A bug is currently affecting Overwatch. It concerns Mei and her ability to freeze opponents, leading to bizarre situations that are less than delightful for Mei and her team.
This is the bug: When Mei freezes opponents in Overwatch and they subsequently take damage from her or team members, they contort their bodies unnaturally. They remain frozen in this new position until the effect ends.
The bug prevents kills
What are the effects of the bug? Since the bodies of the opponents twist, their hitboxes also change. Especially the critical hitbox, which is the head for most heroes, becomes much harder to hit.
According to reports from some players, it’s partially impossible to hit the head twice with Brigitte and Zarya. The head simply completely disappears into the body’s textures and cannot be targeted anymore.
This prevents seemingly guaranteed kills on opponents affected by frost. Streamer and former pro-gamer Brandon “Seagull” Larned even experienced this in a ranked match.
When does the bug occur? There are several videos of the Mei bug. The distortion occurs, according to some reports, even when the target is hit by hitscan weapons like McCree’s revolver, rather than projectile weapons like Mei’s alternate fire.
However, it is still unclear whether the bug occurs consistently. It seems to have only existed for a few days. A user on Reddit commented:
This explains why my Blizzard kills have been below average this week. I hit 4 people yesterday, shot at them all, but nobody died.
It is possible that the bug appeared along with the issue with the new hero Ashe, where aiming is bugged.
How is the community reacting? Aside from the frustration over impossible headshots, most users are amused by the bug. The unnatural distortions of the hit heroes provide entertainment.
Some are looking forward to “headbanging Yetis” if the bug isn’t fixed by the upcoming Winter Wonderland event with the Yeti event mode. Many simply make jokes in the comments about the bizarre bug.
