Overwatch is cleaning its pools

We’ll be making some important changes to Hero Pools and Map Pools systems starting next week to make both systems more straightforward and consistent.

Unifying the Hero Pools

On April 13, we will be implementing a unified Hero Pool, allowing both the Overwatch League, Contenders/Open Division, and Competitive Play to mirror each other as closely as possible and making a more consistent viewing and play experience. Here’s how this will work:
  • To determine a week’s Hero Pool, we'll compile hero play rates from high-level Competitive Play matches from the preceding two weeks. Heroes with play rates above a certain threshold will be eligible to be removed; the higher their play rate, the more likely they are to be removed. Based on that, one Tank, two Damage, and one Support will be randomly removed from play. (Note that heroes will not be removed two weeks in a row.)

• At the end of each Sunday’s Overwatch League matches, we’ll announce the Hero Pool that will be used that upcoming week for both live Competitive Play, Overwatch League, and Contenders/Open Division. That pool will go into effect in the game Monday morning.

• This process will occur every week of the Overwatch League regular season; during weeks that there are no Overwatch League matches, the same data will still be used to determine the Hero Pool and you will find out Monday morning.

Retiring Map Pools

To simplify the competitive experience, we are going to no longer have rotating Map Pools starting April 14. Instead, Competitive Play will include all of the maps, with the exception of Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony. When we make updates to those two maps to improve their play in the future, we’ll add them back into the pool at that time. To learn more about the philosophy for our Hero Pool and Map Pool changes, read our full blog post.