Why is Sigma disabled in Overwatch 2?

His grasp on gravity was a little too good.

Sigma conducts an orchestra on stage.
Screengrab via Blizzard Entertainment

Sigma might be among the most powerful tanks in the Overwatch 2 meta. But thanks to a recent bug, players have likely started to notice that the mad scientist is disabled from some modes.

Recommended Videos

Blizzard deactivated the tank from competitive modes on May 10 following the recent mid-cycle season four patch that created a glitch for Sigma, giving him some unintended abilities if players used his ultimate in just the right way.

By using his ultimate on enemies, then charging up a second ultimate and aiming that second ultimate at the sky, players realized they were able to give Sigma infinite flight, making it so he truly harnessed the universal harness that is gravity.

The downside to the bug is that when players gained that unlimited flight potential, they could no longer use any of Sigma’s abilities other than his primary fire. But the silliness of the glitch was enough to result in some hilarious clips by players.

With such a game-breaking bug associated with the hero, Blizzard decided to deactivate the hero in competitive modes because of how serious this unintended interaction was.

When will Sigma return to Overwatch 2?

In a Twitter post, Overwatch 2 game director Aaron Keller initially said his team would “provide an update as soon” as they could in regards to Sigma’s return. But there was no indication of when Sigma might be re-added to competitive play on the night of May 10.

Almost exactly one day after making that post, though, Keller tweeted again to let players know that Blizzard’s team resolved the Sigma bug. The fix went live on May 11 around 5pm CT, and Sigma was re-enabled in competitive modes.

The fix to Sigma was a swift one compared to previous bugs that required a hero to be disabled. In the past when Blizzard has disabled other heroes, those heroes sat out for a little more than a week. Bastion and Torbjörn were benched for about 10 days, and Mei was temporarily disabled due to a bug for about two weeks.

Update May 12 2:25pm CT: This article was updated to reflect that Sigma was re-enabled in competitive modes.

Author
Image of Max Miceli
Max Miceli
Senior Staff Writer. Max graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a journalism and political science degree in 2015. He previously worked for The Esports Observer covering the streaming industry before joining Dot where he now helps with Overwatch 2 coverage.