A few people have asked about “What constitutes a Masters or Grandmasters” match, so let me answer that for you all. When Hero Pools come back, they will be active in your match if the average SR amongst all the players is greater or equal to 3500 SR. So if you’re at 3495 SR, you could be in a match with hero pools if other players in the match have higher SRs and raise the average above 3500. If you have a SR of 3510, you could end up in a match with an average SR below 3500 and not have hero pools. One other thing to note is that you can still end up in an “Master and Grandmaster” match even if you or other players are in placements.

thanks for all of the feedback in the thread so far!

just as a reminder, we’re always open to iteration. we’ve changed this system quite a bit since we first implemented. if someone is causing issues, we’ll keep a close eye on it and make sure to address it.

We’ve been continuing to read, listen, and watch feedback on Hero Pools from members all across the Overwatch community, and we’re going to make additional changes to the feature to address many of these concerns. Let’s jump right into what we’re doing!

Hero Pools Will Now Use Overwatch League Data

Starting this weekend, Hero Pools eligibility will be determined using hero usage rates from Overwatch League games. While initially our data showed that there were many similarities in hero usage between online high-level Competitive Play and OWL matches, online hero usage over the last few weeks has seen a lot of changes due to the release of Patch 1.47’s balance updates, Experimental Card, and Echo. There were some significant differences between online hero picks versus the most played hero compositions in Overwatch League. Yes, I’m looking at you, Mei and Reaper. Determining Hero Pools with online data did achieve our goal to increase hero variance in matches, and the point of Hero Pool...

Overwatch PTR Patch Notes – May 1, 2020

A new Overwatch patch is in development and now available for testing! To share your feedback or report any issues, please post in the PTR Feedback or PTR Bug Report forums.

Please note that the below patch notes only include changes currently available for testing on the PTR. While many of these changes may also be available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in a future patch, the PTR is PC-only and only reflects changes coming specifically to that platform.

BUG FIXES

General

• Fixed a bug that could cause the “While You Wait” UI to become unresponsive
• Patch Notes Button - Fixed a bug that could cause the “New” tag to remain after patch notes have been viewed

Heroes

Echo

• Fixed a bug where Sticky Bombs could sometimes deal damage through shields

Mei

• Fixed interactions between friendly Mei’s Cryo-Freeze and various abilities