OG Overwatch 2 players find their characters locked in frustrating character selection errors

Overwatch 2 has been released and has had a series of serious issues early on. This included massive DDOS attacks that resulted in server queues of over 40,000 people, and a mandatory phone verification system for players (though that has now been removed for Overwatch 1 players). However, that doesn’t mean the original Overwatch players are out of the woods, as some find their hero rosters locked up.

This bug is likely the result of a new player experience for those who are not Overwatch 1 players, as this group would need to go through 100+ matches to unlock all of the original rosters. The bad news is that it appears the game is applying this limit to non-new players, forcing them to restart the game, which is currently the only fix that throws them back into the queue.

This includes Reddit user GumpaGumpa, who posted their question on the Overwatch 2 Reddit yesterday, showing off their mostly locked roster. Below the original post, many other players expressed their disappointment with the bug, with some even claiming that a reboot didn’t help at all, and that they still didn’t have their full character library hours later.

GumpaGumpa has been playing the game since 2018, and it was hyped when it was originally announced. They and their friends all woke up and cut in line on launch day earlier this week, all waiting about four hours to play any games. Once they all passed, the locking issue immediately arose.

“On the first day, the first few games I played with my friends had [characters] Locked, but I reloaded the game and everything was back,” GumpaGumpa said on Reddit DM. “Then I went to bed, and the next day I locked everything again, and that’s when I posted, Got comments saying I should reload the game and it worked. But my friend also locked his roster and it took him about 5-6 reloads to get them all back. “

Do you wonder why this is worse than the apparent frustration of bugs? Overwatch 2 is a game focused on team formation and counter-play options – and that’s always been the case. Yes, you can just lock down Tracer, but that’s not always the best option, which is why you’ve probably noticed hardcore players getting frustrated with a trick in Overwatch.

If you lock most of the lineup, you obviously can’t play on the reverse side of the game. For new players, it doesn’t matter, but for Overwatch 1 players, their game has been shut down and now have to force themselves to play what they should with reboots and huge queues. It sucks.

As of now, there is no fix other than rebooting. While I’m sure there’s a fix, it means Overwatch 2 is now a huge pain for OG players. Hope it gets fixed soon, otherwise people might start hoping that Overwatch 1 didn’t end up being removed…

For more Overwatch 2 articles you can read while queuing, we have: Overwatch 2 is the latest in a string of bad game releases – I’m not even talking about queuing.