Overwatch's Lunar New Year Event Is Live With New Skins To Unlock

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It's The Year of the Dog and Overwatch is live with their Lunar New Year event that will last from February 8 to March 5.

The event adds over 50 new seasonal cosmetic items including legendary skins like Red Pheonix (Zhu Que) Mercy, Black GTortoise (Xuan Wu) Zarya, White Tiger (Bai Hu) Genji, and Black Lily Widowmaker. 

The game mode Capture the Flag makes a return and comes with a few changes and restrictions to certain abilities:

Capture the Flag Rule Changes

  • Flag pickup is instant
  • Flag cannot be picked up for 5 seconds after dropped
  • Flag return is 4 seconds
  • Flag return does not stop when taking damage
  • Match length is 8 minutes
  • After scoring, the flag takes 15 seconds to respawn
  • Restricted abilities drop the flag (specific hero skills)

Capture the Flag Restricted Abilities

  • Doomfist’s Meteor Strike, Seismic Slam, Rising Uppercut, Rocket Punch
  • Genji’s Swift Strike
  • Pharah’s Jump Jet, Concussive Blast’s recoil (when used on yourself)
  • Reaper’s Shadowstep, Wraith Form
  • Soldier: 76’s Sprint
  • Sombra’s Stealth, Translocator
  • Tracer’s Blink, Recall
  • Junkrat’s Concussion Mine (when used on yourself)
  • Mei’s Cryo-freeze
  • Widowmaker’s Grappling Hook
  • D.Va’s Boosters, Self-Destruct (D.Va will also drop the flag if her mech is destroyed)
  • Reinhardt’s Charge
  • Winston’s Jump Pack, Primal Rage
  • Lucio’s Amp It Up, Crossfade’s speed boost
  • Mercy’s Valkyrie, Guardian Angel
  • Moira’s Fade, Coalescence
  • Zenyatta’s Transcendence

A new feature went live together with the Lunar New Year event. Players will now be allowed to change character skins at the start of each match using "Select Skin"  drop down menu found in the Hero Select Screen.

Bug fixes and changes to the game are live as well. You can read up on all the changes below.

Overwatch – Lunar New Year 2018 Patch Notes

Hero Updates

Doomfist

  • Hand Cannon
  • Damage reduced from 11 to 6
  • Number of bullets fired increased from 6 to 11
  • Spread pattern made more consistent

Developer Comments: We have made a lot of progress with Doomfist’s movement in recent patches but we wanted to revisit his Hand Cannon. While the damage per bullet has been lowered, the number of bullets he fires per Hand Cannon shot has been increased which makes his overall damage output unchanged. Overall, these changes will help his Hand Cannon feel much more consistent.

Reaper

  • Death Blossom
  • Now fires at players behind barriers

Developer Comments: Previously, Reaper’s Death Blossom would target barriers but not the players hiding behind them. This change will make it more effective against shields and consistent with how other auto-target abilities work (e.g. McCree’s Deadeye, Symmetra’s Sentry Turret).

UI Updates

General

  • Matchmaking UI now displays the game mode players have queued for while waiting for players
  • Competitive Play leaver messages now display as a chat notification
  • The Hero Select screen now displays the game mode and map type

Heroes

  • Zenyatta’s Orb of Discord and Orb of Harmony will now display its target’s hero name

Bug Fixes

General

  • [PC] Fixed a bug that caused the mouse cursor to lose focus when using third party overlays (e.g. Discord)
  • Fixed an issue that sometimes prevented the Overwatch League scheduled matches of the day from loading

AI: Fixed a bug that prevented bots from voting on cards at the end of the match on Hybrid and Control maps

Competitive Play

  • Fixed a bug that prevented capture progress UI on Assault and Hybrid maps from displaying the correct team colors
  • Fixed a bug that allowed players to use the Hero Select screen during the loading screen at the start of a match

Deathmatch

  • Fixed a bug that prevented Widowmaker’s Infra-sight from functioning if it was used at the same time as another Widowmaker’s Infra-sight
  • Fixed a bug that caused Torbjörn to collide with his turret
  • Fixed a bug that caused Symmetra’s Sentry Turrets to continue targeting Junkrat’s Steel Trap after it was destroyed
  • Fixed a bug that prevented players from being able to stand on top of enemy players
  • Fixed a bug that allowed backfilling players to enter at 9th place during the match
  • Fixed a bug that caused targets hacked by Sombra to appear purple instead of red
  • Fixed a bug that caused the displayed hero on the lobby screen to appear in low detail when entering and exiting the Overwatch League screen

