Creative Ways People Are Cheating In Overwatch

Tracer always says "the world could always use more heroes" in Overwatch, but the world has its share of villains too. For every gamer who likes playing clean and winning on their own skill and merit, there are those who prefer to gain an edge with the aid of cheats or exploits, and these are just some of the ways Overwatch players are taking advantage. We're not condoning any of these cheats or exploits, merely showcasing them so you can recognize them online. Attempting to utilize any of these cheats in Overwatch could bring Blizzard's banhammer down on you, so it's in your best interest to play fair!

Ana's Sleep Dart is a powerful control skill, allowing her to put a target to sleep for a few seconds, leaving them unable to take any actions. As some users have discovered, you can line up three Ana players and have them rotate their Sleep Darts on an opponent, putting them out of commission long enough for the game to boot them out of the match for inactivity. As of this writing, the exploit hasn't been patched yet—and can't be used in Competitive Mode, since you can't have more than one of the same character on a team. We advise you to take care and serpentine if you see three grandmas coming your way, ready to prep you for nap time.

It seems like many gamers don't fear the banhammer, because they've taken to actually paying money for programs that help them cheat. One example is Watchover Tyrant, created by Bossland GmbH. According to Ars Technica, this program allows users to gain huge advantages in the game by giving them a radar that shows their enemies' positions and an aimbot that autotargets their opponents. It's bad enough that Soldier 76's Ultimate is basically an aimbot, but now people are paying to have it active all the time. Just imagine a Bastion in turret mode with an aimbot. Let's all take a moment to shudder in fear.

Mei, nicknamed "The Demon," is a nightmare for most players due to her freezing abilities and her potential for monstrous, HP-depleting damage. Not only can she slow down speedy, mobile heroes like Genji but she can outright stop them in their tracks with her Ice Wall. If that weren't enough, she can also set up an Ice Wall to block off projectile attacks that would otherwise destroy her teammates. Thankfully, the Ice Wall ability can only be used once every 10 seconds... unless you can harness the power of a glitch that makes it so you can pop the ability twice in a row, without waiting. 

Reddit user Havannaz discovered the glitch that allows you to drop a second Ice Wall immediately, without having to wait for the 10-second cooldown. In a fast-paced game like Overwatch, 10 seconds can mean the difference between a delicious victory or bitter defeat. 

It seems as if the quick cooldown reset is triggered when the Ice Wall is destroyed upon creation, usually with a powerful attack like D.Va's self-destruct, so take care when trying to recreate this feat, since it could cost you some big plays.

Torbjorn is known as one of the most vexing Overwatch heroes around, basically because his turret packs a punch and nets him Plays of the Game without much effort. He can rest on his laurels and wink at you from behind his eyepatch while his trusty turret peppers your team from a distance. This makes him an indispensable defensive hero who can protect objectives with relative ease. 

He's not untouchable, though, so Torby players need to exercise vigilance and protect themselves — and their turret — at all cost... unless, of course, they use an exploit on the Hanamura map to set themselves up behind a wall, out of reach and out of sight. As frustrating as it is to be shot at from an unseen location, what makes this exploit the worst is that you can do it in Competitive mode, where ranks and points are on the line! Torby might often claim that he's "not a dwarf," but he sure can be a little troll sometimes.

If you were a big fan of Star Wars: Episode II – The Clone Wars, then this cheat is for you. A YouTuber named Get Quaked On uploaded a tutorial on how to set up a custom game and mess with the options so that you can spawn an army of bots. Think of it like you're training against an inordinate number of Sentinels in Professor X's Danger Room, except instead of giant, purple mutant-hunting robots, you're training to take down a squad of Junkrats or Reinhardts. It's a strange sight to see, but we can't think of a better way to learn how to play against specific heroes... or pretend that we're survivors in a clone apocalypse.

Overwatch's resident badass cyborg ninja, Genji, is a whirlwind of blades and blurring speed in battle. When he's not begging for heals, he can be seen tossing shurikens, double-jumping into the air, deflecting incoming projectiles with ease, and dashing through heroes, instantly striking with his blade like something out of an anime. While all of these attacks and abilities can amount to a modest amount of damage to a hero, imagine the devastation if you could perform all of these skills in the same action. 

Well, the way has been found. An Overwatch player named Xaero brought a combo glitch to the attention of the Blizzard Entertainment forums, explaining that an exploit allowed Genji to instantly kill an opponent with 248 Health Points or less. All a player needed to do was Dash towards their target and hold the RMB (Right Mouse Button) and their Melee button in mid-dash. The result? A whole lot of hurt and some confused analysis of the kill replay.

For people of a certain age, The Smurfs was a delightful cartoon that centered on the lives of tiny, blue creatures who lived in a commune and were chased around by a weird, bald dude who wanted to eat them. For the Overwatch community, however, Smurfs are highly skilled players operating on a secondary account and queueing up with the intention of trouncing lower-ranked players with their superiority. 

It's the digital equivalent of John Cena putting on a fake mustache and then joining an amateur wrestling league — it's just a little unfair. Game director Jeff Kaplan, however, has chimed in and thinks that Smurfing is fair play and wouldn't classify it as "cheating." But to the masses of lower-ranked Overwatch players getting slaughtered by pros, Smurfing might be a bit of a sore subject.

One of the simplest ways players have been found cheating is with match-fixing. Competing in eSports can net a player a lot of cash and prestige, so it's not surprising that some people will do whatever it takes for success. One example saw two people — the player-manager and the coach for the Korean eSports team Luminous Solar — attempt to fix a qualifying match during a season of APEX Overwatch league in 2017. 

Offering money to have a rival team throw a match is a bad look for any eSports team, but the promise of glory and bigger cash prizes can drive people to make terrible decisions. Just keep in mind that doing stuff like that can summon the banhammer to smack you straight out of the game!

Being popular comes with its perks in the real world, so why shouldn't that apply to the professional players of Overwatch? And what greater way is there for pro-Overwatch players to harness the power of semi-celebrity status than by getting their fans to throw games for them? 

This was the case with pro player Dafran of Team Selfless. According to Bleeding Cool, Dafran got suspended for a week and banned from playing in Season 5 of Competitive Mode for encouraging some fans on the opposite team to purposely lose when they recognized him during a game. Unfortunately, he did this on Twitch, which keeps tabs on pros for unsportsmanlike behavior, so he got cut from his team and was forced to take a good, hard look at himself. You know what they say about cheaters and prospering.