Overwatch gets new game mode for Winter Wonderland event

Overwatch fans are pleased to see a new Winter Wonderland game mode added this year.

The new game mode, called Freezethaw Elimination, pits two teams of four against each other in a deathmatch. But instead of dying, players will be frozen in solid blocks of ice. Teammates can thaw frozen players, but a defrosted foe may take advantage of their vulnerable position and freeze them while they are waiting for their teammate to thaw.

The goal of the game is to freeze every member of the other team in order to achieve victory. There are even new achievements and new sprays for competing in the new mode.

When does Winter Wonderland 2020 start?

The Winter Wonderland event starts on December 15 and runs until January 5. Past game modes such as Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Snowball Deathmatch, and Yeti Hunter are all also available this year. 

Certain maps will don winter decorations and fans will be able to play these maps in certain game modes and they will also be available for custom game maps.

New skins have been added such as Penguin Mei, Toybot Zenyatta, and more. New sprays, player icons, and skins can be earned via weekly challenges. This year players can earn Elf Junkrat, Gingerbread Ana, and Frosty Roadhog as weekly rewards, where players must achieve nine wins each week to unlock them. 

This year Overwatch released five new legendary skins which can be unlocked by either buying or earning lootboxes. There are also new emotes for Mercy, Baptiste, and Junkrat. As always, all of the skins from previous Winter Wonderland events are up for grabs via loot boxes. 

What other game modes are in Winter Wonderland?

Mei’s Snowball Offensive is an arcade mode game where teams of six all play as Mei, and must pick up snowballs from a pile in order to shoot their opponents. It is a deathmatch style game where winning requires a team to eliminate all of their enemies.

In this mode, Mei’s ultimate has been changed to give her unlimited ammo and an increased rate of fire. There is also a deathmatch version of this game where eight players engage in a free-for-all brawl where the player with the highest number of points at the end of the match wins.

Yeti Hunter is a six-player brawl where five Mei’s fight against one juiced up Winston, who plays the Yeti. The Yeti’s goal is to survive long enough to eliminate enemy Mei’s before they can take him down. The Mei’s must take down the Yeti before the Yeti eliminates them.

The event is playable until January 5, and players have one week each to unlock the weekly challenge rewards before they are gone for the year.