If you haven’t heard, Overwatch badminton is the latest craze. Yes, you read that right: you can now essentially set up a makeshift version of the sport in Blizzard’s hugely popular multiplayer shooter, and it’s damn hilarious to boot.
If you want to play a match of the custom game mode with your friends, then all you need to do is follow a set of simple instructions, which we’ve handily outlined below. Here’s how to play Overwatch badminton:
Heroes
Firstly, you’re going to need a set amount of players. If you want a one-on-one game of Overwatch badminton you’ll need 5 players, though if you want to play doubles you’ll need 7. Here are the Heroes you’ll need to play:
- Genji x 2 (x 4 for doubles)
- Mercy x 2
- Junkrat x 1
The Genji will be those playing badminton, while the Mercy will form the net and the Junkrat will serve as the umpire/shuttlecock distributor.
Settings
You’re going to want to enter into a Custom match, change the map to Volskaya Industries and then alter the game’s settings by reducing the Ability Cooldown Modifier to 0% and changing the mode to Skirmish only, which will grant you half an hour to play.
Set up
To set up your game of Overwatch badminton, head on over to where the first objective on the Volskaya Industries map is typically located (pictured above). The square that is usually outlined by the objective marker will serve as your court. The two Mercy players must stand on opposite sides of the square, and beam their healing/damage buffs across to the other Mercy. These beams will act as your “net.” The Genji must stand on opposite sides of this net, while the Junkrat stands on top of the enclosed room located at the rear of the square (also pictured).
How to play
To play the game, the Junkrat must fire one grenade towards the direction of one team of Genji, who must then use their Deflect ability to launch the projectile across to the other team. With the ability cooldown timer reduced to zero, both sets of Genji can constantly Deflect, which they will need to do in order to direct the “shuttlecock” towards their opponents.
If the shuttlecock sails behind a team of Genji and they do not manage to knock it back towards their opponent, the other team scores a point. If the shuttlecock lands on the side of the court belonging to a team of Genji, the other team again scores a point. The division between the court is outlined by the Mercy net, while all rulings will be decided by the Junkrat. The Junkrat can determine who was last to touch the shuttlecock as a result of it glowing in the color of that team.
If all goes to plan, it should look a little something like this:
So there you have it – a guide to playing Overwatch badminton, everybody’s new favorite custom game type. Whether it will eventually become popular enough to warrant its own official mode a la Halo’s Grifball remains to be seen, but regardless it’s still a lot of fun to play even if it requires a little bit of preparation beforehand.
