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Sigma Is Tearing Up The Overwatch Playbook

Illustration for article titled Sigma Is Tearing Up The Overwatch Playbook

Sigma, Overwatch’s newest hero, has descended onto the PC public test server, and already, he’s making a craterous impact. The gravity-manipulating tank has an ult of otherworldly power, but ultimately, it hinges on a simple principle: What goes up must come down. Players are using it to pull off some absolutely devious plays.

When people first saw Sigma’s ult in action, many a tooth was revealed in a sudden spread of malicious grins. The ult lifts both Sigma and a selection of foes into the air, and then those foes get slammed into the ground and lose 50 percent of their maximum HP. Longtime players realized that Sigma could be a perfect solution to overtime stalemates where one team just can’t quite peel the other off the point. Here’s that idea in action, as demonstrated by Holajz.

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One moment, the team is hunkered down. The next, they’re hunkered significantly less down. During this time, the overtime timer dwindles, and the other team finishes them off before their feet can touch the ground again. Piece of cake. Something tells me that, in the near future, teams are going to have to play points very differently.

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Players of shield tanks like Reinhardt and Orisa, too, are about to have their lives rudely turned upside-down. Witness, for example, this clip of Sigma using his ult to lift a team from behind a shield, at which point player TheeVillain, as McCree, unleashes his own ult and takes out five players at once.

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Sigma is not the most maneuverable tank—except when he has his ult. Then he becomes capable of pulling off some classic flanks, including the old Under King’s Row special, as seen in this video by ChroNoDotes.

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He floats under the platform—exposed feet nearly getting singed by King’s Row’s infernal guts—and emerges on the enemy team’s undefended side. From there, it’s basic physics as he lifts everybody up and sends them crashing down.

“Is Sigma busted?” asks Fr3shBread to introduce a clip where they demolish another team by ulting, hurling a rock, and letting their allies sweep up the leftovers. “I dunno. But he sure is fun.”

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Lastly, we’ve got an innovative new solution to a problem as old as time. High-flying Pharah-Mercy combo got you down? Just hurl a rock at Mercy, like in this clip by SaviorAaron.

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While the video cuts off before it can happen, it’s likely that Mercy—stunned by the rock—proceeded to fall off a cliff. Now, this strategy may not always be practical, but it makes up for that deficiency with style. Just remember: In order to truly pull it off, never forget to wave goodbye at the end.

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