The four heroes that will be disabled for Week 6 of the OWL have been confirmed as the second iteration of bans comes through. Winston, Lucio, Soldier: 76 and Sombra will all be unavailable for the following teams that are playing in Week 6:

Toronto Defiant

Florida Mayhem

Paris Eternal

Boston Uprising

Washington Justice

Philadelphia Fusion

NYXL

Atlanta Reign

London Spitfire

With all of this confirmed, its time to look at who the winners and losers of this week’s hero bans are. Check back next week to see who the winners and losers of Week 7’s bans will be.

Winners

Washington Justice

Although Chang-hoon “rOar” Gye is an excellent Winston and will be unable to play that hero this week, it’s an overall net positive for the Justice for a variety of reasons. First, Corey “Corey” Nigra is back on hitscan, plain and simple. Second, they are matched up against the Toronto Defiant in Week 6. The Defiant have relied, more than anyone else in the league, on Winston, Lucio and Sombra in their compositions. The Justice only have one team to prepare for in Week 6 and its one that’s heavily disadvantaged. Look for them to snag their third win.

Cameron “Fusions” Bosworth

The Uprising’s main tank now stands alone at his position on the team with the recent health-related departure of Park “Axxiom” Min-seob. Thankfully for Fusions, he’ll get to play Reinhardt this week and won’t be forced to play Winston or Orisa. He made his mark on the league and the world during OWWC on the back of his Reinhardt play. He’ll need to channel every bit of that energy in the matchup against the hometown Mayhem in Week 6.

Losers

Houston Outlaws

The Outlaws finally get back on track and now… they have to take a week off. I’m sure none of the players or staff are complaining, as weeks off will provide much-needed rest and relaxation for the team. However, it’s really unfortunate to see them hit their groove so securely and then have to sit out until Week 9. Hopefully, the players come out with the same level of play when they take the stage again on April 4 in Washington, rather than digressing back to their early-season woes.

Pacific Conference Teams

Some may think the extra rest and ability to scout other teams is a plus for these 10 teams, however, I actually think its more of a negative at this point. Why? Adaptability. So many of the teams that have had stage time so far have learned, adapted and come out better for it. These teams will be all the more prepped and used to hero bans when it comes time for the Pacific teams take the stage for the first time (for some). Sure, they’ll be rested, but will they be ready?

Toronto Defiant

It’s already been said above, but these specific bans really hurt the Defiant’s playstyle. They’ll be forced to prove they can run the Reinhardt/Mei/McCree that is likely to be meta this week, rather than their typical Dive. They need to get the W against the Justice to avoid going 1-5 and slipping into early season irrelevancy. The odds are against them, can they be truly defiant and, well, defy them?

The Fans

While hero bans have been an overall positive for fans, this week is a slight step in the wrong direction. Outside of Lucio, all the banned heroes weren’t too far above 10% the minimum required 10% playtime. Because all heroes have the same chance of being picked each week, this may be a perfectly common event. For fans, this means that, nearly every other week, the standard meta composition can easily be run again. This week, fans will likely watch a lot of Reinhardt, McCree, Mei and Ana. This composition without a Lucio may not be the most exciting, not to mention its many of the same heroes we’ve seen through the majority of the league this year.

Also, as a reminder, these are not the same bans as Overwatch’s Competitive play. Those will be altered each week and can be found in our constantly updated hero pool article. Stay tuned for more on hero pools for Overwatch, the OWL and much more here at The Game Haus.

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