The start of 2022 has already seen a batch of high-profile bans doled out by Twitch to some of the platform’s biggest creators and talents. The start of the year saw themassively popular Pokimane receiving a 48-hour suspensionfor watchingAvatar: The Last Airbenderon her stream and more recently, community icon and chess grandmaster GMHikaru was hit with a 3-day ban. Now, it looks like an official channel for one of the platform’s formerly most popular games,Overwatch, wasn’t able to escape the ban hammer.
WhileOverwatch’s popularity on Twitch may not be today what the game saw at the peak of its success, Activision Blizzard’s team-based hero shooter has remained prevalent among fans concerned for the franchise’s future. The highly-anticipatedOverwatch 2has seen numerous delays since its reveal in 2019 and Microsoft’s high-profile acquisition of Activision Blizzard has raised several questions about how the purchase would affect the popular shooter and its competitive scene. Now, in a baffling and unexpected twist, the official Korean Twitch channel forOverwatchhas been hit with a surprise ban.
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The automated StreamerBans Twitter account reported on Thursday that the official Korean-language channel forOverwatchhas been hit with a surprise suspension from Twitch with seemingly no explanation or reasoning behind the ban. The channel had last gone live almost a week prior with a broadcast of a match between professional teams Talon and O2 Blast. The ban stunned fans and viewers of the channel struggling to fathom a reason why the channel would have been hit with such a hefty punishment, especially coming six days after the channel had last gone live.
Some fans took the suspension as a chance to make light of things, jokingly referring toOverwatchas a dead game since it has not received major updates or changes in quite some time as development focus has largely shifted to the sequel. The ban comes only weeks after theOverwatchLeague revealed its fifth competitive seasonwould be shifting away from the firstOverwatchand onto an early build ofOverwatch 2. While a release date forOverwatch 2hasn’t been revealed, fans are hopeful the upcoming PvP beta may come alongside the competitive season.
The recent ban of a game’s official channel is just the most recent in a string of significant and surprising bans to hit the platform since the start of the year.Popular streamer STPeach received a ban from Twitchearlier in the year after dressing up asStreet Fighter 5’s Cammy for a charity stream that saw the female streamer raise $10,000 for the Gamers for Love charity, and Twitch’s automated system erroneously banned severalMaddenplayers streaming the game during the Super Bowl. Twitch’s automated ban system is far from perfect andOverwatchmay just be the most recent unlucky victim.
Overwatchis available now for PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One
