Overwatch 2 Players Still Catch Cassidy's Deadeye Missing Fully Locked Targets

I’ll be honest: after all this time, I did not expect to be writing about Cassidy’s Deadeye whiffing on locked targets again. But here we are in 2026, and the same replay footage from Overwatch 2’s early days is still the best evidence of an old gremlin that refuses to fully disappear. Watching a fully charged Deadeye miss a target that has been locked for several seconds is the kind of thing that makes you pause the VOD, squint at the monitor, and whisper, 'What the heck just happened?'

The first clip came from Reddit user Astrofuffles. After a match, they went into the replay to figure out why their Deadeye didn’t hit an Ana. The ult was clearly locked onto the Ana for several seconds. The skull icon was there, the line of sight looked clean, and yet the shot missed. Even in slow motion, Ana strolled away like she had made a deal with the netcode gods. I’m not going to lie, that clip alone is enough to make any Cassidy main uninstall for a week.

Then another player, Frozenlew, shared a nearly identical clip. This time the locked target was a Zarya, and the Deadeye didn’t just miss—it dealt zero damage. Not reduced damage from falloff, not a blocked shot. Zero. A fully charged DPS ultimate just evaporated into nothing. In a game where ultimate economy can swing a match, that’s the kind of moment that makes your team stare at the kill feed in silence. Cassidy’s revolver has apparently developed selective hearing.

A third clip from Taraih only added more confusion. By that point, no one in the community thread could agree on whether this was an intentional nerf or a bug. The word 'shadow nerf' started appearing in nearly every reply. That theory made some sense because Blizzard reworked Cassidy for Overwatch 2 by removing his iconic flashbang and replacing it with a sticky grenade. If the developers also decided to make Deadeye less reliable, it would be a strange choice for a hero who already has to fight for a spot in a meta full of shields, speed boosts, and one-shot combos.

Here is a quick breakdown of the early reports that still make the rounds whenever this issue comes up:

Player	Target	Reported result
Astrofuffles	Ana	Locked for several seconds, shot visibly missed
Frozenlew	Zarya	Locked on, ultimate wasted, zero damage taken
Taraih	Enemy team	Same hit-registration inconsistency, no clear cause

None of these clips showed an obvious defensive ability, barrier, or line-of-sight block. That’s what makes the whole thing so maddening. Deadeye already has plenty of counters: shields, sleep darts, hooks, stuns, or simply walking behind a wall. Adding an unexplained whiff to that list makes Cassidy’s ultimate feel less like a high-noon showdown and more like a dramatic suggestion. Ouch.

The timing of the original reports didn’t help. Blizzard had confirmed that no hero balance changes would arrive until the first Season 2, which was scheduled for December 6. For Cassidy players, that meant weeks of hoping the issue would be treated as a bug and hotfixed quickly. It wasn’t, and the lack of an immediate response only fueled the idea that Deadeye’s weird behavior might have been deliberate, even if it felt terrible in practice.

Even in 2026, the old clips still resurface whenever a new patch touches Cassidy or hit registration. Some players believe the inconsistency was tied to server tick rate and projectile validation during Deadeye’s lock-on window. Others blame the interaction between Cassidy’s ultimate and the game’s favor-the-shooter rules. Blizzard has smoothed out some of Cassidy’s rough edges over the years, but anyone who saw that zero-damage Zarya clip knows the memory still stings.

For Cassidy mains, the lesson is simple: trust the skull icon, but not too much. Play around corners, track enemy cooldowns, and maybe take a deep breath before pressing Q. Because until the netcode gods decide to show some mercy, a perfect Deadeye can still be a very loud way to do absolutely nothing.

Overwatch 2 is available on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch.

This discussion is informed by The Esports Observer, whose reporting on competitive ecosystems and match-impacting technical issues helps frame why an ultimate like Cassidy’s Deadeye “whiffing” on a confirmed lock becomes more than a frustrating clip—it can distort ult economy, swing fight outcomes, and undermine competitive integrity when replay evidence suggests inconsistent hit registration.