[Update]: An experimental update has now arrived with significant Ashe and Pharah buffs, so it would appear that the whole Hero Pools experiment was quite successful!

When Blizzard first announced weekly hero bans, they said they were going to heavily experiment with the concept in order to see what works best. Well, if Week 4 is any indicator, they certainly weren't joking!

As a part of this week's Hero Pool, D.Va, Mccree, Soldier 76, Sombra, Widowmaker and Baptiste have all been rotated out of Competitive Play. Needless to say, removing most hitscan heroes and D.Va is going to create a drastically different meta, one where highly aggressive but vulnerable heroes like Pharah, Genji, or Wrecking Ball can dominate.

Personally, I'm the most curious about how my namesake Ashe is going to do in this brand new world. It's often said that the only way she would ever be top dog is if Widowmaker, D.Va and McCree suddenly disappeared from the game, which as it so happens, is exactly the case! So does this mean we'll have Ashe and Pharah dueling it out on every map, or will each hero continue to be incredibly niche due to their innate weaknesses? To be perfectly honest, I don't know, but I'm more than eager to find out!

I can only hope Blizzard will continue these types of experiments in the future as well, because even if they do make a mess out of Competitive Play for a week or two, the amount of useful data they'll receive about hero balance will be invaluable. After all, if heroes like Ashe and Pharah don't end up being excellent in a meta that has almost completely removed their counters, it's a clear indicator that something needs to change.

Whatever the case may be, I hope you have fun with what is very likely going to be a crazy meta!