Overwatch players invested in the game’s three-on-three mode have been furious about a glitch that allows heroes to get outside Ecopoint: Antarctica. But that’s about to change: Blizzard is vowing to fix the glitch as early as today.
Mei players are able to build the hero’s ice wall in a certain point inside the spawn room to boost themselves—and their team—past the map’s boundaries. Players outside the map can still attack the enemy team, but the enemy team won’t be able to attack back.
Overwatch principal level designer Dave Adams responded to a post in the game’s forums to tell players that a fix is on its way. Game director Jeff Kaplan expanded on the bug: “This bug was surprisingly tricky for us to track down but we believe we have identified a fix,” he said. “Our hope is to have it fixed sometime tomorrow (1/5/2017 PST) but there is always the chance that our fix could fail.”
Players that used the exploit to win games in Overwatch aren’t getting off easy. Blizzard will be “taking action” against players that abused the glitch. “Overwatch is a PvP experience so that means exploiting the game mechanics like this comes at a cost to those you are competing against,” Kaplan said. “We take aggressive action against people who abuse game mechanics, hack, or cheat.”
So there’s your warning: Don’t use Mei’s ice wall to climb outside the map. Kaplan’s message comes across loud and clear. “This bug is clearly an exploit and we consider this cheating,” he added. Kaplan also encouraged players who encounter folks using the glitch to report it.
Mei’s ice wall glitch works on new Overwatch map Oasis, too—but it sounds like Blizzard is working to clear that up as well.
