Blizzard has announced that both Ashe’s Mardi Gras Challenge and the brand-new Experimental Mode are now live in Overwatch on PC, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. From today until March 10, players will be able to take part in Ashe’s Mardi Gras Challenge and earn seven sprays, two player icons and an Epic Mardis Gras skin for Ashe and Bob.
The ten rewards available to players via playing Overwatch during the event come from playing Quick Play, Competitive or Arcade. To earn them, players simply need to win nine games.
Three wins will earn players the two player icons, six wins will earn one new spray and nine wins earns the Epic skin. Additionally, players can earn six new sprays by watching Overwatch streamers on Twitch.
Ashe’s Mardi Gras Challenge
Blizzard has selected a number of Overwatch content creators who will be streaming during the event. By tuning into these creators and watching for a certain number of hours, players can unlock more cosmetics.
The content creators and stream hours are as follows (all times in PST)
| Broadcaster | Spotlight Date / Time | Channel |
| Emongg | February 25 (11:00 PST – 21:00 PST) | twitch.tv/emongg |
| Jay3 | February 26 (12:00 PST – 16:00 PST) | twitch.tv/Jay3 |
| dafran | February 27 (4:00 PST – 10:00 PST) | twitch.tv/dafran |
| Samito | February 28 (10:00 PST – 16:00 PST) | twitch.tv/SamitoFPS |
| Lassiz | February 29 (9:00 PST – 15:00 PST) | twitch.tv/Lassiz |
| mL7Support | March 1 (5:00 PST – 17:00 PST) | twitch.tv/mL7Support |
| Mushu | March 3 (7:00 PST – 13:00 PST) | twitch.tv/Mushu |
| DanielFenner | March 4 (06:00 PST – 16:00 PST) | twitch.tv/DanielFenner |
| Valkia | March 5 (2:00 PST – 12:00 PST) | twitch.tv/Valkia |
| Fitzyhere | March 6 (8:00 PST – 17:00 PST) | twitch.tv/Fitzyhere |
| iddqd | March 7 (12:00 PST – 16:00 PST) | twitch.tv/iddqd |
| WantedOW | March 8 (6:00 PST – 10:00 PST) | twitch.tv/WantedOW |
| FRAN | March 9 (15:00 PST – 20:00 PST) | twitch.tv/FRAN |
Rewards will be given for watching two, four and six hours.
Experimental Mode
Alongside Ashe’s Mardi Gras Challenge, Overwatch’s Experimental Mode is now live too. According to Blizzard’s description;
Experimental Mode allows the Overwatch team to test major gameplay changes, similar to how balance updates are tested in the public test region (PTR) but now available for both PC and console players in the live game. Progression earned in the Experimental mode is kept in your account, unlike the PTR. Please note that changes introduced in Experimental Mode are not guaranteed to go into the live game.
The first live experiment is Triple Damage. This makes the role queue default one tank, three damage and two support. Triple Damage will be available for a limited time via the Experimental Mode card.
You can read more about Experimental Mode at the blog post. You can also learn more about it and Triple Damage in the developer update below.
