How Will Hero Pools Affect Fantasy Lineups in Week 6?

The first week of hero bans is in the books, and it certainly proved to shake up the OWL like Blizzard had hoped. Teams tested several different compositions, and new characters saw the field of battle. Unfortunately for the viewers, these new looks are gone just as quickly as they arrived. With Winston, Sombra, and Lucio all heading to the sidelines, the classic “Dive” composition will need to wait one more week before teams can bust them out again. In their place will be the familiar faces of Reinhardt and McCree.

This Week’s Hero Bans: Winston, Soldier:76, Sombra, Lucio

Legs Get a Rest and Mei Survives

Photo: Joshua Roberts For Activision Blizzard

By losing 2 prominent hit-scan characters, teams saw the opportunity to bring the “dead” hit-scan back to life. Teams like Paris and Washington found great success with Solider:76, and their hit-scan players provided strong fantasy scores. Sadly, the bans will put Solider back onto the shelf once more, making the way for McCree’s return. Owners can expect those same scores from the first four weeks from their hit-scan DPS as OWL teams will most likely want to return to the compositions from before hero bans. Mei is somehow still avoiding bans, so the overall value of flex-DPS players is capped.

Full Dive is Dead, Long Live D.Va

Photo: Carlton Beener for Activision Blizzard Entertainment

Tanks heading into week 6 will look surprisingly similar to the weeks before hero pools were introduced. Winston gets the ban this time around, and teams will surely default back to the Reinhardt/D.Va. Main tank players’ value does not change in any meaningful way, maybe dipping just a tad. The main takeaway from this week’s bans is that off-tanks will continue to play D.Va and score solid amounts of fantasy points. Well, most teams will have their off-tank players play D.Va. Some may attempt to play Sigma and promptly get steamrolled, but hopefully, they realized D.Va is quite good with 3-second boosters.

Reddit Lucios Taking the Week Off

Photo: Ben Pursell For Blizzard Entertainment

Potentially the biggest loss in terms of fantasy is the banning of Lucio for main-supports. While Brigitte is a good character in terms of fantasy production, the concern comes from the amount out Mercy that may be seen. Mercy doesn’t contribute as much damage as Lucio, and that will certainly hurt the main-support’s fantasy performance. Luckily hero bans are only one week, and teams will see the speedy main-support back soon enough. Meanwhile, flex-supports will continue to be fantasy studs as their hero pool comes out unscathed.

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