New Hero Embargo

[denkstrum-hots]

I don't believe Superjova is necessarily fond of this topic, but it is frequently requested by a majority of the teams it seems.

Competitive is atleast 2 week delay from release to use in game. I suggest that the league not allow a new heroes use until the first full week of availability. What I mean by that is that heroes are released mid week, the new hero would be available for use In Chairleague the following week beginning Monday.

This gives everyone a few days to figure him out atleast and know if they are worth a ban and are broken OP. It also gives continuity that all teams are on a level playing field, not a change in hero options mid week.

[johnafogarty4]

I'm very torn on this one. We've always practiced new heroes on PTR specifically so we would have that understanding. As a caster this is also one of the things I've always enjoyed about CL, the excitement behind a new hero release, and if a team that night will use him or not.

With that said, I would agree this is probably the most often requested thing from teams in CL. I wouldn't do the 2 week wait, I think waiting until the start of the following week is a good compromise, but I still like them being available on day 1. There were weeks I was glad my game was played on Monday and not Tuesday. :)

I would also point out that teams not wishing to deal with a new hero have a new option, join the Monday league. I can't remember a time when a new hero was released on Monday. Also, now that there are no games on Tuesday everyone has at least one day on live to figure the new hero out.

[superjova]

There's a couple reasons I disagree with this as a rule for Chair League. Let's look at the Genji patch.

Genji Patch (paraphrasing)

• Genji comes out
• Uther gets massive changes
• Some heroes get minor updates

Most people believe that it is fair to ban new heroes for 2 weeks. The thing I never understand is why is Uther not banned from this patch? His entire talent tree was changed but nobody sees that as a 'new hero'. Then there are several 'tuning' updates to multiple heroes.

If we are going to ban new heroes from a patch, all heroes updated in the patch should also be banned. I don't see why we can be subjective and only ban new heroes when there are several game changing updates in each patch.

I say all or nothing. So far we're at nothing.

[Durgulach]

I see this as a null issue in the new format. The issue with hero releases was that different teams om different nights were playing on different patches. With the night system, everyone is on the same page. If you want to wait a week, play monday, if you want to wait a few days Fri/Sat. If you want instant access play wednesday. Everyone in each league is now in the same boat with their rivals.

[superjova]

Any update on this? Haven't received enough information to change this rule

[Zedalve]

The Open Division moved to Tournament Server to solve this issue where the Monday matches and Tuesday Matches were being played on different patches.

[Durgulach]

I am still a proponent of allowing new heroes. First and foremost because it is fun to test new heroes in a competitive environment. Second is also the reworked heroes issue. Uther basically functioned as a new hero, as have other heroes that have been reworked.

I also dont see this as an issue since everyone in each league is always going to have the same access the the hero pool.

Basically if we want to keep a "rec league" feel then we keep it live or of we want a "serious competitve" feel then we add a delay so that people dont have to deal with new meta day of match (though the meta changes every patch regardless of new hero releasea).

My opinion is that we are not hgc. We dont spend a full week scrimming multiple hours a day on a set patch to hone it for 1-2 matches each week on the tournament server. I would leave it as is since most chairleague players are serious enough to have some background on a new hero at release but not serious enough to play tournament server style delayed patch level competitve (though I suppose that may vary between divisions maybe?)

[kevinymfan]

In my team's series this past week, our opponents proposed that we informally ban Stukov for the series, to which we agreed. I think that if we allow informal agreements like this (non-binding, of course), then there's no need to enforce new hero bans. Chair League is as much about fun as it is about competition and a lot of viewers and casters are curious to see how new heroes shake up games before the pros set the norm. Plus, everyone has equal access to the PTR and patch notes.