Another week, another Overwatch 2 bug that has removed a character from the roster temporarily. This time around, Mei has been pulled from the game because her Ice Wall ability was letting her and her teammates reach out of bounds areas and get an unfair advantage in games. There were also reports of her wall not blocking certain abilities. She will return as a playable character on November 15 with the next game update that will address several concerns in the game.
Unfortunately, Mei can not be found anywhere in the game at the moment. You can not even access her in Custom Games or the Practice Range. Her character portrait is completely removed from Overwatch 2.
Mei is the third hero since Overwatch 2 launched to be momentarily disabled from the game. Bastion was able to shoot off too many of his artillery shells and Torbjorn accessed his Overload ability much longer than intended. Torb could still be played in Quick Play, but like Mei, Bastion was completely removed from the game. Because of the challenges of making updates and crossplay fair and working across all platforms, it appears that these kind of issues need to be shutdown a little longer than they happened in the first game. This gives the development team enough time to figure out points in various maps that Mei was able to get away from.
For Mei fans, not being able to play as the character for two weeks will likely be a little frustrating. For anyone who hates getting slowed down by her freezing spray and tired of her stall potential, this is a blessing. When she returns, Overwatch 2 will bring various hero changes to Zarya, Sombra, Genji, and Kiriko. That balance update may alter the meta quite a bit and maybe give Mei a little more breathing room when you choose her in a match.
