An Overwatch player messing around outside the boundaries of the map has discovered that the statue of Jesus Christ on Rio de Janeiro map Paraíso miraculously reflects all projectiles aimed at it with unerring accuracy. This is as opposed to Overwatch's vaunted cyborg-ninja Genji, whose ability to deflect projectiles lasts at most a mere two seconds and must be used by players with perfect timing. The discovery was posted by user OmicronGaming to Reddit.
The Jesus statue on Paraiso (OoB) deflects any projectiles that are shot at it with an invisible barrier from r/Overwatch
The explanation for this is of course that it is a miracle, an act of divine providence by God to protect the world-famous statue Christ the Redeemer, or Cristo Redentor in the local Portuguese language.
Indeed, as evinced in the video, Christ's divine protection extends not just to the statue itself but to the mountain it sits upon, Corcovado. In the video the player, as flying and rocket-launching hero Pharah, fires a swarm of rockets as well as individual missiles at the statue from far above the map. Every one is sent off at what appears to be an oblique angle. Presumably God could reflect the projectiles right back at you, like Genji can, but in His mercy chooses not to.
Genji, whose abilities include the Cyber-Agility to rapidly scale vertical surfaces and change directions mid-jump as well as the potent power to unleash the "Dragonblade" and end his foes, is certainly hampered in his ability to perfectly deflect all projectiles—he is, despite his enhanced nature, merely a man. Genji's mortal nature precludes such perfection as can be found in Christ Jesus, the son of God.
All comedy aside, it's not surprising that the relatively lighthearted Overwatch prevents players from desecrating a statue with religious significance to many of the world's approximately 2.4 billion Christians. Likely for the best, though as commenters were quick to point out such protection doesn't extend to the Churches of the King's Row map, nor the Notre Dame in the Paris map.
This is of course not the first appearance of Cristo Redentor in a videogame. Cristo Redentor has had a prominent role in the Civilization series since 2005's Civilization 4, and has previously appeared as a landmark in the Call of Duty series.
