Overwatch’s most recent update has some major oversights.

I’m sure we’ve all seen the news coming out of Brazil regarding the Olympic Games this summer — especially the negative news, such as the water and air pollution, the high crime rate, and the issues with the Olympic Village. One aspect of the Games which hasn’t been spoken about as much in media is the consequences for those living in the slums, or favelas, of Rio de Janeiro.

This Vox video report sums this up quite well — authorities in Brazil have done their best to hide those living in total poverty, rather than using the money for improving their lives. They built a wall between the railway and the favelas to block the view, yet made it transparent in one specific place — where a school had been recently built. Certain areas of the city have money pumped into them, where the visitors will go, while the areas where those in poverty reside are left by the wayside. The authorities in Rio de Janeiro seem to be practicing an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ ideology. In the case of the Olympic Park, entire established (and often legally recognized) communities were forcibly relocated to make way for developments for the rich and the elite of Brazil. One such community — Vila Autódromo — wasn’t even on the property of the Olympic Park, but was destroyed to make sure wealthy tourists would not see it.

Back to the topic at hand — Overwatch’s Summer Games event. While not referencing the actual Olympic Games, it is clear that this event is based on it, even based in Rio as this image shows. The most prevalent character in this marketing is Lúcio, who is Brazilian (though his voice suggests otherwise), and in fact grew up in a favela in Rio de Janeiro. This alone does not make the promotion insensitive — however, a closer look at Lúcio’s backstory from his hero page reveals a rather sinister correlation with reality.

Lúcio’s close-knit community was thrown into chaos when the multinational Vishkar Corporation secured a contract to redevelop large tracts of the city. Lúcio and his neighbors had been told that the development would improve their lives. However, that promise never became a reality.

A hero in the game whose story represents something that many of those in poverty in Brazil can relate to is quite a valuable thing, and could be used to bring wider visibility to the issue. However, by putting pseudo-Olympic theming onto the game, it seems to essentially ignore this aspect of the character. If Lúcio were to see what was going on in Brazil, specifically his home city of Rio de Janeiro, he would be vocally opposed to it. Once again, we can look to his backstory to see how he reacted to similar events in his own community.

Lúcio wouldn’t stand for it. He stole Vishkar sonic technology that had been used to suppress the people, and he converted it into a tool to rally them to action. In a popular uprising, they drove Vishkar out of their neighborhoods.

However, this isn’t to say that Blizzard are in the wrong for this event, or even that they should reconsider holding it. Olympic themed events aren’t new for the company, such as with the Spirit of Competition World of Warcraft event in 2008 coinciding with the Beijing Olympics. It may simply be an issue of Blizzard not putting much thought into the issues that could possibly come up. However, there is one way that this event could be portrayed that would render this criticism invalid — if Blizzard somehow show that the Summer Games event in the world of Overwatch has been done in a way that respects and benefits the local people who are worse off, then it won’t be so jarring to have a character like Lúcio front and center on the promotional materials.

Whether they do this or not, it would be a great move by Blizzard if they were to publicise the real life issues, and even launch a charity campaign for those in favelas. They could also give a portion of the money from the Summer Games loot boxes, though I’d see this as the least likely eventuality. These actions would truly incorporate the spirit of Lúcio’s character, and contribute towards helping the people of Rio’s favelas who have been consistently failed by their government.