What If? How a Specific Hero Being Banned Might Affect the Meta

Hero bans are one of the hot new things in Overwatch League these days, right up there with homestands. These will be implemented very soon and it’s anyone’s guess as to who and what is going to get banned.

There’s a sort of “Big Six” vibe going on right now, with Reinhardt, D.Va, Lucio, Ana, Mei and McCree being by far the most popular heroes. So if some of these heroes gets banned…what happens?

Reinhardt Ban

Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

Main tanks have been important in virtually every metagame and Reinhardt’s role right now is no exception.

Reinhardt often finds a place in these very grounded mobile playstyles thanks to his unique barrier. No other hero provides a barrier like Reinhardt does, which lets grounded heroes (like, say, McCree and Mei) push towards their opponents with greater ease.

Removing Reinhardt from the current meta would seriously mess with the majority of it. Having a solid barrier tank is extremely important in a meta like this. It was Sigma previously, but Sigma’s nerfs seemed to have shoved him out of contention and the other tanks don’t really have this sort of pushing power.

Some teams would probably try to replicate the current meta with something like Sigma, or maybe even Orisa, instead. It’s very likely, however, that most teams would just try a bunker composition or dive. Reinhardt is just too important to the meta right now to replace.

Lucio Ban

Image Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment

Much of what was said above can be said for Lucio. Lucio has been meta for almost as long as any other hero; only D.Va has him beat. His speed boosts have been incredibly important for the vast majority of metas. Only the madness of the Moth meta and some bunker compositions have seen him fall out of favor. He is once again an important member of these teams.

Lucio is the person who keeps the composition moving. The AOE healing is nice, of course, but the speed boosts is what really elevates him to the next level.

The composition will become much slower without Lucio. This is detrimental to the compositions ability to stick together as a team and reposition as needed. Taking this away would probably lead to a rise in bunker compositions, or have teams loading up on two main healers to circumvent the newly sluggish team composition.

D.Va Ban

D.Va has been incredibly important in almost every metagame for a few years now, and this one is no exception. She has recently chalked up another week at the top of the usage stats, and it’s not hard to see why. Her mobility, peeling, support and damage options are as helpful as ever in this metagame.

D.Va getting banned would be a huge blow to most compositions, but this one might be able to circumvent it. Zarya is not bad, but generally outclassed by D.Va right now. Zarya could take D.Va’s place in such a composition, although this might require a change in some of the DPS heroes in order to get at least some order of verticality.

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