New Overwatch mode shows how hero ban system would work in ranked play

Hero bans in Overwatch have long been a contested topic amongst the community and the developers, primarily with how such a concept could be implemented. Now, a new mode has been created that shows how hero bans would work in ranked play.

As a competitive game, Overwatch has struggled to maintain balance, often leading to stale metas or overpowered heroes. As a result, this has led to heroes calling for hero bans in ranked play.

In the past, Blizzard has attempted its own variation of hero bans, with the devs themselves deciding which heroes to ban every given week. However, this quickly fell by the wayside as many were unhappy with the implementation.

Those against hero bans normally are so because it means there is a chance those players can’t choose their favorite character. Now, however, this new hero ban mode gives those users the chance to keep playing their main while still getting the benefits of a ban.

This new custom game mode lets every player in the lobby first vote on which heroes to protect from a ban before voting on which heroes would be removed from play.

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Basically, the heroes with the most votes in the protect phase cannot be banned, but in the event of ties, the system will choose.

The best part about this is the fact that every player on each team has a vote, so if someone really wants to play Mercy, they can ask all their teammates to protect that support so it cannot be banned.

Once heroes have been banned, however, they will be grayed out so no one on either team will be able to pick it.

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The mode itself has many different options too such as the number of votes each player gets, the ability to see who voted for what hero, the length of the protect and ban stages, and more.

According to Overwatch content creator SVB, who tested the mode with Pick Up Games, it was designed to replicate what it would be like in ranked where players may not know who their teammates or opponents are.

If you want to try it out yourself, the code is HDVGF. Give it a shot and see what you think of the experience.

Who knows, there is even a chance that the devs decide to implement this in some capacity, especially with Overwatch 2 still on the way.