Blizzard confirmed that it is temporarily removing Mei from Overwatch 2 until November 15 due to a bug discovered related to her Ice Wall ability.
[#OW2] We are temporarily disabling Mei to address a bug with her Ice Wall ability that allows heroes to reach unintended locations. We are working to address these issues as quickly as possible and aim to bring Mei back in our next upcoming patch which is set for November 15. pic.twitter.com/dHP65pMCsX
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) October 31, 2022
Hot off the heels of the removal of both Bastion and Torbjorn due to bugs that would render most of the cast unplayable for players, Mei is the next hero to be temporarily removed from Overwatch 2‘s roster. Both Bastion and Torbjorn have since been reintroduced to the game, but it will not be until November 15, which is when the next scheduled patch for the game, that Mei is due to return.
The reason for Mei’s suspension is stated as being related to a bug involving her Ice Wall ability allowing players to access areas of certain maps they weren’t intended to. By using this ability in specific locations, which creates a wall of ice that grows upward from the ground, Mei is able to exit the normal boundaries of the map. This not only made them essentially invincible, as they couldn’t be seen from inside the map but also allowed them to deal damage from complete safety.
Overwatch 2’s launch has been plagued with issues of all sorts since it launched in October. Despite the extremely long queues and DDoS attacks at launch, plus backlash over its battle pass and monetization systems, the game has seen massive player counts across all platforms. While having three characters have to be taken out of the game within the first few weeks of a game’s launch isn’t a great start for the sequel, at least Blizzard is recognizing and working to fix these exploits and bugs as quickly as possible.