Season 21 - Week 5 Bans and the new hero pool process
Some big news today which we need to go over first because it directly relates to how I feel about this week's bans.
First of all, Map pools are now done. The oddest part of this idea is that one of their main concepts was to give each season a different feeling. I understand what they are saying but in practice no one will remember the seasons because of the map pool. When i think back to any season i never think of the map pools, new maps, old maps or anything like that. The only thing that I personally remember, and what i think most are, is the meta. We remember GOATs, we remember double sniper and moth meta. No one cares what maps are being played but players and people will more likely remember something they hate rather than something they like. Its akin to the resturant analogy when it comes to customer service. You can do something right a thousand times but one bad experience will make them never come back. I enjoy Kings Row for the first 19 seasons of overwatch. In season 20 I was getting bored of it after playing it 4 times in a night. I think its a smart move as this approach never helped the issue it was attempting to solve.
To me the main feature of map pools was to take a map out of the pool for 2 months and fix it, then reintroduce it back into the game. They created a process that would allow for minor or major changes to a map with an ingrained timeline. I thought it was a great idea, much like a maintenance window so players can plan ahead of time and look forward to new updates.
In a completely ironic twist of fate, all maps are coming back April 14th -except- Paris and Horizon Lunar. They specifically call out those two maps were a reason the map pool was created. They are attempting to fix them to be more fun. Why is this ironic? Horizon Lunar Colony is still in the map pool. So while they acknowledge that the map isn't fun they've stuck it in this season's map pool and is still at this moment in the map pool. So have fun playing a known bad map till the 14th?
Secondly, and what i'm most upset about.
The hero pools are unifying. Meaning that there will be no discrepancy between the OWL hero pools and the ladder hero pools. This is good news for professional players who wanted to practice a specific hero on the ladder but were faced with the challenge of running with and against a team that wouldn't be possible to run in OWL. It will also bring players and OWL professionals closer in terms of how the game is played, which was a prime complaint when the patches didn't line up between ladder and OWL. Back then it didn't feel like the professionals are playing the same game we are so there is a little bit of a disconnect.
Now I know everyone's next question. If the hero pools are unifying, does that mean OWL pick rates are going to determine whats going to be banned? No! Well... kinda.
"To determine a week’s Hero Pool, we'll compile hero play rates from high-level Competitive Play matches from the preceding two weeks. Heroes with play rates above a certain threshold will be eligible to be removed; the higher their play rate, the more likely they are to be removed. Based on that, one Tank, two Damage, and one Support will be randomly removed from play. "
We need to focus on "play rates from high-level Competitive Play matches". I don't know if they're only referencing ladder competitive play or if ladder and OWL pick rates will some how determine what gets banned. There are some calculations behind the scenes but we'll never know them. If I had to guess, I would assume OWL pick rates would be involved somehow and be weighted a little heavier and then that data would be added to the GM/Top 500 ladder pick rates and then heroes would be picked from that.
I'm upset that its "at random" even if it is weighted by pick rates. I think the highest pick heroes should be ban consistently so we know what heroes are overpowered and need to be adjusted. This is basically how DOTA pick/bans work most of the time. Anyone that's constantly targeted will be slightly changed in the next patch. I understand that the community could come together to get a specific hero banned by constantly playing it but that's a side effect of the system.
What upsets me the most is that the hero pools on the ladder were a great way to generate data without effecting OWL balance. Blizzard could look at the balance on the ladder with specific hero pools and make good decisions based off of that data. Like the week they banned hit scans to understand phara/ashe better, that is no longer possible. The pools have been standardized (1 tank, 2 dps, 1 sup) and picking them is randomized; it is impossible to specifically gather data about certain comps/heroes. By far one of the best tools that Blizzard created is now gone.
Maybe they have enough data, maybe we'll have a big patch or OW2 will drop some big changes. I'm just disappointed overall.
Which leads to our last point, this week's bans! Zarya, Phara, Symmetra, Lucio.
Remember that the new unified pools happen on the 13th, only four days away, these will be the bans on the ladder. I don't know if that's enough time to gather data but I'll still give it a go. With Zarya and Lucio out we'll most likely not see rein at all but if he is played we'll see how he works without his two best buddies. Some dive comps really like to have a zarya, we'll most likely see double shield come back and other variants of it.
I don't see much happening with the DPS lineup, Phara just got a buff but she's not very strong against any specific composition. Same with Symmetra, banning her almost feels useless as nothing much will change. Shes been found to be strong on some points but not strong enough to warrant picking her often. Overall both DPS heroes banned aren't strong enough against any specific hero, composition nor map. They can both be replaced fairly easily in terms of DPS, as of right now I'm having issues coming up with what meaningful data this could produce. I'm only human so i'm sure there are things I'm missing.
I believe Lucio is subtly one of the best offensive supports in the game. He can put a lot of pressure on the inaccurate heroes, as we saw during the week hit scan was banned. Lucio could be aggressive and not be punished as hard for it. (which is good) Overall I'd like to see Rein's pick rate and effectiveness as well as any shotgun hero that relies on close ranged fights. On the flip side, inconsistent heroes will be a bit better as lucio was a legitimate threat to them. Snipers and junkrats will have an easier time. I'd also like to see how fewer environmental deaths there are and specifically for what heroes/maps with lucio out of the pool.
