Focus your beams, prime your sticky bombs, and get ready to glide into the Echo Showdown. To celebrate the introduction of the new damage hero, Echo, and to give players a chance to show off their skills with this advanced evolutionary combat robot, we’re hosting a tournament that’s open to everyone! 

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Tournament Details 

• Signups begin April 14 and extend until April 17. Matches will be held on April 18 and 19 PDT using the GameBattles tournament platform.  
  • Day one (April 18th) matches will begin in EU at 3:00 AM PDT and NA at 1:00 PM PDT 
  • Day two (April 19th) matches will begin in EU at 3:00 AM PDT and NA at 1:00 PM PDT 
• Participating teams will ALWAYS be required have an Echo in play. Tri-shot your hardest, we want to see what you’ve got! 
• Overwatch League and Contenders players will be eligible to compete, though only two can play on a team at any given time. 
• Prizes: 
  • We’ve booted up the duplication assimilation matrix and mirrored our prizes across both ...

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Since the introduction of Map Pools late last year and Hero Pools in early March, we’ve heard a lot of great feedback from players on both of these systems, including what they like about them and what they find confusing or unclear. Based on that, we’ll be making some changes to both systems starting next week. Here’s what’s in store.

Unifying the Hero Pools

We’ve received a lot of helpful feedback since Hero Pools came to Competitive Play that the system was achieving our goal of shaking up the meta from week to week—but we’ve also heard that some aspects of the system are confusing or unclear, including why certain heroes or roles are rotated each week, or why the exact number of heroes available is inconsistent from week to week. In addition, having separate Hero Pools for Competitive Play and the Overwatch League in the same week led to a confusing or disjointed experience for players who follow the League.

Starting April 13, we intend to address this by having a single...

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This year’s Archives event brings deadly new modifiers to your favorite missions, challenging you to demonstrate your tactical finesse in Rialto, King’s Row, and Havana. Looking for a story recap before you dive into the action? We’ve got you covered.

SPOILERS ahead for the Retribution, Uprising, and Storm Rising missions!

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Retribution

Eight years ago, an explosive attack by the terrorist organization Talon left an Overwatch facility in Rome devastated and took dozens of agents’ lives. Since Overwatch itself was unable to retaliate in an official capacity, Gabriel Reyes, head of the organization’s covert ops division, Blackwatch, took it upon himself to enact revenge. With a strike team composed of former Deadlock Gang member–turned-Blackwatch-agent Jesse McCree, cybernetic ninja Genji Shimada, and geneticist Moira O’Deorain, Reyes set out to pursue Talon. The target: influential businessman and high-ranking Talon member Antonio Bartalotti. Residence: Venice, Italy.

The team...

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You’ve seen her before: a sleek, cyclopean omnic, hovering in the backlines of the earliest Overwatch roster art. You’ve heard whispers of her progenitor: Mina Liao, one of the founders of Overwatch, her expertise invaluable to Jack Morrison, Gabriel Reyes, and Ana Amari against the looming threat of the Omnic Crisis. Now, she’s finally here—Echo, the 32nd hero to join the ranks of the Overwatch roster.

“Echo is a really special character for us in that our players have known about her for a very long time,” says Overwatch’s Game Director Jeff Kaplan, his fondness for the game’s newest hero evident, like a parent speaking about the child they’ve watched grow up and just sent off to college. “Players had actually seen Echo in earlier versions of the artwork for Overwatch. She was featured in the “Reunion” cinematic, where McCree frees her from the Deadlock Gang.”

While we’ve had several glimpses of Echo throughout the years, Dr. Mina Liao is a relatively new figure to Overwatc...

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Every week when players log in to Overwatch, it should feel fresh and different.

That’s the dream Principal Game Designer Scott Mercer has for Overwatch—and, starting in Competitive Season 21, it’ll become a reality. With the introduction of Hero Pools, a rotation curated by the Overwatch team will be available in Competitive Play, and one tank, one support, and two damage heroes will be unavailable from the roster each week with the intent to keep the meta fresh and encourage hero diversity in matches.

Interested in the philosophy behind the newest change to Competitive play? Mercer provided some insight into how Hero Pools will shake things up in Season 21.

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Where did the concept of Hero Pools come from?

Scott Mercer: We get feedback from our players about how the meta doesn’t change often enough. Especially at the highest ranks of the game, like Master and Grandmaster, we’ve seen the meta become more defined. The better you are at the game, the more you start to see the e...

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Jeff Kaplan and Michael Heiberg are debating the relative popularity of ice cream flavors.

