Hero Bans in Overwatch 2 Lead to Changes for Sombra, Zarya, and Others

Okay, so here’s the thing. Blizzard and this whole Overwatch 2 hero ban strategy—yeah, it kicked off in April. If you’ve been battling it out in season 16, you’ve probably noticed that a bunch of heroes are getting the boot. Sombra, Zarya, Symmetra—oh, and don’t forget Ana and Mercy—they seem to be the favorites for getting banned left and right. Blizzard tossed some numbers our way, and guess what? Those heroes are banned the most. Surprise! And something’s gotta give, right? Maybe a tweak here or there. I mean, you can’t just leave it as is, can you? Heroes need love too.

Sombra’s hitting home runs with a whopping 85% ban rate on PC. How’s that for popularity? Or lack thereof, I guess. Zarya trails not-so-closely behind at 59%, and Doomfist’s chilling at 43%. Console players? Sombra annoys them even more, with a crazy 93% ban rate! Like, wow. Zarya and Symmetra are there too, but not as much. What’s even happening there?

Then there’s Gavin Winter, the guy who tinkers with Blizzard’s systems. He thinks this ban stuff will play into balancing. Maybe those oddball heroes who shine only on some maps need to be more, I dunno, general-purpose? Or something like that. And if heroes aren’t doing much—and nobody likes them—they might get some tweaks anyway. But wait, no real changes are happening just yet. Hero Bans? They’re not the boss of hero balance or anything.

What does this mean for heroes like Zarya? Seriously, if Sombra’s benched 85% of the time ’cause nobody wants to deal with her… why bother? Investing time and energy into a hero only to have them sidelined most games? Ugh, not ideal.

But, hold on…. despite all this, Blizzard’s kinda—wait, what’s the word—relieved? Content? Happy, that’s the one! The ban system’s doing its thing, they reckon. Winter says they’re curious to see how this whole Hero Ban gig changes. They’ll start sharing more about who’s winning and getting picked all the time. I guess data makes the world go ’round.

And hey, there’s more. In season 17, rolling out in June, players get this new map-voting thing. That sounds… interesting? Little more control in the chaos. So yeah, keep your eyes peeled for that.