Overwatch Glitch Renders Mei Skinnier; Internet Outraged

Blizzard’s super popular Overwatch is celebrating the Chinese lunar new year by having a Year of the Rooster event, giving characters custom themed skins relevant to the celebration including Sun Wukong Winston, Tan Sanzang Zenyatta, Zhu Bajie Roadhog, and “Palanquin” D.Va as well as having a new Capture the Rooster-themed brawl using a rooster instead of the usual flag. Not everyone is happy and in on the celebration however. While Blizzard received flack during the holidays for Mei’s skin being basically just a palette-swap of her original using red and green colors instead with a hat, the internet mob is outraged once again for a different reason this time: a skinnier Mei.

Many have taken on Twitter, Tumblr and other social media to point out how the new Mei is several pounds lighter and several inches skinnier than her usual look when using her Year of the Rooster skin. The change is even more obvious when seen from a side profile as Mei’s CryoTank does not even connect with her back anymore. The character itself has not been without controversy since the game was launcehd as she has been adopted by many “fat acceptance activists” online as a positive image of their own while many also contend that she is not fat but simply wearing many layers of clothing, including an Arctic-styled parka. Blizzard stated that the skinnier Mei is simply a glitch and was not intended to be a permanent change.

“There’s a bug with Mei’s Luna and Chang’e skins right now that’s causing her waist to appear much smaller than normal. We’ve already fixed the bug internally, but it’s going to require a patch to implement (ideally it’ll be included in whatever next patch hits your gaming platform),” said an Lylirra, an Overwatch community manager on the official Overwatch forums. There might be some merit to this as players have also been reporting that Reinhardt’s new Wujang skin does not show cracks.

The Overwatch Year of the Rooster event is running until February 13th and includes over 100 commemorative themed cosmetic items in-game.