BlizzardA new hero ban feature is coming to Overwatch 2 in Season 16, allowing players to vote to remove specific characters from their Competitive matches, and players already know which heroes they want to axe.
Overwatch players have been begging for hero bans in Competitive for some time, to allow teams to keep overpowered and frustrating characters out of their matches. For years, though, Blizzard have been reluctant to introduce the feature.
Following the success of Marvel Rivals, that’s all set to change in Season 16, as players will finally be able to vote to ban two heroes before every ranked game. But although the system isn’t arriving until April, many players already know which character they’re gunning for — Widowmaker.
OW2 players are already planning to ban Widowmaker
Reddit user ‘xalavine’ shared a post on the OW subreddit asking the community which characters they’ll be looking to ban in Season 16. It quickly received thousands of upvotes and replies, and while there were plenty of powerful heroes that received a mention, Widowmaker was easily the most popular.
“Every Circuit and Havana map is an auto Widow ban,” said one player. “I want the experience of playing these Widow maps without Widow. I feel like it will be game-changing.”
“Lol, Widow is getting banned every f***ing game,” added another.
One of the main reasons that Widowmaker is in everyone’s crosshairs is her one-shot potential. Unlike virtually every other character on the roster, she’s able to kill most support or damage heroes with just a single headshot, which many players have criticized in the past.
“There is no character more antithetical to the fun of this game than Widowmaker,” said one player, explaining why Widowmaker is likely to be banned often.
“She’s either completely worthless or the bane of my (and my team’s) existence. She isn’t fun to play with or against,” agreed another.
Of course, although Widow is deadly in the right hands, she’s only viable on certain maps and modes. In situations where the sniper is unlikely to be effective, the likes of Sombra, Mauga, and even Pharrah were all mentioned as possible replacements.
Piling on one character has been one of the biggest concerns about hero bans, so we’ll have to wait and see how it plays out. This isn’t the only major feature coming soon either, as there’s also the brand-new Perks system being added in Season 15.
