A intelligent play by Overwatch 2 esports staff the Florida Mayhem was dominated as an ‘unlawful maneuver’ by Blizzard over the weekend. The staff surprise-attacked opposing Paris Everlasting gamers by teleporting up and over a rooftop, and have been pressured to redo the spherical because of this. They received the match ultimately, however even Blizzard admits that the banned play was enjoyable to observe.
The Florida Mayhem’s technique was based mostly round Mei and Symmetra, two heroes with talents that may assist a staff transfer round maps. At first of the spherical, their Mei participant put an Ice Wall on prime of a close-by rooftop. Often this is not attainable: Mei’s wall usually requires stable, flat floor to be positioned, however you may sometimes get it to work in some out-of-bounds elements of maps. After the Mei wall was up, the Mayhem’s Symmetra positioned a teleporter on prime of it to convey your entire staff over the rooftop, shocking their opponents and profitable the primary staff battle with ease.
“You are not allowed to [teleport] on partitions, [Blizzard] talked about this shit final yr or some yr. You are not allowed to do it,” David “Dpei” Pei, a former Overwatch League coach mentioned on a stream because it occurred.
The Mayhem finally received the match, however earlier than shifting 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 artistic 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 forwards and backwards, are widespread in informal Overwatch matches. Heroes who fly or can leap into the air usually slide or ‘stability’ on rooftops to land on unaware enemy gamers, and Blizzard does not difficulty bans for doing it. For Overwatch’s whole historical past, Blizzard has solely eliminated a handful of probably the most egregious map-based methods, often those that allow you to clip via the map’s geometry and develop into successfully invisible to enemy gamers. A play just like the Mayhem’s does not look regular—Mei’s wall appears misplaced on a slanted roof—however nothing about it appears significantly unfair. If something, outlawing it limits the creativity made attainable by the distinctive solid of characters.
In pro-level play, these types of techniques are enjoyable to observe, even when, as most Overwatch gamers know, they solely work a few times earlier than a staff begins to count on and work round it. Consistency is equity in professional play, nevertheless it’s not essentially thrilling to observe. Heroes like Symmetra, Doomfist, and Pharah have not seen quite a lot of use in Overwatch League’s historical past and it is probably due to the bounds positioned on map exploits. In case you ask me, Blizzard ought to loosen up just a little and let its most expert gamers use the sport’s heroes to their fullest.
