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August 9th Live Patch Notes: Summer Games, Hanzo, Widow, Mercy Nerfs and More The 2018 Summer Games are here, featuring 50 new cosmetics, Lucioball and a lot of Hero tuning.

Play Overwatch Free August 23 - 27

These free weekends really seem to be paying off for Blizzard or they're just feeling especially giving lately, as they're getting increasingly more common! This is great news for anyone still on the fence to come and try the game out, especially with the Summer Games in effect and the latest Hero Hammond being so much fun to play.

The weekends starts next Thursday the 23d and goes through to Monday the 27th on all platforms, so get ready to try out the game/welcome a lot of new players! And for all those joining the ranks, you can also check out our Hero guides. Today at 11:11 by Starym 1 comment

All-Star Weekend Format and Skin Acquisition Announcement

The All-Star Weekend is fast approaching, only two weeks away in fact, and Blizzard just shared a lot of details about the event and more specifically, it's format. We've already heard about the two new skins the event will be bringing to the game and now we found out how to get them: they'll be available for a limited time only, August 17–27 and each will cost 300 Overwatch League Tokens. Aug 10, 2018 at 21:38 by Starym 1 comment

August 9th Live Patch Notes: Summer Games, Hanzo, Widow, Mercy Nerfs and More

The 2018 Summer Games have arrived and will stay until August 30th! We have over 50 new seasonal items, including the already announced legendary skins, more Lucioball and a large amount of Hero changes. Aug 09, 2018 at 20:21 by Starym 6 comments

More Summer Games Skins: Ana, Roadhog, Zenyatta

The Summer Games start today and we got another 3 skins revealed in the past couple of days as well! It seems Lacrosse Roadhog is the clear winner of this new skin-off, but there will be more new skins coming with the games, like the Sombra Mexico epic skin. Aug 09, 2018 at 08:57 by Starym 4 comments

Icy Veins Podcast Episode #22

In Episode 22 of our podcast, we go through Sylvanas' actions from the War of Thorns up to the Battle for Lordaeron event, Aleco helps us discuss the Boomsday Project launch and talks about exciting decks that you can check out in our guides section. We also didn't leave out Sally Whitemane and the Overwatch League! Aug 08, 2018 at 21:59 by Stan

BlizzCon 2018: Third Ticket Sale Added

If you didn't manage to buy tickets during the first two sales, worry not. Blizzard just announced a third sale and you'll be able to snag a ticket on August 18th! Aug 08, 2018 at 17:52 by Stan

New Legendary Skins for Summer Games: D.Va, Reinhardt and Winston

The 2018 Summer Games are almost upon us and with only 3 days to go it's time for some skin previews! We have D.Va's Waveracer, Gridironhardt Reinhardt and finally, Catcher Winston. Aug 05, 2018 at 22:52 by Starym 13 comments

Summer Games Are Back Next Week!

It's time for another event! This time it's the 2018 Summer Games, presumably featuring Lucioball once more, with the usual new skins and cosmetics to be had and purchased. Last year we had the new cosmetics costing the normal amount, but also could buy 2016's skins at a discount.

The event runs for three weeks from August 9th to the 30th, so get on in there and play some ball! Aug 03, 2018 at 18:53 by Starym 5 comments

Icy Veins Discord Webhook

Stay up to date with the latest Icy Veins news with our Discord webhook! Aug 01, 2018 at 10:50 by Stan 1 comment

OWL Finals Average Viewership Over 860,000

The Overwatch League finals saw the London Spitfire win against the Philadelphia Fusion and it seems a lot of people tuned in across the many places it was broadcast. From the sold out Barclays Arena itself, to the esports standard in Twitch and MLG, to more mainstream sporting channels ESPN, ESPN 2 and ESPN 3, as well as regular channels Disney XD and ABC, in addition to ZhanQi TV, NetEase CC and Panda TV in China, the overall average viewership for the event was 861,205! Aug 01, 2018 at 01:18 by Starym

New Tracer and Genji Skins Revealed at OWL Finals

We'll be seeing several new skins arrive with the upcoming Overwatch League All Star Weekend (August 25th and 26th), where community chosen players will represent each region (Atlantic and Pacific). The event is more of a fun/casual sort of tournament, in comparison to the high-stakes nature of the recent Grand Finals of the league, where two of the skins that will be added were revealed - Pacific Genji and Atlantic Tracer! Jul 29, 2018 at 21:11 by Starym 2 comments

London Spitfire Defeats Philadelphia Fusion to Become Overwatch League’s First-Ever Champions

London Spitfire swept match 2 in a best of 3 series to become Overwatch League’s first league champions! Jul 28, 2018 at 22:48 by Mournflakes 4 comments

