The mystery of missing Overwatch map Numbani has been solved
Blizzard EntertainmentThe mystery of the missing Numbani in Overwatch’s competitive map pool has finally been solved.
Near the end of April, players began to notice that something was off about the competitive map pool. A post on the Overwatch reddit by u/Cubelious noted that they hadn’t seen Numbani in some time, prompting other players to notice that they too hadn’t played the map recently.
Despite the community’s realization that Numbani was missing in action, Blizzard did not immediately address the speculation, with more than a week passing with no comment from the developers on if and why the map had been removed. Now, however, the mystery has been solved.
The most recent update to Overwatch on May 7 introduced a brand-new, map, Havana, which was first revealed as part of the Storm Rising event that has now come to an end.
Havana is a payload map based on the location in which the Storm Rising mission took place.The addition of Havana doesn’t seem to have been the only change to the map pool in the recent patch, however, as players immediately started to report that they were once again seeing Numbani in the competitive rotation.
Though the patch notes made no mention of Numbani being reinstated, Overwatch developer Dan Maas has now acknowledged that the map did in fact go missing for a short time, but has now been returned following some “minor care and handling”.
“Since the arrival of Efi and Orisa to Numbani, it has required some minor care and handling in the Overwatch universe. We recently neglected that care and regular service to Numbani international was interrupted. However, with the arrival of the sunny Havana destination, service to Numbani (just as it was before) has also been restored.
“We appreciate the keen eyes in the community who reported this and apologize that it’s taken a couple days to address.
“Please resume enjoying your Kọfịs Aromo and thanks for your patience!”
Exactly what the “care and handling” consisted of isn’t clear at this time, as players haven’t noticed any obvious changes to the map. There was a theory that Blizzard would be cleaning up some of the destruction left by Doomfist’s attack, but so far at least this doesn’t seem to be the case.