Overwatch Community Ask Blizzard to Release Overwatch Firefighter Skins for Australian Wildfires

Overwatch community has recently made a plea on Reddit asking Blizzard to take action on Australian wildfires. Community called on Blizzard to make firefighters skins for some of the heroes. The post added that the purchases of these skins should also go towards helping to put out fires in Australia. According to the Reddit post created by WippitGuud, the post asked for two heroes to be made into firefighters in Overwatch. The heroes in question were Junkrat and Roadhog. The proposal quickly draw a lot of attention from Overwatch community with hundreds of replies made to the original post. Many people began supporting the cause in the comments. There were also a lot of speculations as to how the firefighter skins would look on the two heroes. 

Some comments pointed out that Roadhog could have a mask to protect itself from smoke, similar to the one firefighters use in the fire. Someone else added that they could also change Roadhog's hook into a water hose. For the Junkrat, people suggested that he could use water balloons as his ammo. Another person added, Blizzard can also give Junkrat a firefighter hat which firefighters use to protect their heads in fires. It wouldn't be the first time for Blizzard to make a charity campaign through the ingame skins. In the past, there have been several campaigns for different causes by the game company. There was the Pink Mercy campaign in 2019. During this time, Blizzard created a pink skin for Mercy valued at $15. After the campaign finished, the company directed all the earnings from this skin to Breast Cancer Research Foundation. According to Blizzard, the campagin had funded $12.7 million for the Breast Cancer Research. What are the Australian Wildfires? Australia have been battling with forest and bush fires for many years. 

Normally, these fires have a short lifespan. However, the last wildfire have been going on for over 4 months. According to the recent reports, prime minister of Australia Scott Morrison also told the press that the wildfires will continue for many months to come. There has been over 20 deaths already due to the wildfires. The fires burnt down thousands of houses in one of the most populated states of Australia, New South Wales. It ravaged close to 15 million acres of land throughout Australia, half of which is within the New South Wales. The worst part is the fire is only continuing to grow. According to New South Wales Rural Fire service, there were 139 different fires reported just earlier today. Unfortunately, the fire is also spreading faster than it can be contained. The fire service has reported that they brought only about half of those fires under control. Aside from the land damage and deaths, there have been also reports that almost half a billion of animals in the area have died from the fires. 

According to the Australian biodiversity expert and professor Chris Dickman, the animals likely died either from the fire or from the lack of food and shelter caused by fires. There has been several nonprofit organisations such as Australian Red Cross and World Wildlife Fun Australia already campaigning to help towards the wildfires in Australia. Hopefully, Blizzard also listens to its community to launch yet another campaign to help battle the Australian wildfires.

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