“I always thought chocolate was the flavor everybody would like most,” says Kaplan, Overwatch’s game director.

Heiberg, a principal game designer, shakes his head. “Statistically, vanilla is more popular.”

“All right, so—statistically, vanilla is the flavor,” says Kaplan. “People have a propensity toward certain ice cream flavors, just like they do toward roles in Overwatch.”

They’re trying to explain how they came up with the Triple Damage (one tank, three damage, two support) team composition set to be tested in Overwatch’s new Experimental mode. It’s a significant change, and the team isn’t sure how it’s going to work out, but that’s the beauty of Experimental mode: allowing players across all platforms to test the dev team’s wildest ideas without leaving the client. 

Kaplan and Heiberg laid out the full story behind Experimental mode, plus a full breakdown of what Triple Dama...

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Grab your beads and join the bacchanalia now through March 9 to earn unique, Mardi Gras-inspired rewards. Laissez les bons temps rouler! 

From now until March 9, players will be able to earn two limited-time player icons, 7 sprays, and the epic Mardi Gras Ashe skin, for a total of 10 new rewards.

• GET IN THERE - Learn how to unlock brand new Ashe rewards
• WATCH TO EARN – Earn special Ashe-themed cosmetics by watching Twitch streams
• COURTESY OF THE DEADLOCK GANG - Learn more about Ashe merchandise

GET IN THERE

Don your purple, green, and gold, and enjoy the celebration with special Mardi Gras content available to unlock in-game. Wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will all earn you two limited-time player icons, a spray, and a new epic skin: Mardi Gras Ashe!

These special Ashe’s Mardi Gras Challenge rewards are a bonus on top of your normal earnings for playing in the Arcade

WATCH TO EARN

Unlock additional rewards by watching Twitch streamers before,...

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At Blizzard, we make games to bring people together, and yet it’s still such a wonderful surprise to learn of the players who stay together. In celebration of Valentine’s Day, we interviewed a couple of couples who decided to make their two-stack life-long after finding each other through Overwatch.

Katja and Chris

After a rough breakup, Katja truly believed she would never find a romantic partner again. Then she met her future husband, Chris, on a fan-art Twitch stream. Katja, born and raised in Germany, says she was brought to that particular stream because the artist was painting her favorite hero, McCree (who she has 600 hours of playtime on), in his 2017 Halloween Terror event skin: Van Helsing.

Katja talked to Chris for the very first time on that Twitch stream, and joined the artist’s Discord server afterward to continue talking to him. What made Chris stand out, Katja says, was how kind he was on an internet that wasn’t always so friendly to her. Chris, who lived in Austra...

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The 2020 Overwatch League season has arrived.

Join us for Week 1 action in New York and Dallas!

All matches will air live on YouTube and OverwatchLeague.com.WATCH NOW

Week 1 Schedule

Saturday, Feb. 8

• Toronto Defiant vs. Paris Eternal—1 p.m. ET
• London Spitfire vs. New York Excelsior—3 p.m. ET
• Los Angeles Gladiators vs. Vancouver Titans—5 p.m. ET
• Los Angeles Valiant vs. Dallas Fuel—7 p.m. ET

Sunday, Feb. 9

• London Spitfire vs. Paris Eternal—1 p.m. ET
• Boston Uprising vs. New York Excelsior—3 p.m. ET
• Los Angeles Valiant vs. Vancouver Titans—5 p.m. ET
• San Francisco Shock vs. Dallas Fuel—7 p.m. ET

New This Season

• We’re got new team gear for 2020. Iconic streetwear designer Jeff Staple worked with players and the league to reimagine esports gear.
• The future of Overwatch League stats has arrived. Stats Lab gives fans access to a host of player, team, match, and teamfight statistics.
• The league is implementing Hero Pools in March. Here’s how it will work.
• Fan ...

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“We’re taking off the oven mitts,” says gameplay engineer Dan Reed.

“What?” says fellow gameplay engineer Zach Metcalf. “You mean like, the training wheels?”

“Like, now you can burn your hand, but you can also do things much more efficiently,” says Reed.

They’re talking about the new patch for Overwatch’s Workshop, the in-game scripting system that allows players to craft their own custom game modes. Along with adding new maps, tools, and quality-of-life improvements, the patch (available now on the Public Test Region, or PTR) lifts an unwieldy restriction that was designed to protect creators from crash-inducing errors. That’s the story of the Workshop in this patch: more power, fewer limitations, and—Reed and Metcalf hope—even cooler creations as a result.

Reed and Metcalf share a particular passion for the Workshop born partly from their personal histories. Reed is a seasoned Blizzard veteran who’s been on the Overwatch team since the very beginning; he was one of the fi...

