Our Overwatch experts return to rank the Winter Wonderland skins

Every event, we get a whole bunch of skins launched at us at once. We share our favorite skins with friends, ooh and ahh at screenshots on social media, and pray that our seasonal loot boxes contain the bounty that we so badly want. That being said, it’s time to be honest: not every skin is worth the appreciation. It takes a keen, critical eye to tell the best skins from the worst ones. With that in mind, we’ve brought back our Skin Judging Experts, Ryan and Cass, to critique and weigh each new Winter Wonderland skin.

Snow Owl Ana

Blizzard Entertainment

Ryan - S tier

Ana is easily one of my favorite heroes in Overwatch. She is super fun, cool and unique. This skin is just ... gorgeous. Ana has had some pretty neat skins in the past, but nothing that comes close to this one. This works great for her sniper theme and turning the “wise old Overwatch lady” into a snow owl is perfect. I love this skin and I can’t wait to use it well into the Summer months, thus becoming that guy.

Cass - S tier

This is everything a seasonal skin should be—themed to the event, but worthy of wearing year round, creative, downright beautiful and giving a unique spin on a character who needs a new skin. Snow Owl Ana fulfills all of the above while still remaining recognizably Ana. Between Snow Owl and Corsair, Ana’s made out like a bandit on high quality skins in the last few months, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about it.

Avalanche Bastion

Blizzard Entertainment

Ryan - C tier

This skin is fine. I’m of the opinion that this is a fine skin. I don’t find anything particularly inspiring about it outside of ... oh my god that owl is so cute. Anyway, when this skin becomes a tank, he looks kinda like a cool snow plow. Like Cass below, I’m also relatively simple to please. Snow is cool, snow plows look cool and I like it when this robot makes himself look like a cool snow plow.

Cass - A tier

I’m a simple woman, and I like simple pleasures. Sometimes, I like to see a cute little robot boy wearing a knitted hat. Bastion has a whole line of great skins, but Avalanche puts a nice little cap on his line. That being said, I’d like to see other heroes step up and get their fair share of skins. There are only so many ways you can upgrade a Bastion unit, and Avalanche seems like a perfectly nice note to end on for a while.

Casual Hanzo

Blizzard Entertainment

Ryan - F tier

If you turn his character model, the golden dragon makes it look like Hanzo shit his pants.

Cass - F tier

This skin seemed like an absolute slam dunk, and I was fine with waiting a year to see Hanzo’s civilian outfit rear its head once again... but something got lost in translation. Where’s the side shave? What’s up with the white hair there? This seems like a skin that is so close, yet so far. Hopefully we see a few tweaks down the line to bring the in-game version of this skin closer to its comic origins.

Beachrat Junkrat

Blizzard Entertainment

Ryan - S tier

I love it. This is a stupid damn skin and it’s perfect. I think the thing I love most about this stupid thing is the concept behind it. Junkrat is the weirdest of all Overwatch characters ... OK so that might not be true. However, Junkrat is certainly the most manic. Look at him. Look at how confident he is in that outfit. It’s snowing outside, it’s cold as hell, Ana is bundled up so much you can’t even see her. But not Junk, he’s here to party. This is your friend that wears shorts in January and insists they aren’t cold. It just captures his charachter so well and it’s brilliant.

Cass - A tier

I fully expected Blizzard to delight us with a little elf Junkrat or something appropriately, well, winter-y for Winter Wonderland. Instead, we get Beachrat Junkrat. I think I respect the subversion of expectations more than I like the actual, finished skin... but it’s cute. Also, I never noticed that Junkrat is straight up balding before, but this skin makes it obvious. What a delightful little trash man Junkrat is!

Blizzard Entertainment

Ice Fisherman Roadhog

Blizzard Entertainment

Ryan - A tier

You will never find a true Roadhog fan that isn’t down for a creepy ass skin. This Roadhog skin is no different. The Roadhog pig skin earlier this year was kinda scary but the choice of Walrus here is so bizarre that it makes me laugh just thinking about it. I don’t want to go on a tangent here, but have you ever looked at a walrus and not giggled a little? They’re so weird. God I love them. This Roadhog is not only a walrus, but also has a very cute sweater on under his work overalls. A very good skin.

Cass - A tier

What a wholesome Roadhog skin! From his snug hat to his walrus mask to his cozy looking jacket, this is the nicest Roadhog skin yet. Sure, he’s going to hook you and then shoot a blast of rusty metal in your face while a cyborg ninja slashes you to death, that’s inevitable. But the whole experience will just seem way less terrifying. I wasn’t expecting this skin at all, but it’s a welcome surprise, and it has replaced Sharkbait as my Roadhog skin of choice. Look at those nice little fishies on his back!

Blizzard Entertainment

Alpine: 76

Blizzard Entertainment

Ryan - D tier

I hate this skin, and part of that is just me being unfair. Let’s make this clear immediately: Soldier 76 does NOT need more skins. Not only does he have 10,000, but we have already hit peak 76 with his Grillmaster skin earlier this year. It’s over Blizzard, you already made the best one. There are some nice looks on this skin, but it’s just so damn boring. I mean, my god it’s dull. I just can’t look at it without spacing out and thinking about all the work I have left to do today. That isn’t the kind of thing you want from a cool Overwatch skin.

Cass - B tier

Some skins are delightful and exciting, others are just... perfectly competent and well executed. Alpine: 76 is no doubt the skin of some players’ dreams. It’s slick, it’s smooth looking, and it’s certainly seasonal. I just can’t bring myself to care about another skin wherein Soldier 76 is a tough future soldier. Then again, maybe I’ve been spoiled by the wonderful Grillmaster 76 skin, and I’m the one who’s wrong. Maybe this is the 76 we’re meant to be celebrating, and not the cranky dad of my dreams. Anyways, this skin is perfectly... fine.

Rime Sombra

Blizzard Entertainment

Ryan - B tier

I know that I’m in the minority here on the love of this skin, just like I was for Dragon Symmetra during the Halloween event. I like my skins to be a little subtler than this one. Give me my favorite snow sniper dressed like and owl, or a husky man in a walrus mask. This Sombra skin is just ... it’s a lot you guys. It’s very bright, she is very blue and it hurts my eyes to look at. There’s a little too much going on for me to really love it. However, I can totally see the appeal and I think her hair in this skin is extremely cute.

Cass - S tier

If Soldier 76 was a bit of a snooze for me, Rime Sombra is the perfect antidote. I didn’t realize I wanted Sombra as a saucy little frost imp, but here she is! Sombra’s Rime skin follows up her Summer Games Tulum beach skin, and they both really transform the hacker into something new and cool. Tulum was a neat scuba diver, and then Rime is a frost goddess who will hack my health packs and leave me to die in the cold. My sole complaint? I’d like to see some of those cold effects on her in-game effects. It’d be neat to see Rime Sombra type on a field of snowflakes, instead of her purple hacker tech.

Well, there we have it. Our experts are certainly more unified on this set of skins than they were on the previous set of Halloween Terror skins. Which is your favorite? Do you have any major disagreements? Surely, no one can disagree on the supreme rating of Snow Owl Ana.