Overwatch League 2019 Season

[Bakis]

Blizzard planning Overwatch League role lock to blow up GOATS meta

Finally..

Blizzard plans to blow up the Overwatch League's stale "3-3" GOATS meta—a composition of three tanks and three supports—by introducing a role lock that forces teams to pick two DPS heroes, two supports and two tanks, according to reports.

Esports site Upcomer reported on the role lock earlier this week, citing "multiple sources inside the Overwatch League". Blizzard will introduce the lock at the start of the current season's fourth stage, which begins in July, the report said.

The report was echoed by former Overwatch pro Baek “Fissure” Chan-hyung, who played main tank for the Seoul Dynasty before announcing his surprise retirement earlier this week. In a follow-up stream, Fissure claimed that the 2-2-2 role lock had already been decided for stage four. "I'm retired now so I'll say it. Next stage, stage 4, 2-2-2 lock is decided," he said, according to multiple translations of this clip.

While some players might not like the restriction, it should be a good thing for the audience. Damian wrote an excellent piece after the opening weekend of the current Overwatch League season in February about what exactly GOATS is, why it's boring to watch, and why Blizzard needs to blow it up. The developer has made attempts to do just that and some teams have drifted towards higher damage compositions, but GOATS still dominates.

A role lock would represent a change of heart for Blizzard: game director Jeff Kaplan has previously said that a rigid lock system "hurts the spirit" of Overwatch.

[NoiseTank13]

And there's the admission they can't feasibly balance the game.

[Twen]

If only they would revert the earlier patch of nerfs to goats heroes with this then, I'd be happy, but probably not.

[Bakis]

Some tweaks to some heroes might be needed in the long run.
Now I just wish Sombra ulti gets its duration slightly nerfed or radius.
Ultis that are not in offensive/defensive category but simply "denying" category are dull.
In its essence it removes interesting events from the match albeit for a short time. That is not good game design since it is AoE. Far too impactful and as such, as we already see, a must in most setups.

Mei ulti is not the same, it provide a far longer timespan to take counter measure.
RH stun is far far harder to setup.

You get my point. How impactful a denial ulti is their should be a corresponding downside to setting it up/achieve it.

[TriHard]

There's no need for hero balancing right now until they implement 2-2-2 which is probably gonna happen this month

[Bakis]

Double sniper might be looked at too or rather the synergy between Hanzo & Widow.