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An actor, clothed in vibrant, intricately embellished garb, moves synchronously with the beat of percussion-heavy music. A drumbeat and fan-flutter later, they don a crimson face that scowls at the audience; with a wave of their hand, that guise is gone, replaced by a pale, smirking mask, the edges of its lips quirked upwards in an uncanny jester’s grin.

How do they accomplish such feats of suspenseful fun and sleight-of-hand?

That’s a secret the two hundred remaining Bian Lian masters—and, now, Sombra, having joined their ranks with her new legendary Face Changer skin created in celebration of the 2020 Lunar New Year—will never divulge.

Bian Lian, known colloquially in the West as “face changing,” originated in the Qing Dynasty during the seventeeth century as a subgenre of the Sichuan opera. The art used to be simple, with performers only changing a few faces per performance; now, most professionals can swap through more than eighteen masks in a single show. With only six at her...

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We wouldn’t normally instruct anyone to “treat” themselves to an avalanche, but if it comes in the form of Overwatch fan art from the new Winter Wonderland event, bring it on! (Also, we’re based in Irvine, California, so we don’t know what an “avalanche” is but they sound pretty exciting.)

Here are some of our favorite pieces of fan art we’ve seen so far:

We’ll start things off with a piece by Twitter user @nununumunu depicting Ice Fisherman Roadhog making friends (?) with some adorable seals….

pic.twitter.com/X9ocD7HFxx

— ぬたろ (@nununumunu) December 11, 2019

Introducing the Dad Starter Pack, Winter Edition, drawn by @art_cerealex: ugly sweater plus hot cocoa! (The shoulder pouches just contain more cocoa packets.)

✨ Ugly Sweater 76 ✨

This skin.... just glorious... and it’s ‘free’ to get!!
I’m running to get those victories!!

Also I’m pretty sure Jack is the type of guy who proudly wears an ugly sweater and even brag about it. Best man.#overwatch #soldier #s...

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When searching for gifts for his family two holiday seasons ago, Morten Skaalvik turned to a celebrated classic: the Ugly Winter Sweater. Skaalvik, a concept artist on the Overwatch team, ended up buying his entire family sweaters based on their favorite TV shows. So when it came time to design Soldier 76’s new Winter Wonderland skin, “Ugly Sweater: 76,” Skaalvik was ready. He’d been training for this moment for years.

“I remember seeing someone from the community changing Soldier 76’s grumpy Halloween spray into a grumpy ugly Christmas sweater,” Skaalvik recalls during our interview. “And it was just such a perfect fit for him. It fits his dad persona so well while still being fun and wholesome. When I got the task to design a winter epic skin for Soldier 76, I knew the stars had aligned, and the time for Ugly Sweater: 76 had finally arrived.”

Over the three years Skaalvik has been an artist on the Overwatch team, he has created many of the game’s beloved skins, including Cultist ...

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As Overwatch players around the world take on Mercy’s Recall Challenge, there’s no time like the present to look back at Dr. Ziegler’s past and explore how this iconic hero became who she is today.

Heroic Inspiration

Years ago, when we were exploring ideas for what would eventually become Overwatch, one of the areas the development team had been focusing on was the concept of a class-based online shooter—an idea that stemmed from an unannounced game that had shuttered, codenamed Titan.

"We had a class meeting, where [lead hero designer of Overwatch] Geoff Goodman said something that just really. . .stuck with me,” game director Jeff Kaplan recalled during a 2017 BlizzCon panel. “‘I wish,’ he said, ‘instead of doing a game with six, or maybe nine classes, we could do a game with 50 classes. But I wish each of the classes was very focused, and had a certain set of abilities, and they could all be wildly different from one another.’”

The idea soon blossomed into a first-person shoot...

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HELP US DECORATE!

Season’s Greetings and Best Wishes from the Overwatch team!

Since the dawn of Overwatch, the community has flooded the Internet with amazing fan art, entertaining videos, and incredible cosplay. Your talent never ceases to amaze, and we love being surrounded by your creations. With the holidays upon us, we're hoping that you'll be part of our celebration once again.

EXPERIENCE FESTIVITY

For the last three years, we've trimmed our tree with your handmade ornaments, decked the halls with your art, and enjoyed a seemingly endless supply of holiday cards. The community always comes through, and the forecast for this festive season is looking… EPIC!!

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) December 25, 2018

If you’d be willing to help us decorate the Overwatch offices with even more of your festive flourishes, send us your handmade postcards, holiday well-wishes, and any other cheerful tchotchkes, we will turn the Overwatch office into a holiday-themed art gallery.

