One of the year's most exciting events for Overwatch fans is finally here: the Overwatch Summer Games 2020. This year's event will bring some big changes to Lucioball, an arcade mode exclusive to the Summer Games.
Lucioball is traditionally a 3v3 soccer game where all players are the Overwatch Hero Lucio, with wall-riding, speed-boosting, and soccer ball-booping added in to make the game look more like Rocket League, if the cars were all Lucio. However, this year has added in a new game mode called Lucioball Remix, as well as movement updates for the arcade game. The Summer Games is also bringing in new weekly challenges and cosmetic changes.
Lucioball Remix has more speed, more chaos, and more soccer balls than standard Lucioball. There are usually two balls involved in the match, with any scored balls respawning after a short period of time. However, bonus balls can randomly show up and grant the player 3 points when scored. Players also don't get reset after a goal, and can continue playing from where they were already. This should help streamline games and allow players to stay immersed in the action.
This new mode also has a Mercy rule (unrelated to the Hero) that will end a game early if one team is 10 points ahead of the other. The new mode will also add new pillars and surfaces to the Overwatch Busan map, and more jump pad surfaces to Sydney. Both map additions will give players more wall-riding opportunities. Anyone who's played Rocket League at any time in the year, or Lucioball in the last few years it was available, knows how important to winning wall-riding can be, as well as being just plain fun.
Standard Lucioball is getting some changes too, adding in midair crouches, way shorter cooldowns, increased boop and punch range, quicker movement, higher jump pad launches, and a gamepad rumble when players score goals. Standard mode will also have a Mercy rule, although this one might lead to shorter games: only a 5-point lead by one team will end a game early. Lucioball has a lot of tactics involved, and players should learn the updates so they can adapt accordingly and win more matches.
The Summer Games is also granting new Legendary Skins, like Lifeguard Pharah, and weekly challenges that can be completed by winning Lucioball matches. The prizes (for 3, 6, and 9 wins respectively) for this first week are the Baseballmari Player Icon, Union Jack Spray, and Union Jack Tracer Epic Skin, so any player who wants to get their hands on these cool items should start sharpening their Lucioball skills today.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.