Underpowered is essentially standard 6v6 Quickplay mixed with a Protect the President gamemode. Atleast one player from each team has reduced stats, but gains the unique ability to turn the objective into a powerful weapon. Every hero has a special bonus to help these weaker players survive and gain control of it.

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Contesters

At the beginning of every match atleast one player on each team is given a special Contester role. On their own Contesters appear to be quite weak. They have lower stats and are visibly smaller than everyone else. Unlike everyone else Contesters have the unique ability to turn the objective into a powerful weapon. Gaining control of this weapon is critical if you want to win in this gamemode. Every regular hero on the team gives their Contesters a unique bonus to help them survive and complete this goal.

The Point Burner

The weapon the Contesters are trying to gain control of is called the Point Burner. The Point Burner is a flamethrower on the objective that does more and more damage the longer it's focused on a player. It damages any enemy on the objective and heats up faster when the Contester has less max health. It can only be controlled by one team at any time and will become contested if Contesters from both teams are trying to use it.

General Team Abilities

Every regular player gains a few ways to interact with contesters in this gamemode regardless of their hero choice.

Pick Up

• Regular players can pick up Contesters by meleeing them while crouching
• This ability is not team restricted and can be used on Contesters from either team
• Contesters affected by this ability can be thrown or dropped
• You can melee an enemy to make them drop your Contester
• Friendly Contesters can intentionally end this ability by pressing Interact
• Enemy Contesters will slow you and they can't be thrown as far

Hide

• Regular players can make a Contester invisible and immune to damage by crouching while carrying them
• This ability can only be used by players on the affected Contester's team
• Neither the player using this ability nor their Contester can attack while this ability is active
• This ability grants damage reduction based on the Contester's max health
• Lower Contester max health gives more damage reduction while using this ability

Contester Hero Bonuses

Every hero gives the Contesters on their team a unique bonus.

D.va

Babier D.va

• When a friendly Contester dies they'll become a smaller pilot D.va instead
• If they survive long enough to get their mech they go back to being their original hero
• They'll take damage if they get stepped on by an enemy player, so try to keep them away from the enemy team

Junker Queen

Hit Them Harder

• Junker Queen does 20% more damage to any enemies looking at the closest friendly Contester
• Enemies affected by this have an orange outline
• Enemies see an effect above Junker Queen's head when the bonus damage is active

Orisa

Glorious Steed

• Friendly Contesters can ride on Orisa's back by looking at her and pressing Interact
• Contesters using this can't be picked up or moved by any other abilities
• Only one Contester can ride on Orisa's back at a time

Reinhardt

Heavy Armor

• Friendly Contesters recieve less knockback

Roadhog

Thick Skin

• Friendly Contesters gain 35 maximum health while near Roadhog

Sigma

Gravitic Field

• Friendly Contesters jump higher and have reduced gravity while near Sigma

Winston

Faulty Barrier Projector

• Winston can trigger a faulty barrier projector that stuns and knocks back enemies near any friendly Contesters by pressing Interact
• This bonus ability has a cooldown

Wrecking Ball

Adapted Adaptive Shield

• Using Wrecking Ball's Adaptive Shield also generates shield health for friendly Contesters
• The amount of shield health depends on the number of enemies near the Contester

Zarya

Strength

• Friendly Contesters knock back enemies with their attacks
• The amount of knockback is based on how much damage was dealt

Ashe

Bob's Extra Bullets

• Friendly Contesters can give their teammates ammo and reduce their ability cooldowns

Bastion

Tactical Shove

• Friendly Contesters can push Bastion in sentry form

Doomfist

Punch Bandages

• Friendly Contesters and friendly players near Contesters can melee other friendly players to aggressively apply healing bandages to them

Echo

Duplicate Contester

• Echo can become a fake Contester
• She appears as a random friendly Contester's hero
• She doesn't get Contester Bonuses and can still be damaged by the objective
• She can be picked up and has the same stats as a real Contester

