Blizzard has responded after a couple of Overwatch Contenders skins for Echo appeared as available for purchase following the April 14 update.
The skins, which included both home and away variants, were found under the Overwatch League skins section, and were only available for the game’s newest hero, Echo.
In a post on the official forums, Community Manager Josh Nash revealed that this was done in error.
“With the release of Echo today, Contenders and the 2018 Home/Away skins were erroneously made available for purchase with OWL Tokens,” he wrote. “The skins have since been disabled and are no longer available in-game.”
That said, for anyone who purchased the skins, the team is looking into refunding those affected.
The skins were being sold for 100 OWL Tokens each, which unlocked both the home and away versions, just as is the case with their League counterparts.
Ireland’s World Cup team’s General Manager Andrew Bohan told Dexerto that he has yet to be refunded.
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In a Twitter photo, Bohan showed that Echo’s placeholder had been removed following the skins being pulled. However, the skin was still visible when viewing the hero’s victory poses.
So far, it’s unclear why the skins were made available for purchase, but it doesn’t look like Blizzard had any intention of actually allowing them to be given the wording of the forum post.
Contenders is a tier below Overwatch League, with many OWL teams using feeder squads to compete in the division and grow talent. Contenders is made up of different regions, including South America, Europe, China, South Korea, North America and Pacific.
On Reddit, users began suggesting that profits made from the skins could go towards Contenders teams or a larger prize pool. In recent months, Contenders players and teams have been dropping out of the competition.
Pro tank player Seb ‘Numlocked’ Barton went as far to claim that “everyone wants out” of the competitive scene and said that his former team, the Montreal Rebellion would “definitely [not] be the last to pull out.”
Hopefully, Blizzard decides to eventually officially add these skins to the game, but until then, they’ll remain unattainable.
