Blizzard introduced long-range sniper and healer Ana Amari earlier this month, marking her the first addition to Overwatch's roster of heroes since the massively popular multiplayer shooter was launched.
The primary weapon of Ana is the Biotic Rifle, which is capable of firing long-range darts that can either restore the health of her allies or deal damage to her opponents.
Ana also has the capability of firing Sleep Darts through her sidearm to knock foes unconscious for a few seconds, and it is this skill that is the focus of a trolling technique that can get opponents booted out of matches due to inactivity.
The method, discovered and demonstrated by YouTuber Youmuus, will require three players choosing Ana on one team. Ana will then have to keep firing Sleep Darts at a single opponent, with at least three players required due to the cooldown of the skill.
If the three Ana players are successful in keeping their target in a permanent state of sleep for about a minute, the opponent will be booted out of the match due to inactivity.
The method will only work in the casual Quick Play mode, as Blizzard has recently abolished hero stacking in Competitive mode that prevents more than one player from choosing a single character for a match.
The trick is very difficult to pull off, as the three Ana players will need to maintain their focus on their target while their teammates are outnumbered against their other opponents. The target can also easily call for help, with a single attack on one of the Ana players enough to disrupt the chain of Sleep Darts and giving the target enough room to escape perma-sleep.
That said, it could be very funny for some players to see a bunch of Ana players forcing an opponent to sleep long enough to get kicked out of the match. Some forum users on the official Overwatch sub-Reddit, however, are not amused with the method, posting that they do not find it fun to be put to a permanent sleep when they are looking for a quick match of Overwatch.
Blizzard could fix the exploit in a future update if it proves to be too popular and troublesome for Quick Play. However, with the difficulty of the perma-sleep method and the novelty of the trick possibly getting too old too soon, Blizzard might instead focus on fixing more severe gameplay-twisting issues in Overwatch.
