Overwatch

It’s Hard To Look Away From The Overwatch League’s 0-37 Team

After last night, the Shanghai Dragons are 0-37 in the Overwatch League. That’s longer than any losing streak in the history of the big four North American pro sports—worse than the 1976-77 Bucs and Process Sixers losing 26 and 28 games over two seasons. Worse than the Louisville Colonels losing 26 straight in 1889. They…

Overwatch Fans Are Swooning Over Symmetra’s New Voice Lines

Symmetra’s rework has been blowing Overwatch players’ minds. For some fans, their favorite part are her new voice lines. Today, numerous changes to Symmetra went live on PTR, including her new ultimate. This attack will create an enormous shield that cuts across the map, lasts for 15 seconds, and has 5,000 HP. It’s totally wild.…

Zoning In Overwatch Can Actually Work

Who among us has not insisted that we were “zoning” after spending an ultimate attack in Overwatch that didn’t hit anyone on the other team? Of course it was your intention all along to scatter the other team away from the area—actually killing them is for meatheads. We’re refined gamers, just like DPS/flex player Hae-seong…

Here’s What Symmetra’s Rework Looks Like Right Now In Overwatch

The much-anticipated rework for Overwatch’s Symmetra is on the game’s test server, and it’s already clear that Overwatch will look pretty different when it’s released in full. As one of the most exhaustive hero reworks yet, Symmetra’s new toolkit is significantly more tactical. And, finally, developer Blizzard reclassified Symmetra as a defense hero, not a…

Overwatch Is Getting A Looking For Group Tool

For pretty much the entirety of Overwatch’s two-year existence, players have been clamoring for a role queue or some other way to simplify character selection. Now Blizzard’s taking a stab at doing something about it. Game director Jeff Kaplan, Our Hallowed Gamefather, announced a series of new social features that’ll be released as part of…

Deaf Overwatch League Fan Comes Up With Custom Signs For Heroes

In Overwatch, sound is key. Aural cues tell you when enemies and allies are using their ultimates, and (good) teams regularly coordinate over voice chat. For deaf fans, those are some pretty big hurdles to get over whether they’re playing or watching. 14-year-old Danik Soudakoff is a deaf Overwatch League fan who was recently spotlighted…

How The New York Excelsior Took Over The Overwatch League

The New York Excelsior is the best Overwatch team in the world. Despite an always-shifting metagame and one of its best players sitting out nearly a third of the season so far, they’ve won two Overwatch League stages and made the playoffs for the third. They rarely drop games and have swept every team in…

A Cool Set Of New Overwatch Character Designs

Korean artist Kirim Son has done what loads of fans have already done, and designed some new Overwatch characters. What’s different about Son’s though is that all three have been specifically designed to represent Overwatch heroes whose powers are drawn from various mobility issues. Jalkikuva Laine (below), for example, became deaf as a child, but…

What I Learned From A Year’s Worth Of Overwatch Coaching

One year ago, I dropped from Platinum rank to Gold in Overwatch’s competitive mode. Even though it was just a number, it felt like a huge defeat. Since then, over the last year, I’ve been working with a coach to improve my game. I thought I was just chasing after my old rank, but I…

What Overwatch’s Maps Look Like From The Outside

You normally only get to enjoy Overwatch maps from the ground level, so this clip that jumps outside their boundaries is a really cool new way to see what they’re made of. The video is by Noobinabox, and was made simply to “show just how beautiful this game is”. Only the first half of the…

Fallout 76 Gives Overwatch Fans Crossover Fever

When Fallout 76 was announced yesterday, half the world immediately thought “Heck yeah, new Fallout.” But the other half—a more insidious and frankly intolerable one that includes noted individuals such as me—started cracking jokes about Soldier 76 from Overwatch. Then came the fan art. Evidently, a whole lot of people want to see Soldier 76…

A Little Sombra Figure For Overwatch Fans

This Nendoroid Sombra is out early next year. She includes two different faces, a skull mark (to stick on other figures), translocator, effects, a gun and some interchangeable hands, including one with a “boop” finger. Sombra will cost around $40, which is in line with the other Overwatch Nendoroids.

Dallas Fuel Is Playing Its Best Overwatch Yet, Despite No Hope For Playoffs

The Dallas Fuel cannot, mathematically, make the playoffs of the Overwatch League’s inaugural season. After three stages of disappointing placements, it just isn’t in the cards. Despite that, a new coach and a newfound team confidence are putting them over top competitors. The Fuel can’t make the playoffs, but they’re kicking ass anyways. We’re two…

A Year And A Half Later, Overwatch Devs Still Don’t Know When They’ll Fix Play Of The Game

Overwatch loves to give players cookies for explosive plays. After every game, all players are treated to a recap of the “Play of the Game,” a video replay that usually only focuses on whatever killed the most people. It’s a feature that has been desperately in need of a revamp since Overwatch’s release two years…

Leather Daddy Reinhardt Is Not An Official Overwatch Skin

Not yet, anyway. It’s a very good fit. This mock skin is the work of artist Brian Choi, has worked on stuff like FFXV Kingslaive and What Becomes Of Edith Finch It’s based on this piece of slightly fleshier art by Yvonne Chung. Which, in turn, looks a lot like that NSFW Overwatch cosplay showcase…

Overwatch‘s New Map Isn’t The Problem, Deathmatch Is

Overwatch characters are like pieces on a chess board. Whether we’re talking about David Bowie reincarnated as a mad scientist or a hulking hook boy who’s probably never heard of David Bowie, everybody’s unique abilities are kept in check by the structure of the game. Now imagine if that structure—the lines on the board—didn’t exist.…

Oh Man

Overwatch Players Discover Mystery That Spans Multiple Maps

Overwatch’s new deathmatch map, Petra, is full of Pharah-friendly open spaces, jump pads, and a break-away floor, but like any crumbling ruin worth its salt, it’s also got mysteries. Shortly after the map went live earlier today, players started posting screenshots of laptops and data pads they found sprinkled around, with members of the Overwatch…

Paladins Developer Says It’s Fired Contractor For Using Overwatch Art In Ad

Free-to-play hero shooter Paladins has always invited comparisons to Overwatch. There’s a tanky knight character with a deployable shield and a bearded dwarf who builds turrets. While developer Hi-Rez Studios has always denied cloning Blizzard’s game, a mobile port of Paladins lifted artwork from the game, a foul the studio is blaming on a contractor.…

Here Are Overwatch‘s New Anniversary Skins

Overwatch’s two-year anniversary event is now live, and Doomfist is actually lookin’ pretty good right about now. Some of the best skins yet came out today—namely Orisa’s, Brigitte’s and, as previously discussed, Symmetra’s. Today also brought what is, in my opinion, a pretty bad skin, too. And, welp, they gave Junkrat dreads: Along with the…