| “ | An Overwatch facility was attacked, the team needed to respond. But officially, their hands were tied. Luckily... Blackwatch plays by its own rules. | „ |
| ~ McCree. |
Blackwatch is an antagonistic faction in the lore of the Overwatch franchise. It was the former covert operations arm of Overwatch.
History[]
Blackwatch was originally established after the Omnic Crisis. Before its disbandment it was led by Gabriel Reyes, one of the six founding members of Overwatch. Blackwatch had recruited several criminals into the organization, such as Jesse McCree of the Deadlock Gang and Genji Shimada of the Shimada Clan. The purpose of Blackwatch was to perform more morally ambiguous operations that Overwatch could not do publicly, such as blackmail and assassinations. Because of this, Blackwatch's existence was kept in the dark from the public and even those who knew of it, such as Commanders Jack Morrison and Ana Amari, kept it concealed. At some point, Reyes even recruited the ostracized scientist, Moira O'Deorain to aid them in their operations.
Retribution[]
Eight years before the present day, Talon had bombed a Blackwatch base in Rome. Reyes held Talon leader Antonio Bartalotti responsible for the attack, and organized a team consisting of himself, McCree, Genji and Moira to infiltrate the Talon base of Rialto and capture Bartalotti. Everything was going to plan, until Reyes confronted Bartalotti and reconsidered his plan. Reyes killed Bartalotti instead, which alerted the Talon guards to their presence. Despite the team's successful escape, the assassination attracted public attention for Blackwatch. This controversy lead Blackwatch to be side-lined.
Reyes, still feeling resentful that he had not been made a commander of Overwatch and that his work as leader of Blackwatch had been overlooked, Reyes eventually revealed all of Blackwatch's crimes to the public, triggering the disbandment of both Blackwatch and Overwatch for its ties to the covert ops organization. Following Blackwatch's dissolution Reyes would go on to join the terrorist organization Talon along with fellow former Blackwatch member, Moira. McCree would instead become a mercenary-for-hire, while Genji would rejoin Overwatch after it was brought back.
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 Villains
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Talon Deadlock Rebels Junkers Vishkar Corporation Other Villains Junkenstein's Revenge | ||