Blizzard wants Overwatch to make a mark on the growing eSports sector, but it's hard to imagine it had Overwatch Badminton in mind.
Overwatch Badminton is a testament to the colorful arena shooter's emergent gameplay, which is fueled by a cast of 21 characters and tons of abilities unique to them.
Thanks to several of those abilities, several players were able to put together a badminton game at Overwatch's Volskaya Industries map. Overwatch Badminton calls for two couples of Genjis, a couple of Mercys and a tablespoon of Junkrat.
The Mercys stand on opposite sides of the badminton "court," beaming healing rays at each other to form the game's net. Meanwhile, the Genji doubles set up on opposite sides of the net and they use their Deflect ability to swat a live grenade that's supplied by Junkrat.
The only downside of Overwatch Badminton is the fact that Junkrat is forced to a side, the team or the blue one. And that means that only players on Junkrat's team aren't vulnerable to the grenades the contestants bat back at forth during matches.
If there was friendly fire in the game, then this racket-based game of hot potato would be even more explosive.
Just days after its May 24 release, Overwatch attracted more than 7 million players who logged a combined total of over 119 million hours on PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4. While that community could keep Overwatch Badminton around for a while, Blizzard's new Facebook integration could help this brand-new spectator sport become more mainstream.
Blizzard is looking to leverage Facebook's API to create a "Go Live" feature for games, including Overwatch. Whenever it arrives, which could be on the heels of competitive mode, Go Live will let Overwatch players stream badminton and the rest of the game to Facebook news feeds.
It's important for the studio to provide Go Live and other Facebook integration because "Blizzard games are best when played with friends," said Blizzard Entertainment's Gio Hunt, executive vice president of Corporate Operations.
"We're working closely with Facebook on this integration for Overwatch, as well as our other games, and we look forward to sharing further details on our plans as development progresses," Hunt said.
Check out more of the badminton action in the video below:
