Overwatch player exposes game-breaking win-trading exploit
Blizzard EntertainmentSombra’s determined to break the rules whenever she can.
An Overwatch player has sounded the alarm on a massive exploit that could result in many games being ruined by cheaters looking for an easy way to rank up.
In a now-deleted Reddit thread, user qwertyegg posted a video revealing just how easy the exploit was to perform and how it needs to be patched immediately.
The video in question was uploaded by a player named AstroZander. In the description, he claimed to have created the video with the intention to demonstrate how it works and used his own two accounts to showcase the exploit.
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What’s extremely worrying is how easy the exploit is to perform and that it almost guarantees win-trading will be successful.
Win-trading is when two players attempt to get matched against each other. One of the players then intentionally throws the game in order for the other to rank up and gain SR.
It’s extremely difficult to win in Overwatch when you’re down a player for a match’s duration. As such, having a thrower on the enemy team pretty much guarantees a win.
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As AstroZander showed in the video, you don’t even need another person to assist with making this exploit work. If you have two accounts, you can make it work all by yourself.
“No one else lost SR during the making of this video,” AstroZander wrote as a disclaimer. “I lost 50 by leaving the game early and caused game cancellation.”
He then went on to apologize for wasting the time for everyone who queued up. “Please fix!” he concluded, clearly directing his final words at Blizzard themselves.
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The post was originally deleted by Overwatch moderators for “a variety of reasons,” but the poster reshared the exploit on OverwatchTMZ – a subreddit all about drama and controversy in the game’s communities.
OverwatchTMZ is known to be frequented by pro players and Blizzard employees themselves so hopefully, the issue is brought to the attention of developers who can fix it before any serious damage is done.
