Blizzard has updated its website with a new blog post from Gavin Winter, explaining the process of hero bans for competitive play. The feature debuts in Season 16 and aims to give players strategic agency without disrupting weaker niche picks.
The system targets heroes that are seen as too strong or annoying, but excludes those targeted solely because the enemy team enjoys them. During the ban phase, match text chat is disabled, and communication with the entire lobby is restricted.
To cast a vote, players select their “preferred hero,” which signals to their team that they’d like to play that hero. Teams do not take turns voting; instead, each player chooses three heroes to ban simultaneously. The first choice carries the most weight, while subsequent choices carry proportionally less. A maximum of four bans are allowed per team.
Here’s how the system works behind the scenes:
* The team with the most votes for one hero is considered the “first” team and has their most-voted hero guaranteed to be banned.
* If both teams are tied, the first team is decided randomly.
* The second team becomes the “second” team, and their bans happen next. However, if the heroes they voted for were not the first team’s most-voted hero, then the second team’s most- and second-most-voted heroes will be banned.
* If the second team’s most or second-most-voted hero is also the first team’s most-voted hero, the second team’s third-most-voted hero is used instead.
* The second most-voted hero on the first team will be banned with the same caveat as before.
* Ties are broken by randomly selecting the hero that was voted for by the most players in the lobby.
Additionally, no more than two heroes in each role can be banned. If a team’s next most-voted hero is also in the same role and has already been banned, then their vote is ignored, and they’ll instead ban their next most-voted hero in a different role.
Source: https://gamespace.com/all-articles/news/overwatch-2-directors-take-outlines-how-hero-bans-work-in-competitive-play