HOW TO...

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Fly into action and take up the mantle of the Valkyrie in Mercy’s Recall Challenge! Bring the new Overwatch short story, “Valkyrie” to life with story-inspired content available to unlock for a limited time.

From now until December 2, players will be able to earn a player icon, 8 sprays, and a legendary Dr. Ziegler Mercy skin, for a total of 10 new rewards.

• DR. ZIEGLER - Learn how to unlock brand-new Mercy rewards
• WATCH TO EARN - Earn special Mercy-themed cosmetics by watching Twitch streams
• MERCY-THEMED GIVEAWAYS - Win a Samsung SSD, Mercy Statue, and more!
• HEROES NEVER DIE - Read the new short story, "Valkyrie"

DR. ZIEGLER

We’re bringing the excitement of the action-packed short story into Overwatch by making some of the special content in the story available to unlock in-game. Wins in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade will all earn you a limited-time player icon, two sprays, and a new legendary skin: Dr. Ziegler!

These special Mercy’s Rec...

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At BlizzCon 2019, we presented a first look at the sequel to Overwatch. With improved visuals, technology, and immersive storytelling, Overwatch 2 is set to build upon the foundation created by the original game and bring the world and its heroes to life like never before. Senior Art Director Bill Petras, Assistant Art Director Arnold Tsang, and Technical Director John Lafleur were on stage to share insight about the team’s work.  

The development team set out to evolve the artistic style of the original game for Overwatch 2 with a number of goals in mind: update hero visuals, highlight storytelling, and incorporate dynamic elements of the world. At the center of the art team’s vision is an unwavering emphasis on gameplay.

Advancing Our Heroes

The team had to balance their desire to give the series a revised appearance with the importance of keeping the original spirit of Overwatch’s iconic heroes. Each hero’s redesign is different, but the team's approached them all with a co...

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At the “What’s Next” panel led by Game Director Jeff Kaplan and Assistant Game Director Aaron Keller, BlizzCon 2019 attendees learned about Overwatch 2’s all-new co-op missions, the new map type Push, updates to the original game, new heroes, and even some story details. 

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New PvP Map Type: Push

In this new map type, players will clash to take control of a robot that starts in a central location and “push” it toward the enemy team’s base. Push maps are symmetrical, and the team that guides the robot farthest by the end of the time limit wins the game.

Jeff and Aaron revealed one new Push map: Toronto. The map aims to be a faithful adaptation of several Overwatch developers’ home country, featuring snow, red maple trees, multicultural storefronts, and even a glimpse of the Toronto subway. The map also has a great number of flanking paths; true to Overwatch form, players of this mode are encouraged to coordinate team-play to achieve victory.

In addition to multiple new Push maps, O...

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Becoming an Overwatch® agent is easier than ever! Join the fight for the future with Overwatch® on PC available at $14.99 now through November 3rd!

• Overwatch® for PC includes 31 heroes, 28 different maps, and endless fun for just $14.99.
• Overwatch® Legendary Edition comes fully loaded along with 5 origin, 5 legendary, and 5 epic skins on PC for $19.99.

The action is at an all-time high with our newest hero: Sigma. Gravitate into battle as an eccentric astrophysicist equipped with mysterious Hyperspheres, which bounce off of walls and implode after a short duration. Protect your team with the floating Experimental Barrier and freeze incoming projectiles with Kinetic Grasp. Knock your enemies down and out by flinging a mass of debris at your unsuspecting enemies with Accretion. If your find yourself in a pinch, change the spacetime continuum with Gravitic Flux. Take flight then lift enemies in a targeted area and launch them into the sky, then observe as they are slammed back d...

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The launch of Overwatch on the Nintendo Switch is just around the corner! To make sure you're ready for deployment on October 15, we've put together a series of launch-day protocols so you'll know what to expect, how best to prepare, and when you'll be able to jump in and officially begin your fight for the future.

Mission Checklist:

• Deployment Schedule
• Installation and Play Instructions
• Support Systems: Active

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Overwatch will launch on Nintendo SWITCH across all regions at the same time globally. To find out when Overwatch will be available in your region, check out the reference guide below.

For timezone assistance, please visit www.thetimezoneconverter.com.

 

Before your watch can begin, you'll first need to install Overwatch on your Nintendo Switch System. To install and play on October 15, please follow the instructions below.

Step 1: Have a current Nintendo Switch Online Membership, or claim your included 3-month individual subscription to Nintendo Switch Onlin...

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