The Overwatch developers have confirmed that the game’s newest hero Sigma can eat enemy ultimates using the Kinetic Grasp ability and this was not a PTR bug like many on Twitter thought.


Confusion began on Seagull’s stream when game director Jeff Kaplan told the former Overwatch League pro that he didn’t want Sigma to be able to eat everyone’s ultimate in the game like D.va.

“There are these moments of regret that you have as a game developer,” Kaplan said. “And perhaps eating everybody’s ult is one of those.”


Sigma’s ability Kinetic Grasp allows the hero to freeze incoming projectiles in mid-air and convert them into personal shields.

However, right as the PTR went live with Sigma included, users soon discovered that the new tank hero could in fact eat ultimates just like D.va can with Defense Matrix.


Popular Toronto Defiant streamer Nathan “KarQ” Chan discovered that Sigma can eat powerful ultimates like Zarya’s Graviton Surge and looked absolutely bewildered.

"Jeff lied!" KarQ exclaimed witnessing his Graviton Surge get eaten while testing the hero on the Kings Row map.


Later on during Seagull’s stream, GM Josh confirmed that Sigma’s ult-eating ability was in fact working as intended.

“It works the same way as defense matrix,” Josh said. “It’ll eat any projectile including ults.”


Players all over were confused at this turn of events. On r/CompetitiveOverwatch, a confused BlackRevolver2 wrote, “Wait so why did Jeff say he couldnt eat ults? He even said that DM was a mistake.”

Others think this will lead to more main tank popularity. “All my main tank fiends we finally out here,” user euqinuhella said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1oMCfY9ymo

The good news, is unlike D.va’s current Defense Matrix, Kinetic Grasp is on a 15-second cooldown and not a toggle. This makes it more similar to D.va’s older version of the ability which was cooldown-based.

It’ll be interesting to see how the pros use Sigma and his ult-eating Kinetic Grasp in the Overwatch League. That is, if he’s available come playoff time after the end of stage 4.

Sigma is playable on the PTR right now.