The Overwatch community is rallying behind a 26-year-old player who passed away earlier in October after defending a woman from a man who allegedly broke into her home with a knife.
Tiago de Souza, who reportedly played thousands of hours and mained Hanzo, Pharah, Sigma, McCree and Doomfist, reportedly gave his life to save a friend and her daughters.
According to Brazilian media, Tiago was at the woman’s house when her ex-partner broke in with a knife in-hand, trying to attack her.
Investigators say the suspect beat the woman with punches. When Tiago tried to interfere, he was allegedly stabbed and died on the spot.
The suspect later went to the police station in Prudentópolis on his own accord and was detained.
A petition on the website Avaaz describes Tiago as “very fond of science and questioning the mysteries of the universe.”
“He liked several games, but undoubtedly his passion was Overwatch,” the petition continued, noting how he had unlocked four golden guns for different heroes through competitive play.
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“Tiago was an incredible, selfless and generous person, who gave his life to save someone else’s,” the petition said. “We, friends and family, do not want your courageous attitude to be forgotten, and nothing better to honor you than with a tribute in your favorite game.”
So far, over 2,000 people have signed the petition asking Blizzard to honor the player, though they didn’t specify on how they would like the company to pay tribute to Tiago.
Potentially, if Blizzard were going to honor the player, they could do so on the Brazilian Lucio Ball map for the Summer Games event, or even something from Overwatch 2, whenever that game is released.
Blizzard does have a decent track record of honoring its players. Notably, Blizzard immortalized the streamer Reckful by adding a Rogue Trainer NPC with his gamer tag in World of Warcraft.
Hopefully, Blizzard can continue this trend an honor the Brazilian player.
