Last week we talked about the newly announced Hero Pools that Blizzard introduced for the first time in week 5 of the Overwatch League. The Heroes that were removed were: McCree, Widowmaker, Reinhardt and Moira. The result of these Heroes being taken out of the Hero Pool was that a lot of teams played the intensely turbulent Dive compositions. In replacement of the removed heroes, Orisa and Sigma got picked out as main tanks with double shield to compensate for the loss of Rein’s shield. Winston was also one of the most picked tanks all throughout week 5. Tracer took a spot as one of the most used damage dealer and Zenyatta was one of the most popular supports in the stead of Moira.
This week in week 5 we saw the Houston Outlaws taking down Paris Eternal, owning up to their claims, with their coach’s tweet saying:
Blizzard’s new take on how the meta for Overwatch should be, benefits the players of the Houston Outlaws substantially, as they are all very talented individuals. And it seems like the Hero Pools are working, teams are making their own unique style and using a variety of heroes.
We also saw Florida Mayhem beating Toronto Defiant with a 3-1 score line, and Atlanta Reign sweeping Boston Uprising with a 3-0 victory.
One of the best highlight plays of week 5 was the final fight of the final match between Paris Eternal and Philadephia Fusion, were Xzi (Eternal’s DPS) Demechs Poko (Fusion’s Tank) causing him to use his ultimate ability to remech in a position where he could not damage any of Paris Eternal’s players. He keeps tracking onto Funnyastro (Fusion’s Support) to kill him from high ground. He also peels for HyP and manages to take down Sado with a missile before Sado eliminates HyP. And to top it all off, he manages to demech Poko again, and kill Ivy just as he was activating his tac visor. In just fifteen seconds. Xzi took Soldier 76’s kit and used it to its full potential to take home the win versus Philadelphia Fusion.
Match scores
- Toronto Defiant 1 – 3 Florida Mayhem
- Paris Eternal 0 – 3 Houston Outlaws
- Boston Uprising 1 – 3 Washington Justice
- Paris Eternal 3 – 2 Philadelphia Fusion
- New York Excelsior 3 – 1 Washington Justice
- Boston Uprising 0 – 3 Atlanta Reign
The week 6 Hero Pool was also declared. The most important thing to keep in mind is that for heroes to be eligible to be removed from the hero pool, they must have a minimum of 10% play rate in the past weeks. For this week, the play rate was determined by usage in week 4 and week 5. They are as follows:
Eligible Tank Heroes
- D.va – 92.6%
- Winston – 32.5%
- Orisa – 18.0%
Eligible Damage Heroes
- Mei – 58.5%
- Tracer – 32%
- Sombra – 21.7%
- Soldier: 76 – 14.7%
Eligible Support Heroes
- Ana – 61%
- L̼cio Р53.8%
- Brigitte – 39%
- Zenyatta – 26.9 %
After the heroes were drawn, we ended up with the following heroes being banned for week 6:
Damage – Soldier: 76 and Sombra
Tank – Winston
Support РL̼cio
Video showing week 6’s heroes being removed from the hero pool randomly:
Week 6 Predictions
Week 6 will continue on the 14th and 15th of March in sunny Miami, with the following match ups:
- New York Excelsior vs Atlanta Reign
- London Spitfire vs Philadelphia Fusion
- Paris Eternal vs Florida Mayhem
- Toronto Defiant vs Washington Justice
- London Spitfire vs Atlanta Reign
- Boston Uprising vs Florida Mayhem
It is expected that dive won’t be the most common team composition for many teams during week 6 with the removal of Winston, but it is rumored that Bunker will be more commonly picked as a meta. It is likely that the most picked heroes for week 6 will be: D.va, Reinhardt, Mei, McCree, Ana and Brig. In the end we’ll just have to wait and see how this next week will play out with the new hero swap outs and how the teams will adapt to this drastic change of play.
Be sure to stay tuned by checking out https://www.esportsguide.com/ for all the latest news and updates.
