They should ban character double picking

I dunno, I've never lost a game where we had 6 of the same character.

I think a limit of one on a team makes the game better. It's not a mssive problem now for pubs since the majority are playing solo, but it can lead to annoying situations where people are picking too many Widowsmakers or too many slow tanks. You can avoid those situations then and the game is about mixing up the hero composition anyway and not about stubbornly picking the same one every game. Also, I don't think 4-6 stacks of the same hero are a lot of fun, except for 'trolling' (and fuck that except for maybe the arcade brawls). Samey gameplay since if you want to combat those stacks you need to pick 4-6 of the counter heroes. Plus Blizzard needs to balance the game with stacking in mind which might hurt the solo strenght of a hero, making them useless.

Yeah making a ranked mode or something would be the best place for limiting characters. I agree it's pretty infuriating to barely be able to exit the spawn because 5 Bastions are outside.

I see it as just fun, this isn't eSports (yet) so who cares. In my experience 6 of the same character never works out. Last night I came across 6 Winston and it was fun/funny but we also destroyed them. Having 2 Bastion on a super defensive map is tough to deal with but just get tracer and/or Pharrah on your team and it's pretty manageable.

No, they shouldn't do any kind of restriction. Multiple of the same character on the same team is not a bad thing. In my experience, it was always a fun time, even if my team lost. No one was raging about it or anything like that, because we were rolling with the joke as a whole. And it can be frightening, also. Going against a full Mei defense team is really fucking tough. When I saw it for the first time, I was like "holy shit!"

For me, the fully same character matches were some of the most memorable ones I had.

Also, whenever 2 or more people pick the same character, they usually react quickly and only one of them stays that character. And people can always change if the game isn't going well, so it's not that big of an issue.

To be honest, I would be fine if there was an emote option to say: "hey y'all should think about changing heroes".

Because me as Mercy won't do us any good when we're attacking, we have no tanks and 3 people are playing as Genji just cause he is a cool ninja.

I agree with the general sentiment of the OP, but I've personally never had the issues you've described (on PC). There have been times where I'm sitting there with my character selected, and a full minute later someone else picks it too, which is frustrating and usually leads to me picking something else, but generally it's not much of an issue.

I would definitely like there to be one of each character though, but I agree that Ranked play would probably be the place for that. The characters are fun enough where I wouldn't be bummed at all if I couldn't pick the one I was going for. There are a bunch of characters that I really like to play.

ehh wait for a ranked mode to restrict characters. In my experience, unless its on pc i dont find randoms work together at all anyway.I also have never seen 5 bastions 5 mei or whatever, at least on quick play.I havent even seen 3 of the same kind and rarely is it 2.(playing on PC)

People picking the same hero doesn't bother me too much personally. For me the bigger issue is a general lack of teamwork.

I have no issue with people being "bad" at the game, but it'd be nice to play support and actually have the opportunity to support people from time to time rather than having everyone split up into different corners of the map in an effort to try and get Play of the Match, as though it even means anything!

@tobbrobb: this is my thought as well. Seems easier to balance when you don't have to think about, "but what if the team 6 stacked this".

If it works well enough in competitive maybe brink it into pubs too, leaving the brawl to do crazier stuff.

I just had some of the most enjoyable matches I've had yet and it was all started with the enemy team going all Toblerone's on Defense. The next round both teams made an agreement that we'd all choose the same character and play as that character until the end of the round. What followed were some of the most entertaining, stupidest matches I've had yet. And it was wonderful. A team of D.Va's on Attack against a team of Lucio's? A wave of Roadhog's against a never-ending supply of Soldier 76's? It was a riot.

None of this would've been possible if you weren't allowed to pick the same hero.

I've seen a couple of people saying this and I'm still not sure why it's a problem. Being able to pick more than one of each character means you have more possible team compositions. If one character is constantly being picked over another then it's a balance issue. You'll see the same teams picked in competitive and it won't matter if you can pick the same character more than once.

I tend to have a good laugh whenever I see a team commit to a single character. Faced off again 5 roadhogs + lucio last night and was gertting crushed. I then switched to zarya and 3 of my team switched to bastion and we stopped the payload dead in its tracks. So your team doesn't necessarily have to switch to all 5 or 6 of a character and can still make it work

My friend and I were playing last night with 3 randoms. My friend and two of the randoms picked Solder: 76, so we just decided to go on a 5 Soldier: 76 run. We won the game in under 2 minutes.

I also had one of the most intense games against a team of two Winstons, two McCrees, and two Lucios. It was a King of the Hill that went to round 3, with both teams trading the point back and forth constantly. We lost the last round after getting to 99% and losing the point in overtime, then the other team carried it from 70. Crazy times.

I think @tobbrobb is on the money. Double picking is fine in pub, but triple pick and more is game breaking.

I dunno. I think people quitting out of games is way more annoying than multiple tracers.

They should probably have a rule-set that prohibits that, yes.

@bollard: I believe that's the point the OP is trying to make.

@danishingact:

Nothing is more annoying than Tracer.

@imsh_pl: Actually beat a team of this the other day. They were able to defend the first point amazingly well but weren't able to sustain once we were able to counter the turrets. It's can be a solid first defense tactic but afterwards you need to change it up. Reinhardt and Winston are great counters to Symmetra since they can withstand the turrets for a bit of time especially if you have a healer.

I had a fun time defending as a part of this team.

I dont think a single person made it into the capture area. Eventually they got smart and started busting out the Widowmakers & Hanzo's but it was too late.

@bezerker285: Pharah is also a good counter to that as her rockets can shoot from out of range of the turrets.

