This week, Blizzard announced two new skins for Overwatch, celebrating 2020 League winners San Francisco Shock and seasonal MVP Byung-sun "Fleta" Kim. But this'll be the last time a League MVP is given their own cosmetic—and it isn't hard to guess why.
Overwatch started the trend of rewarding players with their own skins in 2019, beginning with a tentacular Zenyatta look for previous-year MVP Sung-hyeon "JJoNak" Bang. Last year, an alien Zarya skin was awarded to Jay "Sinatraa" Won—and it's here that the idea of immortalising a pro player within the game becomes contentious.
Earlier this month, the former OWL pro player (having moved to Valorant last April) was accused of sexual assault by an ex-girlfriend. Following the accusations, Won was dropped by his Valorant team, while Blizzard announced that it would be removing his MVP skin from Overwatch, offering refund credits to folks who'd already bought it.
pic.twitter.com/AhWuJvHFAuMarch 11, 2021
Won denied the allegations in a statement on social media. Regardless, even if Blizzard hasn't explicitly cited it as a reason for killing the MVP skin program, the idea of cosplaying someone accused of abuse is an uncomfortable note for Overwatch.
So, while teams may continue to get their own victory cosmetics, Fleet's Echo skin will be the last time a player will be rewarded with an MVP hero skin. It's a decent skin, too, with a polarising good/evil dynamic that Blizzard says reflects "both Fleta’s calm personality and his aggressive in-game playstyle". Bit of a shame we won't see more like it, really.
Thanks, Kotaku.
