Overwatch dresses up for another round of Winter Wonderland
What's in that egg, Mei?
As much a part of the season as indoor trees and mysterious boxes, Overwatch's annual Winter Wonderland has rolled back in for another year. 2020's edition of Christmas in Blizzardland introduces new 4v4 freeze-tag brawl "Freezethaw Elimination", brings back limited modes from the ghosts of Overwatch past, and once again adds a bundle of wonderfully strange festive outfits for our far-future superfriends.
Once again, Blizzard have outdone it when it comes to skins. But forget penguin Mei or granny gingerbread Ana - the real highlight here is Junkrat's goblin bastard get-up, perhaps the most honest skin that twerp's ever been graced with.
So! Before we get to the fashion show, let's talk festivities. This year's Winter Wonderland introduces Freezethaw Elimination, a 4v4 deathmatch with a twist. Instead of being knocked out, each kill freezes a player in place. Fortunately, teammates can bring them back into the fight by standing nearby and thawing them. The game is called once all four members of a team are frozen at once.
If that all sounds rather tense, there are always older holiday modes to jump into instead. Mei's Snowball Offensive, Snowball Deathmatch and 5v1 Yeti Hunter return from previous years, and there are goodies in store for snatching victory in any gamemode during the event. Overwatch's weekly event rewards return with three sets of icons, sprays and skins to unlock - including that aforementioned Aussie goblin, baker Ana and a Jack Frost Roadhog.
This year's other skins are, as usual, wrapped up in loot boxes - which is a shame, because some of them are a doozy. Reinhardt has come as both a train conductor and a train, Moira is sporting some slick Narnia-esque Ice Queen looks, and Torbjorn... well, Torbjorn looks like yer da's come straight off his shift on the farm to see how you're doing at sports.
Overwatch's Winter Wonderland kicked off today, and runs through 'til January 5th. Hey, as long as you're not travelling to a family Christmas, I reckon you could get your gran in on some Freezethaw. Reckon she'd be a Junkrat main.