It didn’t make any sense. “What are they doing, dude?” asked Houston Outlaws tank Austin “Muma” Wilmot as the other team, made up of top-ranked players including LA Gladiators tank Chan-hyung “Fissure” Baek, repeatedly crashed against the holo-shield walls of a relatively lackadaisical defense. Then it hit him: Where’d the payload go?
Fellow Houston Outlaws player Alexandre “Spree” Vanhomwegen—playing on Muma’s team during this recent stream—called out Fissure and others for “feeding”—that is, dying on purpose. Players usually do this when they’re ticked off. Spree wasn’t wrong, but the opposing team wasn’t angry. Instead, their on-purpose deaths right outside of Dorado’s second spawn were in service of a higher purpose.
While the rest of the team belly-flopped, a lone Zenyatta crept behind the defensive line and diligently pushed the payload all the way to the second point. As this was happening, Fissure cackled and whooped knowingly. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” he shouted.
By the time Muma, Spree, and the rest of their team realized what was happening, it was already too late. “C9, C9, C9,” Spree shouted, referring to the painfully common practice of leaving the payload or point unattended, something our own Cecilia D’Anastasio once declared “the bottom of the Overwatch toilet.” They rushed to stop the payload from reaching the point, but to no avail. A team of Overwatch pros and top-500 players fell for the oldest trick in the book.
Muma smiled the sort of smile that only emerges when you realize you’re gonna have to gracefully eat shit. “Y’all are the worst,” he said. “Y’all are actually the worst. No fucking wonder. Fuck everyone, dude. I’m so pissed.”