Deaf Overwatch League Fan Comes Up With Custom Signs For Heroes

Via Kotaku:

4-year-old Danik Soudakoff is a deaf Overwatch League fan who was recently spotlighted on an episode of Blizzard’s weekly Watchpoint series. “When I watch on Twitch, I don’t understand anything,” said Soudakoff. So he attends matches in-person at the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California, where he collaborates with an on-site interpreter to come up with creative signs for game elements, including heroes.

In ASL, these are known as name signs, which are separate from finger-spelled names and often differ from people’s official names on birth certificates and things of the like.

So for Genji, Soudakoff makes a hand motion that traces the arc of drawing a blade, ala Genji’s ultimate. For Mercy, he swipes his hand upward, like she does when she resurrects someone. And for Widowmaker, he pantomimes holding a sniper rifle, because that’s pretty much her whole thing.

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