The Plat Chat Overwatch episode following the Overwatch Esport Grand Finals during the 2024 Overwatch Champion Series World Finals confirms the inclusion of Hero Bans during the 2025 OWCS season.
The Overwatch Champion series finally saw the 2022 MVP Proper be crowned his first championship, long awaited by fans, and we’ve only gotten better news for the expansion for Overwatch esports since then with the inclusion of team skins with funding attached too, rumors of a Chinese region, and now Hero Bans.
Hero Bans in Overwatch Esports
Ocie, an Overwatch content creator, expresses that inside talks have led to spark discussion on how to implement Hero Bans in Overwatch Esports. We previously saw Hero Bans during the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia’s feature of Overwatch esports. While we still still had one of the two big Korean teams, Crazy Raccoons, win the tournament, the inclusion of Hero Bans allowed a North American team, Toronto Ultra, to take stage and reach the Grand Finals instead of other Korean contenders such as Team Falcons or Zeta Division.
And yes, this does not take away from strategic meta formation as teams would only be able to ban one hero once in a match. This is exciting as it allows a meta to form but establishes enough diversity for variation, and that’s how Toronto Ultra were able to win a map off Crazy Raccoon during the Esport World Cup Grand Finals. And so, after the stale Juno-Mauga 321 Brawl meta during the Overwatch Esport Grand Finals, we’re likely to see a more dynamic and fresh play going forwards.
Hence, the inclusion of Hero Bans in Overwatch Esports means that we do not have to suffer through stale metas such as the Reaper, Mauga, and Juno meta which resembled GOATs from the 2019 Overwatch League season.
Here is our review of Metaphor: ReFantazio and check out PoggersMemes’ Warframes builds here and here