Overwatch

I am pretty sure it does.

Also, the Overwatch community is already bitching about Sigma having a stun with his rock ability. Expect to see the new fun hero nerfed in a week because the Overwatch community never changes.

That's just the nature of these types of constantly-updated/community-focused games.

Speaking of community I just saw this and needed to share it:

Hmmm, Sigma's ult and rock throw make me think that the next hero could finally be a cleanse support.

I mean, that fantasy does fit echo but she could turn out to be a DPS just like we got a DPS Doomfist instead of a tank

So the PTR has Sigma lore not mentioned here.

• Sigma wasn't a villain at all before the accident and his backstory mentions that he is being manipulated and used by Talon. It also mentions that he got his powers from the accident and couldn't initially control them when he was put into that government facility. He wasn't able to control them until after Talon kidnapped him. I imagine it's likely that Moira got involved with controlling his powers and him.
• Sigma's real name is Siebran de Kuiper, he originates from the Netherlands
• With that name in mind, if you go on the Horizon Lunar Colony map Sigma will mention that he was one of the scientists that worked there. So yeah, it seems very likely his experiment went horribly wrong on Horizon Lunar Colony. I think some of the little lore blurbs may list him under his real name but I haven't checked yet.
• Sigma seems to be mostly lucid in-game on the surface but will mention stuff after he is killed that very heavily implies he can see timelines were he died or didn't die. People are also pointing at his idle animation showing that his original self/frail personality might be resurfacing on occasion. You can see a brief wide-eyed terrified expression sometimes.

Edited by Wispy on Jul 24th 2019 at 9:19:09 AM

Finally got around to watching that trailer. God damn that was a trip. I need more.

Yeah, he definitely occasionally has mini-freak outs in his idle animation.

So there has been hubbub about Blizzard creating a villainous character with a mental illness, not helped by the explanation on why he doesn't wear shoes. I'm usually on the SJW-side and I see their points but I think it's a stretch considering what Sigma did probably is so outside the realm on how mental illness happens.

Uh he’s loopy cause he was traumatized due to an outside force.

I don’t think he was kooky beforehand.

Edited by slimcoder on Jul 24th 2019 at 10:01:09 AM

He wasn't, the backstory just mentions that he was just eccentric before the accident which isn't mental illness.

And I am pretty sure if you look at it from a mental illness angle that his origin story is not making fun of mental illness at all and is instead showing the horrors of someone with an very serious mental illness left untreated.

An story making fun of mental illness wouldn't show him breaking down and being freaked out at whats happening whilst visibly showing his mental health going downhill. It would treat his mental illness as a joke and the origin trailer definitely did not play it off that way

Also, it's very obvious that Sigma judging by both his origin and backstory is meant to be a Tragic Villian at the very worst. Hell atleast judging by what he has seen the only reason he is on the bad side is because Talon kidnapped him and is using him. That's it. He has no kill count before or after as far as we know.

I am more on the left/progressive side myself and I can see what they are trying to say but I think they are going at this issue at completely the wrong angle. There has been many characters in fiction that has been used to draw attention to the horror of suffering from mental illnesses. Hell I remember a film I saw a couple or so years ago that was about a real person, a mathematician if I recall correctly whom suffered from untreated schizophrenia. None of those characters or people were played for laughs and instead were treated seriously.

Edited by Wispy on Jul 24th 2019 at 11:38:39 AM

I think they meant that his appearance was meant to resemble an asylum patient, which is why he is barefoot.

Insanity is a central theme in Sigma's story so i guess they wanted to reflect that in the costume.

I wonder if he counts as a schizophrenic

The bare feet are in no way and indictment of Sigma's character or an attack on people with mental illness AT ALL.

It is to evoke visually that he's the victim of BedlamHouse style abuses.

Its quite possible that if Sigma ended up in the hands of Overwatch that they could of stabilized him mentally, and power wise. It wouldn't be the first time they got someone with unusual abilities caused by an experiment gone wrong(Tracer), or someone whom used to be in a bad place mentally (Genji).

The mistake here seems to be whatever government that took him and confined him into an asylum either clearly had no way of helping him or just didn't care enough to help him.