First of all, Map pools are now done. The oddest part of this idea is that one of their main concepts was to give each season a different feeling. I understand what they are saying but in practice no one will remember the seasons because of the map pool. When i think back to any season i never think of the map pools, new maps, old maps or anything like that. The only thing that I personally remember, and what i think most are, is the meta. We remember GOATs, we remember double sniper and moth meta. No one cares what maps are being played but players and people will more likely remember something they hate rather than something they like. Its akin to the resturant analogy when it comes to customer service. You can do something right a thousand times but one bad experience will make them never come back. I enjoy Kings Row for the first 19 seasons of overwatch. In season 20 I was getting bored of it after playing it 4 times in a night. I think its a smart move as this approach never helped the issue it was attempting to solve.
To me the main feature of map pools was to take a map out of the pool for 2 months and fix it, then reintroduce it back into the game. They created a process that would allow for minor or major changes to a map with an ingrained timeline. I thought it was a great idea, much like a maintenance window so players can plan ahead of time and look forward to new updates.
In a completely ironic twist of fate, all maps are coming back April 14th -except- Paris and Horizon Lunar. They specifically call out those two maps were a reason the map pool was created. They are attempting to fix them to be more fun. Why is this ironic? Horizon Lunar Colony is still in the map pool. So while they acknowledge that the map isn't fun they've stuck it in this season's map pool and is still at this moment in the map pool. So have fun playing a known bad map till the 14th?
Secondly, and what i'm most upset about.
The hero pools are unifying. Meaning that there will be no discrepancy between the OWL hero pools and the ladder hero pools. This is good news for professional players who wanted to practice a specific hero on the ladder but were faced with the challenge of running with and against a team that wouldn't be possible to run in OWL. It will also bring players and OWL professionals closer in terms of how the game is played, which was a prime complaint when the patches didn't line up between ladder and OWL. Back then it didn't feel like the professionals are playing the same game we are so there is a little bit of a disconnect.
Now I know everyone's next question. If the hero pools are unifying, does that mean OWL pick rates are going to determine whats going to be banned? No! Well... kinda.
"To determine a week’s Hero Pool, we'll compile hero play rates from high-level Competitive Play matches from the preceding two weeks. Heroes with play rates above a certain threshold will be eligible to be removed; the higher their play rate, the more likely they are to be removed. Based on that, one Tank, two Damage, and one Support will be randomly removed from play. "
We need to focus on "play rates from high-level Competitive Play matches". I don't know if they're only referencing ladder competitive play or if ladder and OWL pick rates will some how determine what gets banned. There are some calculations behind the scenes but we'll never know them. If I had to guess, I would assume OWL pick rates would be involved somehow and be weighted a little heavier and then that data would be added to the GM/Top 500 ladder pick rates and then heroes would be picked from that.
I'm upset that its "at random" even if it is weighted by pick rates. I think the highest pick heroes should be ban consistently so we know what heroes are overpowered and need to be adjusted. This is basically how DOTA pick/bans work most of the time. Anyone that's constantly targeted will be slightly changed in the next patch. I understand that the community could come together to get a specific hero banned by constantly playing it but that's a side effect of the system.
What upsets me the most is that the hero pools on the ladder were a great way to generate data without effecting OWL balance. Blizzard could look at the balance on the ladder with specific hero pools and make good decisions based off of that data. Like the week they banned hit scans to understand phara/ashe better, that is no longer possible. The pools have been standardized (1 tank, 2 dps, 1 sup) and picking them is randomized; it is impossible to specifically gather data about certain comps/heroes. By far one of the best tools that Blizzard created is now gone.
Maybe they have enough data, maybe we'll have a big patch or OW2 will drop some big changes. I'm just disappointed overall.
Which leads to our last point, this week's bans! Zarya, Phara, Symmetra, Lucio.
Remember that the new unified pools happen on the 13th, only four days away, these will be the bans on the ladder. I don't know if that's enough time to gather data but I'll still give it a go. With Zarya and Lucio out we'll most likely not see rein at all but if he is played we'll see how he works without his two best buddies. Some dive comps really like to have a zarya, we'll most likely see double shield come back and other variants of it.
I don't see much happening with the DPS lineup, Phara just got a buff but she's not very strong against any specific composition. Same with Symmetra, banning her almost feels useless as nothing much will change. Shes been found to be strong on some points but not strong enough to warrant picking her often. Overall both DPS heroes banned aren't strong enough against any specific hero, composition nor map. They can both be replaced fairly easily in terms of DPS, as of right now I'm having issues coming up with what meaningful data this could produce. I'm only human so i'm sure there are things I'm missing.
I believe Lucio is subtly one of the best offensive supports in the game. He can put a lot of pressure on the inaccurate heroes, as we saw during the week hit scan was banned. Lucio could be aggressive and not be punished as hard for it. (which is good) Overall I'd like to see Rein's pick rate and effectiveness as well as any shotgun hero that relies on close ranged fights. On the flip side, inconsistent heroes will be a bit better as lucio was a legitimate threat to them. Snipers and junkrats will have an easier time. I'd also like to see how fewer environmental deaths there are and specifically for what heroes/maps with lucio out of the pool.