun “Jihun” Kim specializes in Wrecking Ball. While I don’t see this team skyrocketing from this update, I think that their relative flexibility and the sheer amount of players make them a winner of this change.

Losers

Philadelphia Fusion

Previously ranked around the top 5 by many, the Fusion could take a massive hit from this patch. The elephant in the room is their sole main tank, Sumin “SADO” Kim. In the GOATS meta that dominated 2019, SADO looked… alright on Winston and atrocious on Reinhardt, and his Orisa in double-shields was nothing special. Although he was already marked as the clear weak link of this team, if Winston isn’t viable, the Fusion are in big trouble. While the DPS are flexible enough between the 5 of them (although I’m gradually questioning Philip “ChipSa” Graham’s usefulness) and stellar D.Va player Junho “Fury” Kim has the more well-rounded Gael “Poko” Gouzerch to fall back on, I just can’t trust this team with SADO being forced off his comfort picks. The one possible saving grace would be the new head coach, Donggeun “KDG” Kim, who seems to be just right for hero pools, balancing different play styles perfectly last year on the Seoul Dynasty, but I still can’t see how he can get SADO to function as the sole main tank during hero pools.

Hangzhou Spark

While the idea of the Spark in a dive meta with Qiulin “Guxue” Xu on Winston is intoxicating, the reason why the Spark are losers of hero pools has very little to the players’ skill, but rather their adaptability. Throughout 2019, the Spark were known to start off slow every meta before rising to the top. For example, they had a losing record in Stage 1 but by Stage 3, they were hailed as one of the top GOATS teams. Their start to 2–2–2 in the Ice Fishing/Pulled Pork meta was rather disappointing, but they picked it up after a while. In the playoffs, they kicked off with a loss to the LA Gladiators, but they improved and finished in 4th place. My point is that the Spark can be really good, but they need time to get there. But with hero pools implemented, they only have a week of each meta, making the Spark’s problem almost impossible to fix.

Dallas Fuel

Don’t get me wrong: the DPS line is fairly flexible, Youngjin “Gamsu” Noh can play all four main tanks at a high level, and the support line should be bothered that much. The problem for the Fuel is similar to that of the Fusion’s in that one player may end up dooming the entire team: off tank Lucas “NotE” Meissner. Although NotE was hailed back in 2018’s D.Va glory days as one of the best Western off tanks, in the latter half of 2019, which forced off tank players to play Roadhog and Sigma, NotE absolutely shit the bed. His performance on Team Canada in the 2019 OWWC was the same exact story. Essentially, NotE is a D.Va one-trick, and the Fuel don’t have a single backup for him. In other words, if D.Va is banned or even just not meta, the Fuel have already lost.

Toronto Defiant

While Toronto’s 4-man (3.5?) DPS line won’t seem to have too much trouble, I have some worries about the Defiant with hero pools. Main tank Adam “Beast” Denton, already pegged as the weak link, has only looked great on Winston, and, like SADO, has no backups. Not only that, but sole flex support Youngseo “KariV” Bak, while a great player, probably won’t have the same impact should Ana be gone from the meta. Main support Kristian “Kellex” Keller is known to have a relatively weak Mercy, so do you bring up 2-way player Jooseong “RoKy” Park when Lucio is banned? And what about off tank Andreas “Nevix” Karlsson, who, more or less, hasn’t played in a year? Can he play Sigma? There were already a lot of questions around this team, but with the new patch, these questions are sadly amplified. Toronto could succeed should everything go right, but there are just too many doubts.

Thank you all so much for reading! I haven’t written that much analysis since I mainly focus on features, so I really want to hear any feedback, be it compliments or criticism. Who do you think are the winners and losers of hero pools? Let me know. Thank you!