Get your competition on this Summer. Overwatch’s first big event welcomes you to the Summer Games 2016. New loot boxes, new thematic skins, and an entirely new Brawl mode are available until August 22.
Blizzard’s online hero shooter has been a massive success. Until now updates have been pretty quiet, with only a single new character, Ana, being added to the roster. The Overwatch Summer Games is a temporary takeover, and the first of many more planned Seasonal events.
For the duration of the event, any earned loot boxes are guaranteed to include at least one item from the Summer Games 2016 collection. These themed items include new sprays, emotes, player icons, victory poses, highlight intros, and the all-new skins.
New player skins are designed to show off the celebration of international competition, which Overwatch knows all too well. Heroes proudly sport their country’s colors. McCree drapes an American flag across his shoulders, while Mercy rocks the red and white of Switzerland. A few heroes get spiffy Olympic style makeovers, like Zarya and Tracer.
None of the themed loot can be purchased via in-game currency (though you can of course purchase loot boxes with real money). You do get to keep what you earn, but the items will no longer drop after the event ends.
The most exciting addition is a new Brawl mode called Lucioball. Appropriately based on Overwatch’s roller-skating DJ Brazilian, Lucioball should be very familiar to anyone who’s played popular soccer spin-off Rocket League.
Lucioball pits 3v3 in a unique arena filled with jump pads, two goals, and a ball. Everyone plays as Lucio and uses his unique wall-hugging and push-back skills to move the ball into the enemy team’s goal. It’s crazy fun and a much better use of the Brawl mode than previous unexciting tweaks to the basic formula.
Logging into Overwatch rewards you with one free loot box. The event ends August 22.
