What Kind of Game Is Overwatch?
Overwatch is a team-based hero shooter that launched on May 24, 2016. Players pick a hero, each with their own weapons, abilities and ultimates, and fight over map objectives like capturing points or escorting a payload.
✦ Overwatch Timeline, 2019 to 2026
From Role Queue to dropping the '2'
The original ran on two teams of six, with 6v6 as the default. After Role Queue competitive arrived in 2019, building teams around a set number of tank, damage and support heroes became the norm.
Then in October 2022, the sequel Overwatch 2 launched and replaced the original. The standard Role Queue lineup became 5v5 as well, switching to one tank, two damage and two support.
But even though Overwatch 2 launched as the sequel, some players criticized it for not changing enough from the original. Blizzard then dropped the number '2' from the game's name in February 2026.
The developers described it as a rebrand, resetting the game as a live-service title that keeps evolving. In other words, the Overwatch running today is Overwatch 2. It just lost the '2'.
Right now, Role Queue competitive is 5v5, and in Open Queue you play 6v6 and can pick any hero regardless of role. The catch: each team can have two tanks at most.
Every map has its own objective, too. You might capture a point and hold it for a set time, escort a payload to its destination, or play Push, a mode where you push a robot toward the enemy side.
Tanks take hits up front or open the way in, while damage heroes pressure the enemy to create chances for kills.
✦ Popular Heroes by Role
Heroes you see a lot, and what they do
Support heroes help the team keep fighting with healing and utility. You'll often have to decide when to use your ultimate, or whether to swap heroes to match the enemy comp.
Playing well alone isn't enough to win, so there's a real thrill when teammates sync up and a fight suddenly breaks open.
The four couples I'm about to introduce all met in the original Overwatch. Some put their teams together through Looking for Group, and others just happened to land on the same side in competitive or Quick Play.
Let's see how those starts turned out, one by one.
A Match Made in Looking for Group
The original Overwatch had a feature called Looking for Group, which let you gather people to play with before a match.
It was added in the June 2018 update, and you could set the game mode, the role you wanted, whether you'd use voice chat and more to put a team together ahead of time.
Instead of waiting on random matchmaking, you make a group first and pull in players whose conditions match. This feature, though, was removed when Overwatch 2 launched in 2022.
Reddit user Wu-Chang said she met her husband through Looking for Group in the original game. The title of the group she made was 'I can pocket you'. 'Pocket' means a support hero sticking with one particular ally and focusing healing or damage boosts on them.
A man joined the group, and the two played about 10 games together on that first day alone. Wu-Chang had to go to school, so she went to bed first, but after that they played together for a few hours almost every day and became friends.
✦ How Wu-Chang's Story Moves Along
From a first move to a wedding
Some time later, the man asked her out first, and Wu-Chang said yes. They made plans to meet, and the man came all the way from the United States to Belgium and proposed after two weeks together.
Then he packed up all his things and came back to Belgium, and the two reportedly got married in 2023.
Spouses Who Met in Competitive Play
On July 3, 2019, a user named Mizzerella posted marriage news on the Blizzard Overwatch Forums. Mizzerella said they met their spouse in competitive play in early 2018, and at first the two were just friends who played together almost every night for months.
As time went on, the spouse started showing up at their place every weekend. The two became a couple and had been living together for a few months before the post. And Mizzerella said they held their wedding on the very day of the post.
✦ Reinhardt and Mercy: Front and Back
One protects, the other heals and boosts
In February 2025, a post titled 'Overwatch made us a family' went up on Reddit. The poster said they first met the other person in random competitive. The other player was on Reinhardt, and the poster was on Mercy.
The two quickly grew close and kept playing together, and after trading playful flirty remarks they met in person and fell in love, or so the poster said.
At the time of the post, they were already in their seventh year of marriage, and the poster introduced their kid as an 'Overwatch kid.'
Reinhardt is a tank who spreads a barrier up front to protect teammates, and Mercy is a support hero who heals allies or boosts their damage. It's a pairing where one puts up a barrier up front while the other handles healing and damage boosts from behind.
Sounds like a perfect combo for a couple, doesn't it?
A Romance That Started at Lijiang Tower
On a late night just after Christmas 2016, Annie Zhao and Michael Apers played together for the first time on Lijiang Tower in Quick Play. Annie was logged in from Tampa, Florida, and Michael from Rio Rancho, New Mexico.
✦ A Quick Detour: Smurfs
What is smurfing, and where did it come from?
Annie noticed how skillfully Michael handled his character and asked if it was a smurf account. When Michael answered 'Maybe,' Annie asked if he could join her group and carry the match, and he took her up on it.
The two documented this first meeting themselves on their wedding website. The site also listed the ceremony and reception for May 25, 2023. What started as a throwaway line in one Quick Play match ended up leading them to a partner for life.
Playing Together Doesn't Always Make You Friends, But...
Because competitive results count toward your rank, mismatched team comps or poor chemistry make the fatigue pile up fast. The action moves quickly, and one mistake can sink the whole team.
So you might become friends with a teammate, but plenty of the time you end up bickering and fighting.
✦ Barrier to Entry: The Reality
Hard for beginners, but not out of reach
Since Overwatch is an old game, there's a real barrier to entry for beginners. It's like how, even if World of Warcraft, an old game itself, relaunched as a 'Forever' version, it would still feel like 'a new world that belongs to someone else' to newbies.
Overwatch already has way too many diehards and veterans. But if you already like shooters and have a feel for the basics, there's no reason you couldn't join in. And I doubt many games have produced as many couples as Overwatch.
That's all for this post. See you next time.
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🌐 Korean version: 한 판의 팀원에서 평생의 짝으로, 슈팅게임 《오버워치》에서 만난 커플들의 이야기
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