The Making of Hammond/Wrecking Ball

VG247 had a long talk with Lead Designer Geoff Goodman, and they went over the various incarnations and concepts of the latest Hero to join Overwatch. From humble origins of a simple ball-looking robot on a piece of paper, back when Winston was the weirdest the game was going to get, the idea was quickly shelved and it was only when the team started looking for a "cute" addition to the roster that inserting a hamster into that ball robot was clearly the solution. Jul 27, 2018 at 04:24 by Starym 1 comment

Icy Veins Podcast Episode #21

In the latest episode of our podcast, we discuss the Boomsday Project card reveals, Jaina's animated short in WoW, Wrecking Ball and latest Hero updates in Overwatch and the Heroes teaser! Jul 25, 2018 at 20:15 by Stan

Hammond/Wrecking Ball Guide Is Ready

The latest Overwatch Hero arrived yesterday and our own Mournflakes already has a guide ready for the rolling hamster! Check out his abilities, playstyle, and matchups in the current meta in detail. Jul 25, 2018 at 16:17 by Starym

July 24th Live Patch Notes: Wrecking Ball Is Here, Hanzo Nerf, Sombra Tweaks

Overwatches 28th Hero has arrived at last and Wrecking Ball (or Hammond, as most of the community prefers to call him) is a whole heap of fun and available on live servers! The patch also brings major changes to some weapons' damage falloff, to reduce its impact on mid-range weapons. We then have the usual Hero balance shuffle, with Hanzo's new Storm Arrows ability getting nerfed and Sombra becoming more of a stealth character with permanent invisibility and a permanent teleporter. And finally, Assault maps now have a shorter duration in Quick Play and Arcade Mode and we get the usual huge list of bug fixes!

Here's the Wrecking Ball trailer and the patch notes are be low it: Jul 24, 2018 at 19:14 by Starym 4 comments

4 Sprays, Double Tokens for Watching OWL Grand Finals

There's more goodies coming via the Overwatch League to us regular folks! There's four new sprays as well as double the league tokens (that you can use to buy the team skins) heading your way if you watch the Grand Finals on Twitch on July 27-28th! All you have to do is link your Blizzard account to your Twitch and watch 3 hours on each day for the full 4 sprays featuring Overwatch Heroes watching the games! Check out the full details below.

The finals themselves will also be broadcast on ESPN live and the highlights will be shown on ABC the day after. Jul 20, 2018 at 20:30 by Starym

Play Overwatch Free July 26-30 on PC!

We have another free weekend coming, this time featuring the latest Hero to arrive to Overwatch, Hammond/Wrecking Ball, who will be going live on July 24th! There's a lot of these free weekends going around, but this one may just be the best one yet, as the little hamster hero is extremely fun to play and should be interesting for all types of players to tinker with. So if you haven't bought it yet, you should definitely jump in this weekend and try out some of the more fun Heroes, (imo) Winston, Hammond, Pharah, Tracer, basically anyone with great movement abilities. Jul 20, 2018 at 04:30 by Starym 2 comments

July 18th PTR Patch Notes: Hanzo and Widow Nerfs, Support Hero Balancing

After the wrecking Ball PTR was taken down yesterday we have a new build today! Along with the already announced support Hero balancing, we have certain longer duration ults returning ammo after they're done, Hanzo and Widow movement ability nerfs and more Hero tweaks. Jul 20, 2018 at 00:33 by Starym 2 comments

Upcoming Balance Changes for Support Heroes

Ana, Lucio and Moira buffs, Brigitte and Mercy nerfs are coming! Geoff Goodman takes to the forums to explain and detail some upcoming changes to support heroes "to keep them competitive with each other". From the lucky ones like Ana's ult healing addition, to a huge Sound Barrier shield buff and more for Lucio, it seems only Mercy is getting a significant whack on the head with her primary healing beam getting reduced. Jul 18, 2018 at 21:55 by Starym 5 comments

Hammond aka Wrecking Ball Goes Live on July 24th!

Everyone's favorite hamster is arriving next week where he'll be rolling around everything and everyone and making players hate map edges even more! Hero 28 will be throwing his (in)considerable weight around on live servers after a really great run on the PTR where everyone had a ton of fun finding extremely quick ways around maps with the swinging mechanic and throwing everyone off maps. Jul 17, 2018 at 18:14 by Starym 5 comments

OW League All Access Pass Gains Lucio Legendary Emote

Yesterday on the Overwatch League stream we had a big reveal for Twitch All Access Pass holders, with Lúcio receiving his first legenday emote, and it's a doozy too! Coming out on July 24th, the emote joins the 15 league skins, twitch emotes, a global twitch chat badge, a lot of various insider content as well as an in-game spray and player icon. The Lúcio emote looks like one of the most complex ones to date and is probably the most worth-while item in the whole package, so make sure to check it out. Jul 15, 2018 at 10:25 by Starym 5 comments

