A intelligent play by Overwatch 2 esports crew the Florida Mayhem was dominated as an ‘unlawful maneuver’ by Blizzard over the weekend. The crew surprise-attacked opposing Paris Everlasting gamers by teleporting up and over a rooftop, and had been compelled to redo the spherical consequently. They gained the match in the long run, however even Blizzard admits that the banned play was enjoyable to look at.
The Florida Mayhem’s technique was based mostly round Mei and Symmetra, two heroes with talents that may assist a crew transfer round maps. At first of the spherical, their Mei participant put an Ice Wall on high of a close-by rooftop. Normally this is not doable: Mei’s wall usually requires strong, flat floor to be positioned, however you’ll be able to sometimes get it to work in some out-of-bounds components of maps. After the Mei wall was up, the Mayhem’s Symmetra positioned a teleporter on high of it to carry your entire crew over the rooftop, stunning their opponents and profitable the primary crew struggle with ease.
“You are not allowed to [teleport] on partitions, [Blizzard] talked about this shit final 12 months or some 12 months. You are not allowed to do it,” David “Dpei” Pei, a former Overwatch League coach mentioned on a stream because it occurred.
The Mayhem ultimately gained the match, however earlier than transferring onto the following map, the Overwatch League broadcast was delayed for 20 minutes whereas Blizzard made the ruling. When the stream continued, it was introduced that they must redo their assault spherical—which led to a win even with out the inventive play.
Shortly after the ruling, Overwatch League head Sean Miller mentioned on Twitter that this rule was made clear earlier than the season started:
“Whereas we perceive this was a enjoyable play, the ruling right here is that utilizing a Mei wall to succeed in unusable areas with the Symmetra teleport is an exploit and has by no means been allowed in OWL matches. This rule has been shared with groups and gamers previous to the beginning of the season.”
Whereas we perceive this was a enjoyable play, the ruling right here is that utilizing a Mei wall to succeed in unusable areas with the Symmetra teleport is an exploit and has by no means been allowed in OWL matches. This rule has been shared with groups and gamers previous to the beginning of the season.May 8, 2022
Gimmicky performs, like utilizing Symmetra’s teleporter to ship a Bastion backwards and forwards, are frequent in informal Overwatch matches. Heroes who fly or can leap into the air typically slide or ‘balance’ on rooftops to land on unaware enemy gamers, and Blizzard would not problem bans for doing it. For Overwatch’s total historical past, Blizzard has solely eliminated a handful of probably the most egregious map-based tips, normally those that allow you to clip by the map’s geometry and grow to be successfully invisible to enemy gamers. A play just like the Mayhem’s would not look regular—Mei’s wall appears misplaced on a slanted roof—however nothing about it appears notably unfair. If something, outlawing it limits the creativity made doable by the distinctive forged of characters.
In pro-level play, these types of techniques are enjoyable to look at, even when, as most Overwatch gamers know, they solely work a couple of times earlier than a crew begins to count on and work round it. Consistency is equity in professional play, but it surely’s not essentially thrilling to look at. Heroes like Symmetra, Doomfist, and Pharah have not seen lots of use in Overwatch League’s historical past and it is probably due to the boundaries positioned on map exploits. In case you ask me, Blizzard ought to loosen up slightly and let its most expert gamers use the sport’s heroes to their fullest.
