Every July, Overwatch hosts its Olympics-inspired Summer Games event. Like all Overwatch events, Summer Games brings a selection of new skins, a limited game mode, and new weekly challenges for players to take part in over the course of the event. Skins in the event have a lot of variety to them, but the event has featured some great skins in the past, such as Soldier 76's barbecue-themed Grillmaster skin that is complete with mustard and ketchup bottles on his bandolier.
For many fans, the Summer Games event is the highlight of the year. The limited-time skins available during the event have always been pretty strong, and many fans look forward to the yearly return of the Rocket League-inspired Lucioball game mode as well. The event is so popular that this year there were a number of fan-made skins that would have fit perfectly in Overwatch's Summer Games event. What makes the skins even more tempting is that all of the skins players unlock will still be available for them to use when Overwatch 2 releases some time in the future.
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The first skin revealed for Overwatch's Summer Games 2021 event was the Mermaid Symmetra skin. The skin features Symmetra in a bathing suit complete with her bionic arm featuring a shell-like shoulder piece and fish-like scales as well. Perhaps the best part of the skin, however, is the new skins applied to her weapons and gadgets, which all have been remodeled to look like adorable robotic squids.
The next new skin is Poolside Ashe. The skin not only features Ashe fully kitted out in pool attire and floaties but also includes a new look for her ultimate Bob. Bob gets a stylish new shirt, a speedo, leg floaties, and wears a pink flamingo floaty on his head. If that wasn't enough, Ashe's rifle is also reskinned to look like a squirt gun, which is a great twist on its traditional classic Western look.
Mei also receives a new skin this event, called Sprinkles Mei. The skin reimagines Mei if she worked at an old school ice cream parlor, similar to Stranger Things' Scoops Ahoy, complete with her robot even featuring a new ice cream cone body and is made of vanilla ice cream with fudge and sprinkles on top.
Sigma also receives a new skin, titled Scuba Sigma. Not only does the skin reveal that Sigma is surprisingly muscular, but it also is completely kitted out for scuba diving. It features various fans to help the gravity scientist traverse underwater as well as an oxygen mask with tubes and a meter on his chest.
The final new skin is the referee Orisa skin, which was not revealed to players until they jumped into Overwatch during the event. The skin fully reimagines Orisa as a referee, complete with a baseball cap, headset, and plenty of black and white stripes. The skin comes after leaks recently suggested that Orisa will receive a new ability in Overwatch 2.
Of course, the Summer Games wouldn't be the same without Overwatch's Lucioball. The limited-time mode pits two teams of three against one another with every player controlling a Lucio with a modified kit. Instead of his usual kit, Lucio's primary attack is changed to a melee attack to hit a massive ball into one another's goals to score points. There is no way to damage enemy players, and players can only keep Lucio's Crossfade ability on speed mode. Players are also able to use Soundwave more frequently to really throw the ball, and Lucio's ultimate ability is swapped out for one that boosts his speed, jump height, and the recharge of Soundwave.
This year Lucioball can be played across three maps featuring special-made stadiums in Busan, Sydney Harbour, and Lucio's native Brazil. The event this year is keeping the numerous changes introduced to the game mode last year. This includes midair crouches, massively decreased cooldowns, increased punch, and Shockwave ranges, which will make players faster. Summer Games this year is also bringing back Overwatch's Lucioball Remix mode. This mode is even faster than the standard version and sees teams battling over two balls while additional balls randomly spawn throughout the match, which are worth a variety of point values.
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Summer Games 2021 also brings back the weekly challenges that Overwatch has done throughout its recent events. The weekly challenges challenge players to play a certain number of games across all of Overwatch's various modes to unlock an emblem at 9 games, a spray at 18 games, and an epic rarity skin at 27 games. The first weekly challenge is themed around Winston's Ocean King skin that features the gorilla in blue scaled armor as well as an Atlantic crown and golden glasses. The first weekly challenge runs from July 20 to July 27.
The second weekly challenge is themed around Pharah's Sunset skin. The skin is Hawaiian-styled with Pharah's armor being painted a red to orange gradient complete with white tropical flowers and wood trim. The skin is available from July 27 to August 3.
The third weekly challenge runs from August 3 to August 10 and features the new Nihon Hanzo skin. The skin applies a white theme across Hanzo's typical attire along with some red accents inspired by Japan's iconic red sun. Hanzo has received weekly challenges in Overwatch before, but he is also one of the most iconic characters in the game, so it makes sense that the Overwatch team would have as much fun with the character as they seem to.
Summer Games 2021 is a perfect time for returning or new players to jump into Overwatch and get in on the fun. During the event, players are also able to earn all of the cosmetics from previous years' Summer Games events, so there is a ton of new skins, emotes, highlight videos, and more for players to try and unlock this year. The events will undoubtedly make a return in Overwatch 2, so hopefully, players will get some more news on the game's hotly-anticipated sequel sometime soon.
Overwatch is available now on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One. The Summer Games event runs from July 20 to August 10.