Toxicity Down Significantly Due to LFG and Endorsements

More feedback on the LFG and Endorsement systems and it seems they've had a massive positive effect on toxicity of players and are making the game much more enjoyable! So far we only got stats for KR and the Americas with EU coming later, but the numbers are very impressive nonetheless: Jul 13, 2018 at 08:50 by Starym 15 comments

OW League Broadcast Over ESPN, ABC and Disney XD

Activision Blizzard signed a historic deal for the broadcast rights to the Overwatch League on US television. For the next 2 years ESPN, Disney XD and ABC will be covering the league events, both live and as summaries. This marks the first time esports will be shown in prime time on a major network, with the quarter and semifinals aired live on DisneyXD and ESPN 2 and 3, while the finals will be shown on both ESPN, ESPN 2 and Disney XD. The package also includes the very first airing of competitive gaming on ABC, one of the big four broadcast networks in the US, with the highlights recap of the finals airing on July 29th. This marks a huge step forward for esports and its presence in the mainstream media, and it seems appropriate for Overwatch to make this first step, as it's already pushed into the pop culture realm.

The playoffs have already started, so check out the schedule below, as well as comments from both ESPN, DisneyXD and Activision Blizzard themselves: Jul 12, 2018 at 06:25 by Starym 4 comments

Icy Veins Podcast Episode #20

In episode 20 of the Icy Veins Podcast, we discuss the latest Hearthstone expansion announcement and new keywords, the latest Azmodan & Raynor gameplay updates in Heroes, Wrecking Ball in Overwatch & more. Jul 11, 2018 at 19:15 by Stan

Overwatch Cosplay Music Video

The 86th Floor and Hype Creations teamed up to bring us this massive Overwatch cosplay music video, set to Shibuya Sunrise’s original track “Know my place” and featuring so many Heroes and skins in action. Opening with 3 reapers on one team and a McCree that let his bear go a little, the video goes through a few rounds of face-offs and ends with everyone figuring out who the real threat is. Enjoy: Jul 11, 2018 at 14:50 by Starym

Amazing D.Va Mech Cosplay

The Overwatch cosplay community is very active, imaginative and talented, and as a result we've seen plenty of both accurate and impressive Hero looks so far, but today's adds a little bit of exo-suit crafting as well! Gryphon's Gears constructed a great (and functional/usable) version of D.Va's White Rabbit mech skin: Jul 10, 2018 at 07:52 by Starym 3 comments

Over 12 Million Raised in Pink Mercy Charity Campaign

It seems Overwatch players are a charitable bunch indeed and Mercy once again helped her team out immensely, only this time the team was Breast Cancer research! The over 12.7 million dollars raised during the campaign is also the largest amount one campaign has raised for the Breast Cancer Research Foundation in a one-year span. And if that wasn't enough, there was an additional $130,000 raised through donations on Overwatch twitch streams! Jul 09, 2018 at 17:18 by Starym 2 comments

More Sombra Changes on the PTR, LFG Feedback

The devs have taken to the forums to share some new info, with Jeff Kaplan sharing some stats on the new LFG system and how it's been both positively received and has made major positive changes to grouping in general: Jul 04, 2018 at 05:22 by Starym 1 comment

Season 11 of Competitive Play Is Here!

It's time for another season of Competitive play! Even as the whole community is buzzing about the new Hero Wrecking Ball, who's up on the PTR as we speak, the live servers are ready for some top (and bottom) level competition and Symmetra can't wait to get her new self into some matches! Jul 02, 2018 at 07:10 by Starym 8 comments

Podcast #21

The Daughter of the Sea

Hearthstone

The Boomsday Project cards revealed!
WoW

Stinkrot Smasher, Warbringers: Jaina, Pre-patch is live and more
Overwatch

Wrecking Ball live, nerfs and buffs, Overwatch league finals
Heroes

New hero teased
StarCraft 2

Eigth anniversary

Listen to the podcast

Box Changelog

CHANGELOG

31 Jul. 2018: Reaper Introduction
- Guide updated and moved to new format.
29 Jul. 2018: Ana Introduction
- Guide added
25 Jul. 2018: Hanzo Abilities and Strategy
- Storm Arrows section updated for patch 1.26
25 Jul. 2018: Sombra Introduction
- Guide updated for patch 1.26
06 Jul. 2018: Wrecking Ball Introduction
- Guide added.
02 Jul. 2018: Symmetra Introduction
- Guide added.
29 May 2018: Pharah Introduction
- Guide updated and moved to new format.
22 May 2018: Hanzo Abilities and Strategy
- Updated Storm Arrows section for patch 1.24.

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