Overwatch

Overwatch Players Want To Queue For Roles, Blizzard Says It’s Complicated

Imagine, for a moment, a world in which Overwatch allowed you to select a role—tank, support, DPS, etc—and hop into a match expressly for the purpose of playing that role. No more squabbling over who does what. Peace. Quiet. Serenity. People have asked, but Blizzard hasn’t delivered. Here’s why. During an interview with Jeff Kaplan…

Geguri’s Overwatch League Debut Was A Beautiful Moment

When CrackerJess, the wife of my Overwatch buddy CrackerJack*, heard there were no women in the Overwatch League, she was livid. She’d never played a first-person shooter before, preferring Lindy Hop dancing to long computer sessions yelling over a microphone. She had no attachment to the scene, no serious gaming ambitions. What set her off,…

All The Items For Sale At The Overwatch League Gift Shop, Ranked [UPDATE]

Blizzard’s arena in Los Angeles, California is the real deal. And by that, I mean it has a gift shop, the surest marker of any worth-its-salt sporting enterprise. I have investigated the gift shop; here is a definitive ranking of the items for sale in it, from worst to best. [This post originally ran on…

The Shanghai Dragons’ Signings Were Good, But Not Nearly Enough

Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon finally made her debut for the Shanghai Dragons last night, a huge deal—the first game ever for the first woman in America’s most prominent esports league yet. And like every other match they’ve played in the Overwatch League, the Dragons got trounced, this time by the Dallas Fuel. But there were some…

Overwatch’s next in-game event is called Retribution. It’ll include a four-player PVE mission in which you play as Blackwatch, Overwatch’s rebel maverick squad, in Venice. The hero lineup will be Reaper, McCree, Moira, and Genji, but as with last year’s Uprising event, there’ll be an all-heroes mode as well. Retribution runs from April 10-30.

Overwatch League Player Gets Three-Game Suspension And “Streaming Privileges Revoked” For Racist Gesture

The Overwatch League’s leaked code of conduct gives Blizzard and the OWL an incredible amount of control over players, including anything that happens on their own streams, so part of the latest punishment for a heated gaming moment comes as no surprise. After the Philadelphia Fusion’s Josh “Eqo” Corona made a slant-eye gesture and said…

Overwatch Star Has Advice For Mercy Players: “Be Selfish”

Overwatch’s Mercy is a “support” hero, which in layman’s terms means she’s mopping up trails of blood left behind after Overwatch battles. Mercy’s job is to heal her weak teammates, assisting them as they lay waste to enemies. It’s an apparently subservient job often painted as easy, and therefore, undervalued—that is, unless you’re Hong “Ark”…

Blizzard Is Trying To Teach Computers To Spot Overwatch Jerks

Despite arriving too late to prevent what some might call a full-blown crisis, Overwatch’s anti-toxicity efforts seem to be bearing fruit. The next step in the battle, says game director Jeff Kaplan, might be having computers, not humans, find the bad actors. “We’ve been experimenting with machine learning,” Kaplan told me during an interview at…

New York’s Overwatch League Team Finally Came Home To Meet Its Fans

At Overwatch League team New York Excelsior’s first-ever New York fan meet-and-greet, a preteen girl in braces broke out sobbing after coming face-to-face with player Joong-hwa “Janus” Song, a sub. Janus doesn’t play much. When he’s called in, he almost exclusively operates the ape hero Winston, and only on specific maps. In front of Janus,…

D.Va Makes Life Difficult For Overwatch‘s Developers

Between her mech and her true, Dorito-munching gremlin form, D.Va is basically two characters in one. That’s led to problems behind the scenes of Overwatch. A lot of problems. During a roundtable interview at Blizzard HQ yesterday, Overwatch assistant director Aaron Keller explained that, of all 27 of the game’s current heroes, D.Va is definitely…

An Overwatch Battle Royale Mode Would Be Tricky To Make, Jeff Kaplan Says

Unless you haven’t looked out the window or spoken to Drake recently, you’re probably aware that battle royale mania is sweeping the nation. Jeff Kaplan, director of Overwatch, certainly is. He’s seen the requests for a battle royale mode in his own game, and he’d love to make it happen. It is, however, a taller…

Overwatch League’s Worst Team Drops One Of Its Best Players

The Overwatch League’s losing-est team really can’t catch a break. In a move that’s invited a host of speculation, they’ve let go of one of their most talented players without offering an explanation. The Shanghai Dragons, despite their best efforts (and a brutal practice schedule), still haven’t won a single game during Overwatch League’s first…

Eight Things You Should Not Say When You’re Losing In Overwatch

[Extremely “I’ll die a thousand times before switching off Hanzo” voice] “Somebody go tank RIGHT NOW.” Losing sucks. It’s a slow, painful descent into a bottomless pit of negativity and blame. This goes double when you’re playing a team-based game like Overwatch. You can do everything in your power to win, but it’s not enough.…

Let Geguri Live

This past week, 18-year-old Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon took to Twitter to say that she felt ugly and fat. This is pretty standard for someone in that age bracket; Geguri just is the first female player signed to an Overwatch League team, expected to make her competitive debut as Shanghai Dragons’ new flex tank next week.…

One Of Overwatch League’s Most Popular Players Hasn’t Played At All This Season

Despite a lengthy history in Overwatch’s pre-Overwatch League pro scene and a Twitch following of more than 250,000 fans, San Francisco Shock player André “Iddqd” Dahlström has yet to play in a single official OWL match. He’s been on the bench for the entirety of the season, only briefly donning his team’s signature Naruto-orange duds…

Turns Out My Most Hot-Headed Overwatch Teammate Is A Therapist IRL

I recently found out that the most hot-headed guy in my Overwatch crew—who throws the biggest fits whenever we lose—is actually a professional therapist. Hearing him divulge this over Overwatch voice chat after only knowing him through his in-game persona, I couldn’t help but laugh. We’ve shared in some jubilant win streaks, yes, but on…

Overwatch League’s Code Of Conduct Got Leaked [UPDATE]

Esports broadcaster Richard Lewis posted a scanned hard copy of what he says is the Overwatch League rulebook today—about two months after commissioner Nate Nanzer said he would but still hasn’t done so. What the 35-page leaked documents show is incredibly sweeping. If these rules are still in place, it means that Blizzard owns the…

Overwatch League Star’s Long Break Is Well Deserved

Most everyone who watches professional Overwatch remembers the January night when “Big Boss” Kim “Pine” Do-hyeon casually laid waste to an entire enemy team like he was a grown adult at a county fair popping balloons with darts. Pine’s celebrity grew as his wild, risky plays became even wilder and riskier. Then, without much warning,…

How Esports Gambling Works

The first few months of Overwatch League’s inaugural season have already resulted in unexpected upsets, emerging tactics, and drama between players that has resulted in pros getting fined, benched, or released from teams. That stuff isn’t just fun to follow and grist for the content mines: it’s moving betting lines. Overwatch is the newest league…

An Overwatch Pro Is Turning The Game’s Zen Monk Into A Vicious Killer

Overwatch’s healer-monk Zenyatta floats cross-legged while delivering voice lines like “embrace tranquility” and “be one with the universe.” He was a frail, peace-loving healer, it seemed—until Sung-hyeon “JJonak” Bang’s January debut in the Overwatch League. Four days after the League launched, JJonak’s Zenyatta exacted an absolutely bonkers 10,764 damage, 24% of his entire team’s output…