Overwatch 2 Season 16 finally adds hero bans to competitive play, and it’s really brought out the vindictive side of players: ‘He’s an annoying unkillable pain in the ass’

Every Overwatch player has that one hero that they can’t stand. The hero that boils their blood and fills them with a kind of rage that is unmatched in every other avenue of their life. For me, it’s Mercy, but every player has their own arch-nemesis in this game, and now we can all do something about it.

Overwatch 2 Season 16 is introducing hero bans, finally. At the beginning of every competitive match, players will vote to remove up to four heroes from play (two per team, but no more than two per role).

This will give players an extra level of customisation to “tweak team compositions and add an extra layer of mind games before the real fighting begins,” according to a Blizzard blog post. “It’s a system built for strategic thinkers and team players, which rewards coordination and understanding of hero synergies.”

I, alongside most Overwatch players, have been begging for bans since 2018, the same season when Brigitte was introduced and I played D.Va, but that’s just a coincidence. Then last year, I pleaded my case for hero bans yet again after a particularly brutal balance patch that saw me getting rolled by the evil hamster in a mechanical ball.

Hero bans have been teased here and there over the years. Jeff Kaplan discussed adding them back in 2020 in the form of an “Experimental Card”, where Blizzard would choose which hero got banned via a hero pool system that would change each week. But it wasn’t seriously talked about until February this year, as it was presented alongside a whole host of radical changes.

With a roster as big as Overwatch 2’s, there’ll always be one or two heroes who are just too big for their boots. Maybe they’re super strong in the current meta, or perhaps they triple in strength on a certain map. There are a lot of variables to juggle, and hero bans allow you to make things a bit more manageable.

“Hero Bans don’t just level the playing field, they shape it,” the blog post says. “Are you tired of seeing the same heroes dominate every match? Want to throw a wrench in the enemy’s go-to strat? Coordinate with your team and swing the vote to remove a high-impact pick, block that one counter that’s keeping your best in check, lock out a problematic flanker, or protect your support duo. Whoever you choose, Hero Bans give your squad more power to play your way.”

Players have been fantasising over who they’re going to ban, and it seems like the most popular pick for bans is none other than Doomfist. “Doom mains either roll the entire lobby or are recovering from a lobotomy,” JaSaw0 says.

With the hero ban coming to the game in the future, who do you think will be the most banned heroes? from r/Overwatch

“If Doom is on the other team he’s an annoying unkillable pain in the ass,” other player adds. “If he’s on my team, He’s one of those moronic Doom Mains that thinks ‘Nah I’d win I’m that guy’ and refuse to swap even when the entire enemy team is counter picking and dumpstering him the entire time. I’m tired of brain-dead Dooms trying to play rock against paper and then blaming their team because we can’t somehow magically keep him alive.”

A good Doom is pretty annoying to play against, but as I main Ana, it’s not a massive issue to me. I just periodically sleep and nade the guy until they switch or throw the game in anger. But without an Ana to counter him, I can see how a Doom could make everyone’s life a misery, jumping around the place, punching people into walls or off the map.

But there’s a dark side to hero bans: someone banning your main. I’m actually a little worried to see that there’s some chatter around tanks wanting to ban Ana. Yes, getting slept and naded every time you round a corner is pretty aggravating, but I don’t want the joy of toying with a Hog taken away from me.

But even still, I’ll gladly take that L if it means players can ban overpowered and annoying heroes. These bans have been made “to keep things fresh, fair, and fun for everyone,” and I think it will do just that, or at least make things a little more bearable for hard countered heroes like D.Va or Hog.