Competitive mode in Overwatch works very similarly to its contemporaries with players losing and gaining skill rating depending on whether they win or lose and reaching higher tiers with a higher skill rating. After raising through diamond rank, players get ranked as the top 500 Overwatch players in their region, which is no small feat.
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When players end a season in the top 500, each season they are given unique player icons and animated sprays that are unable to be earned after that season wraps up. Obviously, the sprays and icons are pretty respected amongst the Overwatch community as they are so hard to achieve. A new bug, however, has started awarding them to other plays all the way down to the lowest rank, Bronze. Reports of the bug started appearing on various Overwatch subreddits as the most recent Overwatch competitive season has just finished. The issue comes just weeks after some Overwatch players were breaking ranked matches by using Workshop codes.
Some players in the subreddits are theorizing that the rewards were accidentally swapped with the normal competitive season rewards that every player gets by the development team. They are theorizing this because while players are earning the top 500 rewards, they are not receiving the rewards that they were expecting to get at all. The issue also seems to be widespread with no players receiving the regular competitive rewards and are getting either the top 500 icon, the spray, or both instead. Cosmetics are a big part of Overwatch, so it will be interesting to see how Blizzard addresses the bug.
While Blizzard has not released an official statement on the bug, it does come during a tumultuous moment for Overwatch. Not only does the recent departure of Overwatch’s long-time director Jeff Kaplan have some players concerned for the game’s future and its coming sequel, but the game has also found itself in a controversy over a recent skin for the hero Mei.
Blizzard will likely address the bug rather soon, but hopefully, it satisfies all Overwatch players equally. Expectedly, Blizzard will also have something to share with players on the long-awaited Overwatch 2 despite the company’s absence from this year’s E3.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
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