The start of a new season in competitive play for Overwatch has brought the introduction of a new map last week with Rialto. The escort map was playable during the ‘Retribution’ game mode last month, and now players can access the map with a variety of heroes. The map itself will not be included in competitive until a future patch. The May 8th update also brought forward a new Mercy skin which will donate proceeds of that skin to breast cancer research as Overwatch make a great stride towards a valiant cause.
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On top of all the new content being featured this in these last two patch updates, Overwatch’s emphasis on fixing game altering bugs has been in effect as a slew of champions are getting patched. While the PvP bugs are always annoying, Overwatch’s initiative to fix the AI bugs in bot games will also benefit the casual crowd as the pathing and positioning of the bots has been reprogrammed.
Blizzard has been excelling with their quality of life updates for console players too as they’ve changed the menu screens while waiting for a game, enabling to navigate your game HUD without messing up your position in queue.
Brigitte will also be facing the axe as a few of her moves were tweaked at the start of May. Decreasing the range of her shield bash from 90 to 60 was a step in the right direction as Blizzard look to temper the obnoxious team fighting prowess of Brigitte with some limitations in her range. These changes will surely not be the last as Blizzard will look to balance her skill-set as much as possible before using her in competitive play.
One of the biggest humanitarian initiatives made by Blizzard this year is taking place with their inclusion of the Pink Mercy Breast Cancer Research Foundation skin. Blizzard announced as a company they will be making a donation of $250,000 to the BCRF before proceeds are tallied, and will be announcing how much they earn for the foundation total before the campaign is over.
In addition to the skin sales, Blizzard has partnered with community artist ONEMEGAWATT to create a series of Twitch Drops. These drops include a new player icon and four new sprays. The limited edition Pink Mercy cosmetics can only be earned by viewing select streams on Twitch during the two-week promotional period. To be eligible for these drops you must link your Blizzard account to your corresponding Twitch account in order to receive said prizes.
Corrigendum: This article has been edited for accuracy.
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