Every year, the Overwatch Summer Games event comes back around bearing board shorts and palm tree shirts. This year, the event is launching on Aug. 4 with eight new hero skins for players to unlock or earn.
As is the standard for Summer Games, most of the new skins revolve around the beach or other summer activities. Skins and other assets, like emotes and player icons, can be unlocked until Aug. 26.
Epic skins
Throughout every event in 2020, Overwatch has run weekly challenges in which players have to rack up nine wins in any game mode to unlock an Epic skin. Three new skins can be acquired during the Summer Games event.
Union Jack Tracer
If a Summer Games skin isn’t hearkening back to the beach, it’s giving a nod to a hero’s individual background. Tracer is the most ubiquitous Brit in the game and still didn’t have a skin representing her beloved United Kingdom until this event. The Union Jack Tracer skin gives the speedy hero a bodysuit decked out in red, white, and blue and a bold U.K. patch. This skin can be earned from Aug. 4 to 11.
Sand Castle Bastion
Friendly omnic Bastion has been made of a lot of things in the Overwatch universe, including Lego, wood, and solid steel. This time around, he looks like he escaped from a sandy beach.
Sand Castle Bastion, which can be earned from Aug. 11 to 18, makes Bastion look like a well-built tower of sand. His head has been turned into a turret mold for optimal structural integrity. As a wonderful bonus, Bastion’s bird companion Ganymede is now a seagull with sunglasses and a tiny bathing suit.
Ice Cream Orisa
In her game voice lines, Orisa often talks about getting ice cream with her creator, Efi. In this skin, available from Aug. 18 to 26 through a weekly challenge, Orisa finally becomes the sundae she dreams of. Her many legs have been turned into waffle cones and her torso is now decked out in full vanilla. A skin named “Ice Cream Orisa” wouldn’t feel right without a cherry on top, so she’s decided to wear it as a hat.
Legendary skins
Unlike Epic skins, Legendary skins can only be unlocked through Summer Games loot boxes or by paying a hefty fee of 3,000 gold.
Lifeguard Pharah
The first skin teased by Overwatch for this event was Lifeguard Pharah, another Legendary skin for the famous aerial ace. Every year for the Summer Games event, at least one character gets to show off their abdominal muscles. This year, it’s Pharah’s turn. The Lifeguard Pharah skin gives her a Baywatch-esque setup with red and orange buoyant armor. As soon as this outfit was revealed, many Pharah fans appeared to suddenly need medical attention, which may or may not be related to her abs.
Surf’s Up Echo
Just hours after revealing Lifeguard Pharah, the Overwatch developers teased Surf’s Up Echo. Overwatch’s newest hero gets tricked out like a fancy surfboard, with a shiny cream base and wood detailing. Even Echo’s wings have been turned into surfboards. Her hair now resembles the Olympic torch, glowing and turning with a wave-like vibe.
Tropical Baptiste
Support hero Baptiste gets to put on his best “low risk dad tourist” outfit for this year’s Summer Games. This Legendary skin lets him rock a palm-tree pattern shirt with white khaki shorts. It would be completely normal if not for the huge boots that enable his escapes and the large gun with a plant sticking out of it. Baptiste may not be experiencing the exact island vacation he imagined.
Karate Doomfist
The Summer Games event was originally created to celebrate the Olympic Games. Even though the games were canceled this year, sports are still honored with skins in the Overwatch event. Doomfist, master of the punch, gets his own black belt in his Legendary Karate skin. With his signature fist decked out in blue and gold, he may be telling other players to stay out of his dojo.
Feskarn Brigitte
Summer doesn’t spare the great north, even in the highest reaches of Sweden. This skin is a nod to Brigitte’s heritage, turning her into a fisherwoman that trolls the Atlantic seas. She trades her heavy armor for overalls that match Sweden’s flag alongside a sensible fish cap. Her mace does double duty as a fishing rod, but her Whipshot still can’t reel in enemies like Roadhog’s Hook.
All Legendary and Epic skins will be available during Overwatch‘s Summer Games event, which runs from Aug. 4 to 26. Epic skins can only be earned through completing a challenge during the week they’re active. Skins and other assets from previous years of Summer Games will be available for a reduced price throughout the event.
