After the announcement by Blizzard and Overwatch 2 Season 18, a new first-time-ever universal emote was to be given, and now players are divided as to whether the Mic Drop would be the ultimate flex or just a cosmetic once again to be ignored. Aptly named, the emote, after all, is a mic drop after winning, maybe when the rare occasion where you really did get carried by your team but just had to gloat a little; which are instances that probably go down way more than any one of us would want to admit.
The sweeping announce just came off from the official Overwatch online account in form of a trailer showing several heroes performing the emote; needless to say, entire community engagement follows this. The emote is part of the Premium Battle Pass and will be available from Season 18 launch on August 26th. This is a massive overhaul and change for Overwatch 2’s customization system, where previously emotes have been locked to characters, so you’d never see Tracer’s dance applied to Reinhardt. Now, with universal emotes, all players will share the same animations, irrespective of which hero they’re playing.
Of course, when looking at some player reactions, the pastor would assure you those are soul-stirring contrasts. On the other hand, kikokokaa finds the idea adorable, “so cutie🥹,” with Mihnea95MoT responding that “SOMBRA AND MERCY ATE THIS UP I NEED TO SEW MOIRA W THIS EMOTE,” preparing for fashion shows. On the contrary, DeathAtNoon12_ looked down on this moment, declaring it “may be a worse emote than the souvenir ones,” while hotgermanbabe simply put “ts so boring.”
If weaksauce13_ is to be believed, then we’re in for a good laugh: “Winston holds with pose uncomfortably long ðŸ˜.” And this observation is so much true: if you watch the video closely, that big scientist gorilla holds that mic drop pose for an awkwardly long time in comparison to other heroes. Then, there’s the whole Zen situation, with axl99 pointing out “ZEN STANDS IN THIS EMOTE???” which is big news because the omnic monk usually floats everywhere. Interestingly, flingkong24 continues further, “OH GOD ZEN’S FEET ARE TOUCHING THE GROUND,” which is actually breaking Overwatch lore in ways we never expected.
But ever since that post, players have demanded fundamentals to be changed within the emote system. cuterat69 and k1dm3mito54688 snuck in the “Give us more emote slots pleaseeee !!” and “Need more emote slots” respectively. Currently, players can only equip four emotes at a time; it feels downright limiting with so many options in the game spread over many heroes. WragglesXO continued: “I hope with this attention emotes are getting, we get an emote wheel soon. There’s so many emotes and only picking 4 to equip is a little underwhelming.”
There is a bit of confusion about what actually counts as the “first” universal emote. Gr1zZtv responded to PotNoodle about Overwatch with “wErEn’T sOuVeNiRs tHe fIrSt uNiVeRsAl eMoTeS? 🤓” Which is good because souvenirs are already usable on any hero. StarchaserHooT tried to clarify by saying: “everyone has a unique souvenir animation so ig that’s where they make the difference” between souvenirs and this new universal emote category.
Players are thinking ahead already at what a universal emote might entail. _ScofieldS noted, “With the introduction of universal emotes, you can now bring dance moves to Overwatch just like Fortnite does,” opening up possibilities for more expressive emotes down the line. Yet ArtIsUnDead20 waits for promised content: “Cool, can ram PLEASE get his promised dance emote?” because apparently Ramattra was meant to have a dance emote that never came to be.
And then the classic Overwatch madness ensues: simeydotme comments “Funny cause if you write ‘carried’ in game chat you get banned” but now we’re getting an emote that basically celebrates being carried. On a downer, TheNanuq says, “Yeah, it’s usually the worst players that write ‘Eeeeezzzzz’ at the end of a match. They’ll love this. Makes them feel validated for sucking.”
Stepping beyond the emote discussion, other requests like weapon inspections (MintyTHELion: “So like are you gonna add weapon inspects orrrr?”) and better hero build management (Icehamjello: “Faves for comps plz”) also came in, with a little hint of TF2 nostalgia courtesy of simp_clown: “Welcome back tf2!” with an appropriate gif to match.
Universal emotes open up a new path for customization for Overwatch 2, and despite the fact that the player base might not remember the Mic Drop as one of the finest emotes ever, it surely paves the way for shared expressions throughout the entire roster. Will this mean dance parties in spawn or more ways of trolling your opponents remains to be seen, but one thing for sure – something very novel is being brought to the emote scene by Season 18, with players giving many opinions. Lehman down should serve as a staring point for all on August 26th, while Season 17 wraps up. Who knows, maybe even more universal emotes would have been announced before the game is officially up!
