Overwatch to Update Hero Pools and Get Rid of Map Pools

Overwatch developers have shared their plans regarding Hero Pools and Map Pools. The changes will come into the effect early next week, alongside the release of the earlier revealed hero Echo.

Starting April 13th, the hero pools between Overwatch League and Competitive Play will be unified. Each week, depending on hero play rates from high-level competitive matches, the system will randomly remove from play most popular heroes –one Tank, two Damage, and one Support. The developers noted that one hero cannot be removed two weeks in a row.

Map Pools, which were introduced in late 2019, will be removed starting April 14th. After the update, all maps except for Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony will be available in Competitive Play. The developers are working to update those two maps and plan to add them to the pool when they are finished.

Earlier Jeff Kaplan, the game’s lead designer, revealed that Echo is the last new hero which will be added Overwatch. The development team is working on a number of heroes that will be released alongside the launch of Overwatch 2.