If there's a ranked mode maybe, but this games got such a casual vibe to it that limiting how people play seems pretty silly at this point.

You mean "When". Competitive rank mode is going to be implemented within a month.

As for the concern over single hero teams, I find it hilarious. There are so many ways to play the game, wrest control of the map and use the heroes that taking out this thing would be removing a great feature.

I think people should get to play what they want to play. Overwatch is one of the multiplayer games that gets that right.

Ok I've just played a game on defence.... paying no attention as the set up takes place, I glance at the screen to see 5 torjborns picked on my team... wow. Of course I pick torjborn also and we're off to a funny start. "My ultimate is charging" my teammates let me know every 5 seconds. The first skirmish is entered, the first bullets are let loose and I can SENSE the opposing teams facial expressions once they realise what's happening. Good lord, we mow them down hard, turrets blazing from every angle. I struggle hard to stifle a chuckle. The next skirmish begins and I almost loose my shit as a full team of Winstons comes jumping forward into our midst. We dispose of them. "My ultimate is ready" I'm told, 3 dozen times. The next wave is 6 genjis, eaten alive by suped up turrets. Game over and good night.

What, you don't like fighting double McCree? But double flashbangs+M2 is so fun to play around!

Na the game I play the other night with 4 Thornbjorns was hilarious

Also if you play VS AI even the AI will pick doubles.

I think there are a lot of strategies (legitimate ones, not cheesy 6 turret ones) that can be done with multiples of the same character. I haven't seen it be that much of a problem and once competitive play starts I doubt you'll see it much except in Quick Play/Solo Queue.
That being said, the last game I played where my team went all Mei and ice walled the opposing team into their spawn was pretty stupid, we ended up getting demolished in the end.

If this were a rule I couldn't have had a spontaneous 6 man roadhog match, which is a really stupid idea but it was super funny.

@frodobaggins said:

In theory, 6 Genjis should be able to reflect the turret bullets all day long, so I don't understand how the other team fucked up that badly.

The problem is that Genji can only deflect bullets coming from one direction. When you have 6 turrets set up that are shooting from multiple angles, with perfect aim to boot, plus another 6 beard dwarves also taking shots (effectively making it 12 on 6) the only way for those Genji's to not get fucked up is to time their reflects perfectly all at the same time. Otherwise they're just gonna get shot in the back while they're dealing with something in front of them. Its next to impossible to properly coordinate that in a pub game.

Oh those Genjis got fucked up HARD. I managed a quad kill with my scrap gun stood to the side whilst they were busy trying to deal with the turrets, and I didn't even get play of the game.... so yeah.

I would enjoy a mode with at max only one character per team. Even better, and maybe only possible if there were more characters added [a good bit more] I would enjoy a draft mode with a ban phase like many mobas have, and no repeats between teams. That second one though is probably only viable if a lot more characters were added though.

I've been watching this group of people play same character matches for a bit and it's hilarious. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't work, and in one case the other team even joined in. First round it was just the guys group of 6 Soldier 76s, next match the other team joined in and it was 12.

Basically CoD at that point. Also an all Pharah team was hilarious, even if they got slaughtered. The beginning with them all flying out of a window at once (from a play of the game enemy perspective at the end) and them timing ults were so good.

I'd say keep it in quick play and make it so you can only pick one in the competitive mode whenever that's out.

I think this is already evening itself out. Going all of one class is easy to counter. A well built team will always beat out a team of the same heroes.

6 Torbs? 1 D.Va ult will eliminate all the turrets. Junkrat is also good but it can be difficult to get in there with his ult if the turrets are well placed. Widowmaker can also pick them off with ease.

6 Genjis can be countered by Mei, Zarya, a good Roadhog, McCree, Torbjorn.

I just think if you lose against a 6-man 1-hero team then it's probably because nobody went with a good counter hero to whatever they're doing. Please, though, do not respond by also going as a team of all 1 hero because that probably won't work. I think people also get psyched out when they see a team of all 1 hero and don't step back and think about their own team makeup anymore.

I like the idea of having competitive mode allowing only one of each character, but have some concern over fighting over a particular one. If someone wants to play a ranked match and all the characters they enjoy are taken, would they just drop out?

As long as every character has a solid way to counter it, then there's no problem.

Man, I just don't know sitting through a draft / ban sequence before matches. But I totally get the frustration of having 3 Meis on the other team. Perhaps the ranked / competitive playlist will be a better place for that.

Say what you will, I think Evolve had a pretty eloquent system for character preference.

Team variety is pretty important to balance the match. Thankfully, I haven't really seen more than two of a character at a time on Pc. It happens, but very infrequently. And people change their character so often the dupes dissapear pretty quick.

I also think the more people play, the more they realize that plenty of heroes are fun and get out of the sticking to a single hero mindset that games like these can foster.

also are we talking doubles per team or doubles across the whole match?

@devil240z: The main point of contention is about multiple of the same characters per team.

That seems like having your cake and eating it too. I say if you're gonna not have doubles might as well make it double.

Almost all of these teams lose to something like a double McCree, Mercy+Lucio team, and the ones that don't have fairly obvious counters, e.g. Pharah and Lucio are godlike vs. turrets, Mei is either outranged by Widow or loses fights to Tracer, all Winstons is dealt with easily if you have an extra healer, etc. The best team is one that leverages its strengths and covers for its weaknesses.

@devil240z: Sure, personally I would prefer that too, but I can at least see an argument for allowing the same character on opposing teams.

I think no doubles per team would make a good competitive mode and no doubles at all could be like a hardcore mode.

Why is this irritating? It's the smart thing to do.