The Rio Summer Olympics are fast approaching, and while the real-world athletes may be moving into unsanitary and unfinished accommodations, you—personally and presumably—have nothing to fear. In fact, there’s something joyful on the horizon. Dip you toes, you non-Olympians, into the Overwatch Summer Games.
While not affiliated in any way with the Olympics, Blizzard’s take on the summer-time sporting event has certainly managed to bring with it playful takes on some of its defining characteristics. There’s the sports—the 3v3 soccer-like “Lucioball”—and then there’s the national pageantry. Few things, save the often nonsensical Miss Universe national costume contest, sustain the same degree of sartorial scrutiny as the Olympics.
Overwatch, it seems, is open to the good ole college try.
Few things sustain the same degree of sartorial scrutiny as the Olympics.
There are the noticeable misses—while there are 100’s of new items for the event, there are only 12 unique skins and some characters received two skins. No German flag skin for Reinhardt? Was Soldier: 76’s costume already too American for the upgrade (probably)? And where is the skin for Roadhog? Junkrat? Whatever the reason for their lack of national pride—the good news is there are still skins out there for the rest of the characters. And in the subject of misses, there is Tracer’s outfit which while cute seems to rely on tiny track shorts and a flag cape. It’s got spunk ’cause Tracer’s got spunk, not out of any exceptional costume design. And she gets two.
Zarya’s weight-lifter costume seems obvious, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. Genji too in his Nihon skin that highlights the subtle Red against the white. Genji’s look in particular is not as determinedly flashy as most skins, which seem to want to loudly proclaim the national identity of each character as if to remind the audience, “yes, these characters are grounded in real world countries and not a fictional overworld.” They’re obvious, but they’re effective and attractive, which makes them perhaps a step more interesting than Widowmaker’s French flag stripe look or Torbjorn’s Swedish baby-blue.
McCree has come out swinging.
But what of McCree, that American cowboy with his abiding interest in high noon? This article could just be about how great McCree’s skin is. For starters, he’s draped in a tattered American flag in a manner disrespectful enough that it would have my seventh grade civics teachers heart torn asunder. No BAMF belt buckle for American McCree, no. He’s proudly repping the USA. His gun is even American, with its red and white striped barrell. If the Olympics is a national dick-measuring contest, then McCree has come out swinging.
You can unlock these skins, and indeed all of the other 100’s of items, in the Summer Games Loot Boxes. Happy hunting.