Edited by Wispy on Jul 25th 2019 at 7:45:27 AM

I got SCP vibes from Sigma's backstory. It would be cool if there were an organization that was focused on studying the oddities and anomalies of the Overwatch universe.

Now I'm thinking that the reason there hasn't been new lore is because the Overwatch heroes are kept in a Lotus-Eater Machine by the OW-verse's SCP Foundation equivalent as a means of containing them.

Edited by sgamer82 on Jul 25th 2019 at 10:08:33 AM

Just realized, if Echo is truly the next character and a support, she will take Zen's niche.

Being the second floating support. How could they?

I have a feeling they’ll just give Echo Symmetra’s old shield health ability.

Yeah, now that you mention it, I'm also expecting Echo to be Support Symmetra 2.0.

Which is upsetting, she’s practically a support character already with the teleporter and ultimate. I just want my hero back.

Amid the discussion of Sigma and whomever Blizzard introduce as Hero 32 at Blizzcon, OWL has started up again, so we've had our first round of matches with 2/2/2 role lock. They were... interesting. Getting the results out of the way straight away - Paris Eternal 3, Houston Outlaws 1; Los Angeles Gladiators 3, New York Excelsior 1; Guangzhou Charge 3, Philadelphia Fusion 2; Vancouver Titans 3, Shanghai Dragons 1 - I was interested to see if any sort of meta was starting to develop.

Early days yet, so the answer is "Maybe??", although setting the two Tank spots aside for Orisa/Roadhog is unsurprisingly popular. (Though all seven Tanks were chosen for at least one segment of at least one map by at least one team yesterday evening.) Same for choosing Ana as one of the Supports; the other seemed to vary between Mercy, Lucio, Moira, and occasionally Brig or Baptiste. (I don't remember seeing anyone play as Zenyatta.) As for the DPS choices, as predicted, the snipers - Widowmaker and Hanzo most of all, plus the occasional McCree - were near the top of the list, but there seemed to be a lot of DPS players choosing Mei as well, with Ice Walls aplenty. Sombra didn't seem to be chosen as frequently as I was expecting; perhaps players at top level know how to counter her more effectively? And then there were teams using Bunker/Pirate Ship compositions with Bastion, and it appears the Fusion's Carpe is a Reaper fan (not sure how long that will last). Plus the odd Genji, Pharah (the Dragons' DDing first and foremost), and Tracer. There's still a sense of "Try anything until we find something that works" about it, but that's always the way.

One thing's for certain: whatever the new meta turns out to be, as far as I'm concerned, 2/2/2 is already proving far more entertaining to watch than GOATS ever was. Whether it will be fun to play when it's rolled out in Quick and Competitive Play, I'm not so sure.

More entertaining for now...

Kidding, it will probably last!

So i though that killing Sigma mid ult would cancel his ult but it doesn't? Isn't it a channeled ultimate?

Apparently if you kill him when he already caught anyone the ult goes off regardless if he is alive, stunned or dead. Feels arbitrary if you ask me.

Makes sense. It’s like Mei’s then.

Speaking of Blizzard (as in Mei's ultimate, not as in... oh, you know the rest), it hasn't been until this week that I even knew that Defense Matrix could negate Blizzards just as easily (in fact, more so!) as Graviton Surges or Dragonstrikes, thanks to Gods going on an absolute tear for the Defiant against the Justice yesterday evening and gobbling up four Blizzards on one map. I suppose I didn't know this before because I'd almost never seen a Mei on one team and a D.Va on the other in OWL, or in low-level Quick Play games. I know Mei has seen a spike in popularity in the first few OWL Stage 4 matches because she's an effective counter to some of the other popular choices, but evidently D.Va is an effective counter to Mei.

For that matter, I only last night learned that it's possible for Defense Matrix to counter Hack thanks to Elsa zapping a Hack from Eqo in the Hunters-Fusion match. One of my usual groupmates is a D.Va main; I doubt she knew this before now (she didn't even know D.Va could devour Dragonstrikes until she did so herself by accident), but I'm sure she's looking forward to trying it for herself.

Again, whatever its flaws, I'm finding 2/2/2 far more entertaining than GOATS; the marathon-length Overtime battles on some maps have been an absolute joy to watch.

You have to kill him or stun him pretty early on.

I'm sorry, D.Va can shoot down Sombra's hacking... juice?