10 years later, Overwatch co-creator Jeff Kaplan debunks the game's first controversy: "We actually didn't nerf Tracer's butt"

Anyone who was both chronically online and in the Overwatch trenches a decade ago might remember one of the game's first ever controversies, sometimes referred to as Tracer's butt-troversy. Former Overwatch director and co-creator Jeff Kaplan now says some fans were going through a Mandela Effect – Blizzard never actually did anything to Tracer's butt.

The controversy has been well documented but has also been shrouded in lots of misinformation over the last 10 years. It all kicked off when a thread on the official Overwatch forum took issue with a certain victory pose for Tracer that put the usually chirpy, sometimes goofy hero in a arguably flirtatious, over the shoulder pose.

"It's not fun, its not silly, it has nothing to do with being a fast elite killer. It just reduces tracer to another bland female sex symbol," the thread claimed at the time. Discussions and debates popped off almost immediately until Jeff Kaplan chimed in to promise a replacement pose. "We want everyone to feel strong and heroic in our community," he said in a comment in the forum.

Blizzard's all-new pose represented Tracer's personality much better, but also led to allegations that the company had nerfed her, urm, assets. Now, 10 years later, while streaming his forthcoming game called The Legend of California, Kaplan responded to yet another question related to the butt-troversy.

"We actually didn't nerf Tracer's butt," Kaplan says in an almost offended tone. "It stayed exactly the same. That was a good repose I just had."

There you have it – in case it wasn't clear before. Blizzard devs never did much to Tracer's behind; they simply put her in a different pose, and everyone who got angry over a virtual hero's potentially slightly smaller ass was living through some sort of mass hysteria.

The same discussions and debates over the character's body have, for some reason, followed Overwatch over the course of a decade. Similar 'butt nerf' claims were thrown around at the time of Overwatch 2's relaunch, as well. But at least those butt sickos can finally find solace in Marvel Rivals.

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