We Finally Know Who Elon Musk Mains In Overwatch
Elon Musk is known for many things. He's the CEO of Tesla, whose cars might as well be mobile gaming platforms since they can run titles like Fallout Shelter. Musk is also the founder of SpaceX, which is probably why he launched a Tesla car into space via a SpaceX rocket. And Musk is a gamer who, by his own admission, frequently plays Overwatch.
Like any seasoned Overwatch player, Musk has a favorite character, and fellow Overwatch fans have been dying to discover his main for years. Now we finally know who Musk primarily uses in the game, and the answer came about in one of the most roundabout ways.
Musk's love of Overwatch became public knowledge when he recommended the game during a 2017 interview and called it "amazing." He also endorsed Hearthstone, mostly because his children loved the game, but "Overwatch" caught the ears of audiences. One year later, Musk called Overwatch "soothing" in a tweet. Up until recently, however, Musk hadn't talked much about the game. That all changed when a random tweet brought Musks' love of Overwatch back into the limelight.
It all started when Musk posted a silly tweet on Oct. 13. This tweet featured only two words, "The Illuminaughty." Despite the message's short and non sequitur nature, countless people responded, and one reply caught Musk's attention. YouTuber twomad took the opportunity to ask if Musk mained Torbjörn in Overwatch. What does Torbjörn have to do with a seemingly intentional misspelling of the term Illuminati? Absolutely nothing, but twomad asked the question anyway. Musk answered with a succinct "Um ... yes."
Not only did this response solidify Musk as a fan of Overwatch's Swedish (and vertically challenged) turret builder, it also started a new conversation between Musk and Blizzard that revolved around Torbjörn and his turrets. And Mars.
The Overwatch Twitter account quickly jumped onto Musk's comment on Torbjörn usage by posting a photoshopped image of a giant turret on Mars. Musk responded by asking Blizzard to buff Torbjörn's turrets — or at least let Torbjörn players build two weaker turrets to "allow more strategic degrees of freedom."
Blizzard immediately went to work and did Musk one better.
Several hours after Musk asked for turret buffs, Blizzard displayed the fruits of its labor. The company delivered one final tweet that featured Torbjörn on the moon building not one, not two, but three turrets. These turrets laid down a line of suppressing fire from three directions, thus providing Musk the requested "more strategic degrees of freedom." The turrets also hovered on miniature rockets. Musk could only react by uttering the word "Sweet."
Interestingly enough, Musk didn't originally gravitate to Torbjörn. Shortly after the interview where he first recommended Overwatch, Business Insider editor Dave Smith asked Musk whom he mained in the game. Musk quickly revealed his "dark secret": He loved to play as Soldier 76. This raises the question of why Musk switched from Soldier 76 to Torbjörn. Did an update make Torbjörn more appealing, or was Musk still getting his sea legs on straight when he used Soldier 76?
We can only speculate why Musk loves Torbjörn, but odds are Musk sees a lot of himself in the character. Both are regarded as some of the best engineers in their respective universes, and Musk and Torbjörn share a deep mistrust — if not outright hatred — of artificial intelligence.
As for why Musk called originally maining Soldier 76 his "dark secret," it's no secret, dark or otherwise, that the Overwatch community has a low opinion of the character. Many players consider Soldier 76's ultimate a joke, and plenty of Overwatch gamers find his general usability subpar. Soldier 76 is viewed as a "jack of all trades" character who isn't as viable as characters with specific roles and niches.
Meanwhile, the Overwatch community views Torbjörn as one of the game's stronger heroes. Torbjörn's turrets, though, not so much. While many gamers agree with Musk that these turrets are in need of a buff, plenty of players still love to play as Torbjörn regardless of these turret woes. The general consensus is that Torbjörn's strength comes from enemies overlooking and underestimating him, and Torbjörn mains gleefully use that to their advantage.
Regardless of why Musk switched mains in Overwatch, though, we now know which character he currently likes to use. Now if only we could just get Blizzard to give everyone those sweet Torbjörn rocket turrets.