Reports: Blizzard planning Overwatch League role lock to blow up GOATS meta

Blizzard plans to blow up the Overwatch League's stale "3-3" GOATS meta—a composition of three tanks and three supports—by introducing a role lock that forces teams to pick two DPS heroes, two supports and two tanks, according to reports.

Esports site Upcomer reported on the role lock earlier this week, citing "multiple sources inside the Overwatch League". Blizzard will introduce the lock at the start of the current season's fourth stage, which begins in July, the report said.

The report was echoed by former Overwatch pro Baek “Fissure” Chan-hyung, who played main tank for the Seoul Dynasty before announcing his surprise retirement earlier this week. In a follow-up stream, Fissure claimed that the 2-2-2 role lock had already been decided for stage four. "I'm retired now so I'll say it. Next stage, stage 4, 2-2-2 lock is decided," he said, according to multiple translations of this clip.

While some players might not like the restriction, it should be a good thing for the audience. Damian wrote an excellent piece after the opening weekend of the current Overwatch League season in February about what exactly GOATS is, why it's boring to watch, and why Blizzard needs to blow it up. The developer has made attempts to do just that and some teams have drifted towards higher damage compositions, but GOATS still dominates.

A role lock would represent a change of heart for Blizzard: game director Jeff Kaplan has previously said that a rigid lock system "hurts the spirit" of Overwatch.

Which heroes do you think teams would pick if the 2-2-2 lock comes into play?

Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.