Hello and welcome to our very first Overwatch Boulevard. As you can see some of our writers decided to do a weekly column about a subject they love and follow. I, for instance, love Overwatch and I also reckon there is mostly something to be told about. We will try to make this a weekly thing if there is enough to talk about, but let’s get into the news.
Orisa
So as most of you will already know a new hero has entered the arena. A tank called Orisa. Like Reinhardt she is called an anchor tank. This means she will need a team almost build around her. In my opinion, Orisa is sometimes a combination of a few heroes. She has a gravitation surge like Zarya, but also has shield abilities like Symmetra and Reinhardt.
The thing I liked the most were the weeks before it. Most of us were almost certain Doomfist would finally enter Overwatch or at least another tank because tanks were the least represented in the hero roster. These rumors only got stronger after the news came in that an unknown attacker had destroyed several OR-15 units and stole the doomfist from Numbani. Of course everyone thought about the character Doomfist. After that many thoughts, after reading the interview with inventor Efi Oladele, that Efi would be the next hero. But nope none of that. Efi made Orisa though. Orisa is a better version of the OR-15 units that were destroyed by Doomfist and is used as a protector against Doomfist. So you should stay tuned for more hero news because Blizzard announced that many heroes would be released this year. Of course Blizzard can’t ignore the stolen doomfist now. Looking forward to this!
New short *spoilers I will tell the story so read it first if you want to*
A new short has been released called Binary. The short is mainly about the relation between Bastion and Torbjörn. Torbjörn has been sent out to kill Bastion, because Torbjörn is one of the only people that know the Bastions as well as he does. When he sees that this Bastion isn’t as lethal as his counterparts, Torbjörn decides to let it live and study it. He wants to know why this Bastion unit is so friendly. Surely to be continued.
Overwatch World Cup
Again the Overwatch World Cup has been announced. The qualification works like this. In the first phase, Blizzard will monitor the top 100 players from each country to determine the average skill rating. Resulting in 32 countries that go through. Then the teams will be assembled. Together with experts a team will be assembled of the best players to have a good roster pick and good team synergies. Then there will be the qualifiers and ultimately the finals. You can still try and compete now! Do you have what it takes?
PTR
There is a new PTR available since the 17th of March. The most special is the introduction of a tracking system. This is introduced to lower the chances of a draw. If none of the teams capture the objective, the team that captured the most will win. This is much more logical in my opinion. One hero also has been changed a lot. Namely Lucio. The greatest change is that the song area effects are limited to 10 meters instead of 30. This drastically changes how you can play Lucio. But Blizzard also buffed his Sonic Amplifier. Now you can shoot 50 instead of 40 projectiles and his healing-per-second is increased by 50(!)%. Making Lucio a more balanced hero.
So that is about it. So in summary you have many lore developments. The second year of Overwatch will surely leave its mark and will be an awesome year for Overwatch fans!
