See You On The Other Side Overwatch

The impact that Overwatch has had on us was massive and it certainly left its mark on the gaming industry as a whole too.

Overwatch came out at a time when the gaming landscape was dominated by bland and edgy military and futuristic shooters. But like a beacon of hope, shining through the muted dusty deserts of so many games that came before it, Overwatch burst onto the scene in a fittingly bombastic fashion. There was a lot going for it right out of the gate.

It boasted a diverse cast of characters each with their own distinct design, personality, and playstyle. And in many ways more than just appearance, Overwatch gave an opportunity for gamers to get into a competitive first-person shooter without an overreliance on mechanical skills.

In other words, there was a character and playstyle for everyone even if your aim wasn't great. This allowed for other ways players could help their team, putting more emphasis on decision-making and teamplay - something anyone can contribute to.

Before Doza even started playing overwatch, when it came to shooters in general, he tended to bounce around a lot from Call of Duty, TF2, Medal of Honor, Killzone, Metal Gear Solid, Warhawk, and even Battleborn for those who remember that flop. It was kind of a yearly thing with him but even when Overwatch eventually came out, Doza couldn't stand to play it or any other shooter for more than a few rounds in a single sitting because of his own anxiety and the toxicity of those who he played with at the time. However, things would soon change.

When we were in a transitional and difficult period of our lives a few years ago, Doza introduced games like Overwatch and TF2 to Nush just as a means of having a little fun. He had her try out TF2 first because of the obvious parallels but mostly because it was free, and it was fun...but it wasn't something that really resonated with her at the time. Something was missing. However, after taking another, closer, look at Overwatch, her life changed forever. Does that sound a bit exaggerated? Well it isn't.

Things were hard, and on top of that, Nush was in the lowest and darkest state mentally and emotionally having resigned from an incredibly toxic corporate job without any clue of what she wanted to do next. For someone who has always set goals, planned, and prepared for what she wanted to accomplish next, she was left utterly shattered. But after watching the Overwatch launch trailer for the first time, she legit binged all the cinematics she could in a single sitting and immediately bought the game. 

After trying a couple of characters out, Nush found a very natural fit with Mei and Symmetra (a character that provided some much-needed Indian representation in video games that looked like her and is from Hyderabad, India where Nush's family is from) and, over time, she expanded to several other characters as she got more familiar with the game. Nush'll always remember her first time playing Overwatch because it was also the first time she ever pulled a gaming all-nighter. For a while there, she was pretty much no-life-ing it and loved every moment of escapism it provided.

As Nush was getting better and better with the help of Doza's backseat coaching, which she loved by the way, Nush was the one who actually wanted to get more serious with the game and started grinding out the competitive mode. Reflecting back on it now, almost 5 years later, we realized this came out of her natural desire to be productive and progress towards something greater.

AND Once they added role-queue, Doza jumped on board and we spent many nights playing together trying to climb the SR (Seasonal Ranking) ladder always trying to recognize our own mistakes and positively pushing each other to improve.

Things didn't stop at just playing Overwatch either. Both of us have drawn numerous Overwatch-related fan art over the years too! These characters have just such creative designs and with all the amazing skins available, how could you not draw them?? Got a holiday-themed skin? Watch out because Nush is probably gonna wanna draw you too. (Overwatch & other fanart we've drawn can be found by clicking here!)

Imagine our surprise when we found out about the official Overwatch cookbook! We had to have it because well, we love food and cooking! Diversity is again the biggest selling point here and it feels amazing to make something in real life that links back to these fictional characters. We even made our own themed drinks before we had the cookbook and had a "tequila" themed stream around Mei very early on in our channel's life.

So yeah, you could say we love Overwatch.

This month has been full of emotions with the upcoming retirement of Overwatch 1 in preparation for Overwatch 2's launch. We've had many conversations about it during our streams with people in chat which eventually inspired us to start making this video about it - a farewell love letter to Overwatch you could say.