Overwatch 2 OWCS 2025 will feature hero bans: Everything we know

Starting from the upcoming Overwatch 2 OWCS 2025 season, the officials will introduce a feature that allows participants to ban heroes of their choice. In a recent X post, the official OWCS handle announced that this system will be fully implemented in the coming year. Over the years, Blizzard has expanded the game’s roster with new characters. As a result, certain characters can easily counter others, while some are extremely potent regardless of their opponents.

We will be taking a look at the Overwatch 2 hero ban feature that's set to debut with the OWCS 2025. Moreover, we will be discussing how it will affect each of the matches.

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A hero-banning system is set to debut in Overwatch 2 Esports

As mentioned earlier, the official OWCS X handle revealed they will be implementing a hero-banning feature in the future, starting with OWCS 2025. With this system, players will be able to select specific heroes to ban in each tournament match, adding a new layer of strategy to competitive play.

They have also stated that this feature will completely be implemented in every Overwatch 2 Esports tournament in 2025. While most of the regional qualifiers will be featuring this brand-new system, the Swiss Open Qualifier will not be a part of it. Hence, players participating in that particular Qualifier will be able to play with any characters they want.

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What to expect from the hero-banning feature in Overwatch 2 OWCS 2025?

One of the DPS Heroes, Genji (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Similar to how a hero-banning system works in most games, both teams will be able to ban a certain number of characters before a match starts. Depending on the seed of the teams, the one with higher seeds will be able to choose/pick a character to ban first. Each team will get to ban one character per map/match and they cannot ban Heroes with identical roles.

For Example, If the first team bans Genji, the second one won't be able to ban another DPS, they have to either pick a Support or Tank. Additionally, for better and more entertaining matches, players cannot ban the same Hero twice in a series. This will not only improve hero-balancing in competitive OWCS games, but also make the series even more entertaining to watch.

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