The official reasoning, given in a Twitter post announcing Mei’s removal, is the fact that her ability allowed “heroes to reach unintended locations”. It appears that Mei’s Ice Wall has some unintended consequences, as canny players have discovered that using it in certain locations allows Mei to wrap herself up the map’s geometry. Mei will return to normal once the ability wears off, but a problem arises if Kiriko teleports to her. Teleporting while Mei is wrapped up in the map’s geometry will pull Kiriko inside, too, only she retains full movement and can explore behind and underneath the map. Needless to say, this has led to all sorts of carnage.
Aaron Keller, Overwatch 2’s director, added more information by saying, “This issue was reproducible in multiple locations and could be used to get behind map geo”. He followed by stating they are currently working hard to fix it.
The good news is Blizzard expects the fix to be in place by 15 November, already promising that Mei will return when a brand-new patch releases that day.
[#OW2] We are temporarily disabling Mei to address a bug with her Ice Wall ability that allows heroes to reach unintended locations. We are working to address these issues as quickly as possible and aim to bring Mei back in our next upcoming patch which is set for November 15. pic.twitter.com/dHP65pMCsX
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) October 31, 2022
Overwatch 2 has had a rough first month. The game was buggy and broken at launch, with many players unable to enter games – something Blizzard later apologised profusely for, while promising to be open with their updates and bug fixes. Following that, they were subject to repeated DDoS attacks, hampering fixes and matchmaking further. Three heroes have had to be removed for game-breaking bugs that gave certain players an unfair advantage. And the game’s first Seasonal Event, the Halloween Event, Junkenstein’s Revenge: Wrath of the Bride, was poorly received by fans.
Fingers crossed the worst of this rough patch is over, and it’s smooth sailing for Overwatch 2 from here on out.
