No one saw this coming: Two Overwatch League players have been fined $1,000 for inappropriate conversations seen during an official broadcast this past weekend.

While the Overwatch League (OWL) delivered many exciting matches this weekend, the most notable moment came during a match chat between the Los Angeles Valiant and the San Francisco Shock. Jung-Won “Lastro” Mun of Valiant and Dong-Jun “Rascal” Kim of Shock were the unfortunate recipients of a rare Overwatch League fine for visibly “colorful” language.

There are more details in the tweet below, but beware: read at your own risk:

The offending words were first typed by Lastro, while the rest of the players either laughed or tried to spam the chat – they probably wanted to cover up those words that way. However, Rascal repeated what Lastro said and then added supporting symbols to the term. By reinforcing the inappropriate phrases, Rascal got caught up in what would have originally just become a fine for Lastro.

Why the fine?
Both players were clearly in violation of the rules. Section 6.1b of the Overwatch League’s Official Rules of Competition and Conduct states.

“Team members and owners may not use obscene or offensive gestures or profanity in their tags, player names, game chat, live play communications, lobby chat, pre- and post-events, interviews, or other public platforms of any kind. This rule applies to English and all other languages and includes abbreviations and/or obscure references.”
Even outsiders without much knowledge of English could tell that what Lastro was saying and Rascal was parroting was obscene. Other players tried to tell them that the match chat was visible to the public, but by then it was too late. The hilarious but technically rule-breaking damage was done.

Reactions to the verdict
Immediately after the match, Lastro apologized via Twitter for the language he used in the chat.

Many fans reacted sympathetically. One said, “That was the funniest moment in OWL so far, you don’t have to apologize!” Another simply called him “King.” It’s clear that this was hilarious rather than offensive to many viewers, but there are younger fans watching as well. Such words could be offensive to them, their parents, or to sponsors. And the latter always want to guard against a possible bad backlash.

This is not the first time the OWL has had to respond to a player’s inappropriateness with a fine. In the 2018 inaugural – Season , former London Spitfire player Joon-Yeong “Profit” Park flipped out in front of a facecam in front of the crowd and was fined $1,000 shortly after. Profit thought the camera was not visible to the audience, but thought wrong!

There are still some comments on Twitter that the league was too harsh with their penalties for Lastro and Rascal. But who earns a lot of money with a game, must also stand for his misconduct, right?

Now more pleasant, at least for a hero from Overwatch. The new Overwatch patch is here and buffs Ashe tremendously. Others didn’t fare as well – poor Mei!

Overwatch

Overwatch is a computer game by Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo 3, World of Warcraft) and a first-person shooter with individual fantasy elements. The game was released in May 2016.

In Overwatch, the player must choose between 21 unique characters, which can be freely selected in a loosely held classification system (offensive and defensive class, support unit and tanks).

A character’s three to four different abilities can be controlled and activated through the mouse and keyboard. The game modes already vary from scoring points to cargo hauling. Team play is required in both modes, as each character takes on a specific role in the battlefield (e.g. heal teammates, provide backup, or secure defensive lines).

The name Overwatch derives itself from a fictional elite military unit that came together when robots tried to subjugate humanity in a near future. Individual characters are associated with this unit in the game, while others oppose it. It is not yet known whether the storyline will continue in multiplayer.

Brawl

Brawl is a game mode in which time-limited rule variations of the well-known modes are drawn. Sometimes completely new game modes are used in Brawls.

Rule variations include, for example, the restriction to certain heroes or classes, changes to the cool-down times or certain cards. New game modes that have been playable so far include a soccer game and a PvE mode.

Usually, Brawls are restarted as Brawl of the Week every Tuesday at 22:00 UTC and are then playable for a week. On certain occasions, such as – Season al events, Brawls may also be playable for a longer or shorter period of time.

The game mode is comparable to the card chaos from Hearthstone and was activated for the first time in the beta phase on March 22, 2016 through a patch.

Actions

• Arcade: More health, shorter skill and ultimate cooldowns, and faster resurrection after death.
• Girl Power: Female heroes only.
• Head’s Up!: McCree, Genji, Hanzo, and Widowmaker. Only head hits count.
• High Noon: High Noon on Route 66, only head hits with McCree count.
• Highly Offensive: Only offensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Junkenstein’s Revenge: Soldier, Hanzo, Ana, Mc Cree only (1 each). The first co-op PVE mode in Overwatch. Part of the – Season al event Halloween Horror.
• Justice rains from Above: Only Mercy and Pharah playable.
• Moba Watch: Only unique heroes per team. No hero switching allowed.
• Mystery Heroes: Upon death, you will be resurrected as a randomly selected Hero.
• Overly Defensive: Only defensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Show Your Support: Support Heroes only. The limit is two of the same Hero per team.
• Super Shimada Bros: Welcome to Hanamura. Only Hanzo and Genji are playable. Shorter skill cooldowns, longer ultimate cooldowns.
• Tanks A Lot: Tank heroes only. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Only McCree, Reaper and Roadhog playable.
• We’re all Soldiers now: Only Soldier: 76 playable on control cards.
• Lucioball: Lucio only: Soccer mode, 3 vs 3.
• Yeti Hunt: Five meis against a yeti that has the characteristics of Winston.

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