The Play of the Game is one of the most popular features in the Overwatch community. No wonder that many people also use the format for themselves. NBA players have now even been able to create an official video in the Overwatch style.
This can be seen: Some players of the NBA team “Dallas Mavericks” have posed and imitated quotes from well-known Overwatch heroes. They introduce their respective personal highlights from some games as “Play of the Game”.
In a combination of team names and games, the video is simply called “Maverwatch”. The players have their own, slightly modified hero names:
- Dirk Nowitzki as Soldier:41, who cannot miss the basket with his tactical visor.
- DeAndre Jordan as Shootscio, who pushes the ball away from his own basket with a “Boop”.
- Harrison Barnes as McThree, who hits a difficult 3-point shot with pinpoint precision.
- Dennis Smitz Jr. as Ballah, who performs an exemplary dunk just like Pharah.
- Wesley Mathews as Hanzthrow, who effortlessly “eliminates” three opponents on his way to the basket like a dragon.
- Luca Doncic as Dunkrat, who sends the ball flying through the air and into the basket like a kamikaze tire.
This is how the video came about: One of the official producers of the Mavericks, known as thankstowelie on reddit, has reportedly been asking for permission for this video for two years.
Now he finally got permission and was able to realize his dream. thankstowelie himself is a big fan of Overwatch and the owner of the Mavericks, Mark Cuban, is a proponent of e-sports. Thus, Cuban holds a significantly different opinion than Hesse’s interior minister, who wants to “eradicate” the term e-sports.
The timing couldn’t have been better. Just recently, a heroic basketball player made headlines, who saved an entire Overwatch team from death.
This is how the community reacts: The reactions under the video on reddit are mostly positive. Some do feel a certain “cringe” while watching, but find the idea and execution good.
Both Mavericks fans and Overwatch players celebrate the collaboration. Only the lack of enthusiasm from Doncic is mentioned more often. However, this is excused by the fact that Doncic himself plays a lot of Overwatch, but is a Hanzo and Genji main.
However, Hanzo was already assigned to Mathews, whose signature move after each basket is a “bow and arrow” motion.
By the way, another fan has pondered what a crossover with Dark Souls would look like. This is what Overwatch looks like in the “Dark Souls” style.
