The ultimate cooldown
For weeks now, enterprising and unscrupulousOverwatchplayers have been using an exploit to give themselves an almost unbeatable edge in the game’s new three-on-three Last Team Standing mode. There’s a bug where players can use Mei’s ice wall to get outside the map while still being able to shoot at people who are inside the map. This video nicely demonstrates how it works:
TheOverwatchforums are filled with folks complaining and urging Blizzard to fix the problem. It took a while, but the developer finally identified what causes the bug and is rolling out a hotfix today. Mei’s ice wall glitch should be no more in the very near future.
That’s nice to know, but Blizzard also says that the cheaters will get their just comeuppance. In aposton the game’s forums,Overwatchdirector Jeff Kaplan states “This bug is clearly an exploit and we consider this cheating…We will be taking action against those who abused this exploit…We take aggressive action against people who abuse game mechanics, hack or cheat. This case is no different.Apologies that this bug lingered for as long as it did. Hopefully this should go away soon (along with those who abused it).”
Blizzard dishing out bans is right in line withits stance that it publicizedbefore the release ofOverwatch. Basically, cheaters get banned on the first offense. As Kaplan says “Overwatchis a PvP experience so that means exploiting game mechanics like this comes at a cost to those you are competing against.” It’s just a wonderfully fitting that they’re getting froze out because of an ice wall.