Genji

More Healing

• Friendly Contesters do more healing

Hanzo

The Dragon's Defense

• Enemy players that attack your Contesters get hacked for a short time

Junkrat

The Little Kaboom

• Junkrat can give friendly Contesters a bomb.
• When the Contester melee attacks an enemy player the bomb explodes
• The bomb damages and knocks back the enemy player and the Contester that used it

Cassidy

Spam the Hammer

• Cassidy can fire his secondary fire while carrying a Contester
• He gains extra ammo while using the bonus

Mei

Overchill

• Friendly Contesters are affected by Mei's Cryo Freeze if it's used near them

Pharah

Mini Hover Jets

• Friendly Contesters can hold jump to fly while near Pharah

Reaper

Die

• Friendly Contesters can fake their death
• The fake killer appears as the closest enemy player
• The Contester has no outlines and is knocked down while this bonus is active, so they appear to be dead
• It can be cancelled by the Contester at any time by pressing jump

Sojourn

Cybernetic Enhancements

• Friendly Contesters take 10% less damage

Soldier: 76

Extra Damage

• Your teammates gain 10% increased damage while near a friendly Contester

Sombra

Micro Translocator

• Friendly Contesters can translocate to Sombra by looking at her and pressing Interact
• This bonus ability has a limited effective range
• This bonus ability has a cooldown

Symmetra

Pocket Shield Generator

• Friendly Contesters gain 25 shield health while near Symmetra

Torbjörn

Portable Turret

• Friendly Contesters can look at Torbjorn and press Interact to control a turret on his back
• The turret's armor is more effective on Contesters with less maximum health and reduces more damage
• The Contester using the turret can't be picked up or moved by any other abilities

Tracer

Chronal Acceleration

• When Tracer blinks or recalls all the Contesters on her team get their cooldowns reduced

Widowmaker

Spider's Web

• Widowmaker can pull a friendly Contester closer by looking at them and using her grapple

Ana

Nap Time

• Friendly Contesters can look at Ana and press Interact to sleep and temporarily become immune to damage

Baptiste

Regenerative Armor

• Friendly Contesters gain 25 armor health while near Baptiste

Brigitte

Portable Repair Turret

• Friendly Contesters can look at Brigitte and press Interact to control a healing turret on her back
• The turret's armor is more effective on Contesters with less maximum health and reduces more damage
• The Contester using the turret can't be picked up or moved by any other abilities

Kiriko

Back Step

• Friendly Contesters will teleport to Kiriko instead of dying if she is healing them when they run out of health
• This bonus ability has a cooldown

Lúcio

Reverb

• When a friendly Contester heals another player they also get healed and gain temporary shield health

Mercy

Valkyrie Wings

• Friendly Contesters can fly to Mercy by looking at her and pressing Interact
• This bonus ability has a limited range
• This bonus ability does not have a cooldown
• Friendly Contesters can also hold jump in the air to fall slower

Moira

The Experiment

• Friendly Contesters can temporarily fuse with teammates to gain damage immunity and buff their teammate's stats
• The stat boost is based on the Contester's maximum health and gets stronger when the Contester has less maximum health
• Only one Contester can be fused with a player at a time

Zenyatta

Harmony

• Friendly Contesters slowly regenerate missing health

Alternative Rules

Underpowered defaults to Overwatch's core modes, but can be used with other modes. The Contesters do different things in these modes.

Team Deathmatch - Bonus Points

• The Contester's eliminations give extra points
• Eliminating a Contester also gives extra points

Team Deathmatch - Contester Tag

• Enemies are knocked down instead of eliminated when they run out of health
• A Contester has to melee a knocked down enemy to get the point
• The time they're knocked down for depends on the Contester's maximum health

Elimination

• Players can respawn as long as their Contester is alive

Capture the Flag

• The flag damages anyone that isn't a Contester

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Other Stuff

• Switching a player's team normally will overload the server and close the match. You can switch a player's team without overloading the server by switching them to spectator then to the other team.
• This gamemode supports all the core Overwatch modes as well as Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch, and Elimination even though most of them aren't enabled by default.
• The Point Burner's damage doesn't stack. When multiple Contesters are using the Point Burner only the highest risk Contester actually does damage.