On paper, I don’t see how the positives of this change can outweigh the negatives.
For one thing, we’re not all here to go pro. We’re not all here to train to get better. Most of us are here for a lark. And for some people, that means sticking to the role(s) they’re best at. This can deny people those roles.
Beyond even that, some people are just naturally-suited to certain roles; Maybe they’re patient enough for Sombra, maybe they’re steady-handed enough for Widowmaker, maybe they’re bold enough for Roadhog. Pushing beyond the comfort zone has benefits, but that’s not what everyone’s here for.
One might think to just go to Quick Play, but Quick Play doesn’t have the same sense of progression and rewarding that Competitive does.
We’ve reaped the benefits of Role Select in Competitive (It’s so non-suited to Quick Play that Blizzard literally brought back non Role Select Quick Play as an Arcade mode), but that thing the game used to do where it highlighted the absence of certain roles during hero selection was suited to affording both freedom of choice and incentive to change up roles by showing where team compositions were lacking - which would then be emphasised by the team’s performance with or without those roles being filled.
The problem of people not switching things up to the detriment of the team’s success could be addressed by A: Re-introducing that hero select advice, B: Re-separating the Offence and Defence heroes so that new players can better discern which roles are suitable, C: Emphasising Role Select in tutorials, groups and perhaps even a separate Competitive mode, D: Removing Role Select from Quick Play so that people can freely practice without more considerable consequence, and E: Tweaking heroes to remove the flaws that incentivise people to not switch roles - like Reaper’s self-healing shotguns, or Symmetra’s offence-carrying teleporter, or the fact that Winston is about the only character who can’t get a kill without taking damage.
I’m open to having my mind changed. But right now, what I’m seeing is Blizzard forcing us to go hardcore when we just wanna be casual.
Edit: Also, this is still gonna wreck team comps, 'cause some heroes are not only suited to Offence or Defence, but also certain game modes and maps. Like how Orisa and Sigma are both Tanks geared somewhat more towards Defence, but Orisa is better in open spaces like Havana while Sigma is better with corridors like Gibraltar. Or like how Brigitte and Zenyatta are both healers geared more towards Offence, but Brig is better in the grouped-up spaces of Control and Escort while Zen is better in the spread-out spaces of Assault and Hybrid.
Edit: Another tweak: Junkrat shouldn’t be immune to his own explosions.
Edit (Because I keep finding problems with this): I just realised that the first two DPS characters to be blocked are Hanzo & Mei; Two Defence heroes. So an entire side of the gameplay is now at an even more distinct disadvantage.
Edit (Because more problems): If the point of this is to force - I repeat: Force - players to try new characters, then why is it being done in Competitive? This is the mode we want to fail at the least, hence we want to use the characters that we are already practised in. If we’re forced to pick a character that we have less experience in then we’re more likely to fail as we learn the ropes. This is what Quick Play is for, not Competitive.
Edit: And so it happens. My main has been blocked. My reliable, satisfying, fun main is gone for a week. Now I basically plan to outright avoid the entire class until she’s back, because I refuse to suffer Blizzard’s joy-killing nonsense.