Game Browser and Custom Games

  • Fixed a bug that allowed players to summon infinite bots in custom games
  • Fixed a bug that caused D.Va to lose her Self-Destruct ultimate if she died out of her mech when the “Spawn with Ultimate Ready” option was enabled
  • Fixed a bug that caused the Victory voice line to play when a match ended in a draw while spectating

Heroes

  • Fixed a bug that caused airborne heroes to lose speed when changing direction
  • Fixed a bug that prevented golden weapon visual effects from displaying when an Overwatch League skin was equipped
  • Fixed a bug that caused heroes’ scoped shots to be calculated as misses in the accuracy statistic
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Ana’s Candy emote from displaying when viewing Kill Cam footage
  • Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist’s Rocket Punch to impact with D.Va’s mech before it materialized during her Call Mech ability
  • Fixed a bug that prevented kills caused by Doomfist’s Rocket Punch from receiving environmental kill credit
  • Fixed a bug that allowed D.Va’s mech to take damage before it materialized when using Call Mech
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Genji from sheathing his katana after using his Whirlwind emote
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Genji from using his Cyber-agility occasionally
  • Fixed a bug that caused Hanzo’s Dragonstrike to be calculated in the accuracy statistic
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Hanzo’s Wall Climb from activating occasionally
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Junkrat’s Concussive Mine from dealing damage if it was deflected by Genji
  • Fixed a bug that caused Mercy’s Caduceus Staff to disappear when using the Parasol emote
  • Fixed a bug that caused Mercy to fly in an unintended direction if she was stunned during Guardian Angel
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Mercy from destroying breakables she collides with in her flight path when using Guardian Angel
  • Fixed a bug that caused Mercy’s Valkyrie flight controls to not be precise when using Resurrect
  • Fixed a bug that caused Moira’s Biotic Grasp’s hits against barriers to be calculated as misses in her accuracy statistic
  • Fixed a bug that extended the cooldown of Orisa’s Halt! by one second if it successfully pulled an enemy
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Sombra to block Reaper’s Death Blossom if she used her Marioneta emote
  • Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt to have a blank expression during his Toast victory pose
  • Fixed a bug that allowed projectiles to sometimes penetrate Reinhardt’s Barrier Field
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Reinhardt’s Charge bonus damage from being dealt if the target was sandwiched between a charging friendly Reinhardt and a charging enemy Reinhardt
  • Fixed a bug that caused Reinhardt to knock back a target instead of pinning them if he collided with an enemy at the start of his Charge
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Roadhog’s canister from appearing when viewing Overwatch League skins
  • Fixed a bug that caused Roadhog’s Chain Hook to clip the first-person camera when pulling in a target
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Sombra’s EMP from canceling an enemy Sombra’s Hack if it was in progress
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Symmetra’s Shield Generator from displaying in the Overwatch League skin preview screen
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Torbjörn’s lava ball from appearing in his Batter Up emote if his hammer was equipped
  • Fixed a bug that caused Widowmaker’s hair to not hang properly in the Hanging Around Highlight Intro when an Overwatch League skin was equipped
  • Fixed a bug that caused Widowmaker’s Venom Mine to use Overwatch League team colors when an Overwatch League skin was equipped
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Widowmaker’s Grappling Hook animation from playing when using the ability
  • Fixed a bug that caused Winston to lose some upward momentum when using Jump Pack off small inclines
  • Fixed a bug that caused Overwatch League team decals to disappear from Winston’s suit when he used Primal Rage
  • Fixed a bug that caused Zenyatta’s Discord Orb to fly in an odd direction if its target died before arriving

Hero Gallery: Fixed a bug that prevented players from purchasing non-hero sprays

Maps

  • Fixed a bug that caused some heroes to get stuck behind the lamp post directly outside the first Defender spawn room in Blizzard World
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to reach unintended locations in Blizzard World
  • Fixed a bug that prevented D.Va’s Micro Missiles from passing through piñatas on Dorado
  • Fixed a bug that allowed Junkrat’s RIP-tire to travel under the trailer at the final point on Hollywood
  • Fixed a bug that caused targets hacked by Sombra to appear purple instead of red
  • Fixed a bug that prevented Moira’s Biotic Orbs from bouncing off the wooden pillars on Hollywood
  • Fixed a bug that caused the UI to show a fraction of a meter to go when reaching checkpoints on Escort and Assault/Escort maps

UI

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the hero portrait from displaying when watching Highlights when an Overwatch League skin was equipped
  • Fixed a bug that prevented player portraits from displaying during the Play of the Game, Kill Cam, Spectating, and Highlights