[Update #2]: Overwatch's final hero Echo has now been released for both casual and competitive play.

[Update]: Overwatch is retiring Map Pools, as well as removing Paris and Horizon Lunar Colony from Competitive Play.

After a brief round of teasers, Overwatch's Hero #32 has been revealed as the mysterious Omnic Echo. However, instead of being a support hero as many expected, Echo has been unleashed as a highly mobile, and just as deadly, shape-shifting damage dealer.

While Echo will soon be making her way to the live version of Overwatch, you can check out her and her newly introduced cosmetics ahead of time by visiting the PTR. If you don't feel like downloading an entirely new client, however, you can also give the new skins a sneak peek over at the Overwatch Twitter. Needless to say, they are pretty darn amazing!

That's not where the good news ends, however, as Blizzard has also revealed that they are making significant changes to how the Competitive Map Pools will function. The details are basically nonexistent at this point, but you can expect to see a proper developer update on the topic in the next few weeks.

Personally, I can only hope they'll remove Map Pools as a whole. It was a nice idea, and it makes sense on paper as it gives players a chance to master each map, but in reality it just makes Overwatch a lot more stale.

In my case, I've pretty much stopped playing Overwatch this season after rotating between Horizon Lunar Colony, Hanamura and Junkertown three nights in a row. In small quantities these maps are a welcome bit of diversity, but when I'm forced to play them over and over and over again, it just becomes increasingly obvious how much I'd rather be cleaning my house instead.

Once the full announcement goes live, most likely alongside Echo's release, I'll make sure to let you know. Until then, good luck with your ranked matches and I hope you end up with a better spread of maps than I have!