After this year, the Overwatch League will no longer create special skins to honor the League’s MVP. Earlier today, the Overwatch League announced the launch of two specials Overwatch furs celebrating San Francisco Shock’s second championship win and Byung-sun “Fleta” Kim winning the 2020 MVP award. But embedded in the ad on the Overwatch League website was this little caveat:
Don’t miss it, as this is the last time a skin will be made for the Overwatch League MVP.
Special player skins started in 2019, when the League launched a special cosmetic for heroes celebrating the talents of the MVP of the previous year. Sung-hyeon “JJoNak” Bang won the first such skin, a with an elegant-looking octopus theme Zenyatta, for his talent as that of the League deadliest support player. In 2020, Jay “Sinatraa” Won became the League’s second MVP, winning a Zarya’s appearance with alien theme.
Right after Won’s skin is loosened he left the Overwatch League to pursue a professional career Valorant, but his skin remained. However, after an ex-girlfriend released a statement stating Won sexually and emotionally abused her, the Overwatch League released its own statement saying it would remove Zarya’s skin from Won and issue credit for those who want a refund.
Blizzard also made the video that announced the theme private, deleted tweets, and appear to have removed references to the skin from overwatchleague.com. Won was suspended from both his Valorant team and any future Valorant pending professional investigative matches.
G / O Media can receive a commission
It is currently unclear why the Overwatch League would end the tradition of rewarding special skins for its MVPs. It may be because the skins are designed to show the personality and signature hero of the winning MVP and are, as such, a kind of enduring representation of them in the game. By eliminating MVP skins, Blizzard may be protecting itself against a future in which it may have to distance itself from other problematic MVPs.
Kotaku contacted Blizzard for comment.
.