Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Overwatch "taking action" against Lucio Ball exploiters

Plus: Competitive play season one pay-outs divulged.

In Overwatch, Lucio Ball is called Lucio Ball because only Lucio is allowed to play. Not D. Va, not Reinhardt, not anyone else. If anyone else shows up in your three-on-three ball game then it's a bug. And now that people have found a way to trigger the bug: it's an exploit.

The good news is that the bug is on Blizzard's radar and will be fixed - maybe as soon as this week. The bad news - bad for the people exploiting it - is that Overwatch Customer Support will start "taking action" against willing rule-breakers.

Wrote game director Jeff Kaplan:

"Apologies for this bug. We've attempted to fix it numerous times and have had unrelated issues preventing the fix. We hope to have a fix this week.

"In the meantime, we are in discussions with our Customer Support group to start taking action against those deliberately using the bug to play heroes other than Lucio.

"Please do not exploit this bug. Fair warning."

Cover image for YouTube videoSoldier 76 has an unfair advantage in Lucioball - Overwatch Summer Games lucio ball glitch

Elsewhere in Overwatch, the first competitive season is nearing its 17th August 5pm PST end, and Blizzard has divulged how many competitive points - that go towards buying those gold weapons - we'll be given according to our skill ratings at the end of it.

The rewards jump considerably if your skill rating is in the high 50s or better. Anyone with a skill rating of 65-plus will be rewarded with 300 competitive points - enough to buy a golden weapon outright - for example. But the drop off from there is sharp. I, at skill rating 46, will get 40 CP. Sigh.

  • SR 0-39: 10 CPs
  • SR 40-45: 20 CPs
  • SR 46-49: 40 CPs
  • SR 50-52: 60 CPs
  • SR 53-55: 80 CPs
  • SR 56-59: 120 CPs
  • SR 60-64: 200 CPs
  • SR 65+: 300 CPs

Then again, I also get a season one spray and icon for completing my 10 placement matches. I won't, however, get the animated spray for breaking into the top 500 players during the season. I wish!

Overwatch's competitive season 2 is scheduled to begin 6th September but that date may yet change.