Overwatch, Apex Legends nominated for LGBTQ award for Outstanding Video Game

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Two popular shooters are in the running for another award.

Overwatch and Apex Legends were nominated for the Outstanding Video Game award in the 31st Annual GLAAD Media Awards, organized by the GLAAD. Both titles portray LGBTQ characters in a “fair, accurate and inclusive” manner.

Overwatch’s cast features two important LGBTQ heroes. Poster girl Tracer was revealed to have a girlfriend in a comic called “Reflections.” Emily, her paramour, later made her way into the game as a spray for Tracer.

Former Overwatch commander Jack Morrison faked his death and took the guise of Soldier: 76. In Ana’s Bastet comic, the medic inquires about one of 76’s past flings, a man named Vincent. The reveal feels organic and adds to his portrayal and character depth.  

Two of Apex’s characters were also confirmed as LGBTQ. Gibraltar’s official character bio alludes to an old male flame, saying that he and his boyfriend got in an accident after stealing his father’s motorcycle.

Bloodhound’s voice actor, Allegra Clark, shared on Twitter that the legend is non-binary and answers to gender-neutral pronouns. Confusing Bloodhound’s gender is common because of the legend’s mysterious personality and heavily-processed, androgynous in-game voice.

Bloodhound was designed as non-binary from their inception, as explained by Respawn’s Mohammad Alavi.

“I knew from the beginning because I was making a non-binary character that I wanted them to have an androgynous voice because I wanted anyone to feel like they could put themselves in that role,” he explained in a video. The legend was inspired by two of his real-life friends.

The games are up against Private Division’s Outer Worlds, Skybound Entertainment’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season, and 2K Games’ Borderlands 3 for this award.

The GLAAD awards “recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and the issues that affect their lives.”