Overwatch has finally understood that Hero Pools don’t work and is removing them from the competitive game indefinitely. Overwatch community manager Molly Fender confirmed this via the game’s official forum.

The official statement from Molly Fender reads as follows:

“We have a new update to release regarding Hero Pools. We’ve listened to your feedback and have been working on the feature over and over again behind the scenes. Originally, we introduced Hero Pools to address issues with stagnant metas and to keep match ups exciting and fresh. However, we’ve found that the introduction of the Experimental Card and more frequent Hero Balance updates have helped us work toward a healthy, changing meta in competitive play without having to lock down Heroes.”
Going forward, Blizzard has decided to make the following changes to Hero Pools effective immediately:

• Hero Pools will be removed from competitive play indefinitely, with no tentative date for re-implementation.
• Beginning June 13, the Overwatch League will use a single Hero Pool for the first two weeks of each tournament cycle, consisting of three weeks of qualifiers and a tournament weekend of group matches. Hero Pools will not be used during the week leading up to each tournament or during tournament ladder matches.

Fans and players of Overwatch are rejoicing, as the immediate removal of Hero Pools from the competitive game is a good sign that Blizzard is listening to the community (albeit very late).
We’ve reported extensively on Hero Pools in Overwatch, why they don’t work, and how Blizzard needs to work more with its community. So removing the Hero Pools is a good step to hopefully make the game great again – make Overwatch great again.

Most importantly now is how this will affect the Overwatch League. The Overwatch League will continue to use a single hero pool for the first few weeks of each tournament cycle, with some changes to the format announced via an official Overwatch League post on the tournament rules.

From a casual player’s perspective, this is great news. No longer will certain heroes be randomly banned each week, and the Experimental Card is proving to be a success. Pro players, however, still have to deal with hero pools, which doesn’t help the Overwatch League at the moment.

But let’s end on a happier note. We’ve collected some of the funniest plays of the Overwatch League here, and who knows, we might have another installment planned.

Overwatch

Overwatch is a computer game by Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo 3, World of Warcraft) and a first-person shooter with individual fantasy elements. The game was released in May 2016.

In Overwatch, the player must choose between 21 unique characters, which can be freely selected in a loosely held classification system (offensive and defensive class, support unit and tanks).

A character’s three to four different abilities can be controlled and activated through the mouse and keyboard. The game modes already vary from scoring points to cargo hauling. Team play is required in both modes, as each character takes on a specific role in the battlefield (e.g. heal teammates, provide backup, or secure defensive lines).

The name Overwatch derives itself from a fictional elite military unit that came together when robots tried to subjugate humanity in a near future. Individual characters are associated with this unit in the game, while others oppose it. It is not yet known whether the storyline will continue in multiplayer.

Brawl

Brawl is a game mode in which time-limited rule variations of the well-known modes are drawn. Sometimes completely new game modes are used in Brawls.

Rule variations include, for example, the restriction to certain heroes or classes, changes to the cool-down times or certain cards. New game modes that have been playable so far include a soccer game and a PvE mode.

Usually, Brawls are restarted as Brawl of the Week every Tuesday at 22:00 UTC and are then playable for a week. On certain occasions, such as – Season al events, Brawls may also be playable for a longer or shorter period of time.

The game mode is comparable to the card chaos from Hearthstone and was activated for the first time in the beta phase on March 22, 2016 through a patch.

Actions

• Arcade: More health, shorter skill and ultimate cooldowns, and faster resurrection after death.
• Girl Power: Female heroes only.
• Head’s Up!: McCree, Genji, Hanzo, and Widowmaker. Only head hits count.
• High Noon: High Noon on Route 66, only head hits with McCree count.
• Highly Offensive: Only offensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Junkenstein’s Revenge: Soldier, Hanzo, Ana, Mc Cree only (1 each). The first co-op PVE mode in Overwatch. Part of the – Season al event Halloween Horror.
• Justice rains from Above: Only Mercy and Pharah playable.
• Moba Watch: Only unique heroes per team. No hero switching allowed.
• Mystery Heroes: Upon death, you will be resurrected as a randomly selected Hero.
• Overly Defensive: Only defensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Show Your Support: Support Heroes only. The limit is two of the same Hero per team.
• Super Shimada Bros: Welcome to Hanamura. Only Hanzo and Genji are playable. Shorter skill cooldowns, longer ultimate cooldowns.
• Tanks A Lot: Tank heroes only. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Only McCree, Reaper and Roadhog playable.
• We’re all Soldiers now: Only Soldier: 76 playable on control cards.
• Lucioball: Lucio only: Soccer mode, 3 vs 3.
• Yeti Hunt: Five meis against a yeti that has the characteristics of Winston.

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