Everyone has a fighting chance
Symmetra has had a hard time finding her niche in the metagame since the launch of Overwatch in 2016. Developers let the community know recently that she would be completely reworked in an upcoming build of the game. In a series of posts on the Overwatch forum, Geoff Goodman details some of the big changes coming to Symmetra.
Jeff Kaplan and the Overwatch team have done something extraordinary to ease the pain of one player’s loss. Recently, an Overwatch fan wrote to Blizzard to tell them that his girlfriend’s father had passed away and that Overwatch was their way to help her cope with her sorrow. A few weeks later, a large 15-pound box showed up on their doorstep with a personal letter from Kaplan and about as many Overwatch goodies as you can imagine.
Overwatch devs stunned their community with the late night announcement that it had opened up the first season of Competitive 6v6 Elimination that will run from now through May 8th. All previous Elimination maps plus Ayutthaya are in place. The “Lockout” rule in in force so that when one team wins with a particular hero, it becomes unavailable for the team until the match is complete. Players can access Competitive Elimination via the Arcade.
We’ve heard a lot about the “Overwatch” group of heroes who were assigned to protect the world. However, we haven’t heard much about the Blackwatch group, the one that houses characters like Reaper, McCree, Sombra and Widowmaker. That changes today with the arrival of the newest Overwatch (the game) comic called Retribution.
In a new interview, Blizzard’s Jeff Kaplan has revealed that the company is looking for ways to implement AI to track and punish toxic Overwatch players, an issue that Kaplan and his team feel strongly about. So important, in fact, that content creation has been scaled back somewhat to give devs more time to adequately address the issue. Using AI may be just the ticket.
The Overwatch Uprising event is ready to roll again, this year starting on April 10th. The announcement was made on the Overwatch Twitter in the usual cryptic fashion. The small video seems to be hacked possibly indicating that Sombra will be playing a part in the event.
Blizzard is testing a new Overwatch feature on the PTR. Called “Avoid as Teammate”, players will be able to choose this option from a drop down menu in their Career Profile. According to developers, this “option gives players the ability to craft their online gameplay experience. Up to two players can be selected with this feature. If you use the “Avoid as Teammate option on a player, the matchmaker will no longer place you on a team with the avoided player for one week”.
The newest Overwatch hero, Brigitte, will be joining the in-game fight on March 20th. The announcement was made today via the Overwatch Twitter, that also features a cool video of the character being taken from concept art to “finished product”. Ben Zhang is the talented artist behind her design.
The Los Angeles Valiant Overwatch League team is ready to celebrate the unique community of LA gamers through a new program called “Be Valiant”. The free series, according to the team’s site, is “designed around gaming for everyone”. Through mid-June, the Valiant will be hosting four events on the Valiant campus or in other LA locations.
The Overwatch League team Dallas Fuel has announced that it has released controversial team member Felix “xQc” Lengyel after he was suspended by the League for a second time. The first 4-game suspension came after Lengyel made homophobic remarks on a livestream. The second, more recent, suspension “repeatedly used an emote in a racially disparaging manner on the league’s stream and on social media and used disparaging language against Overwatch League casters” and fellow players”.