Overwatch: How Did McCree Lose His Arm?

Overwatch is a multiplayer game that unlike most multiplayer players really focuses on it’s story and has given it’s player base a very large amount of lore for all characters. Even with all the back story and detail given by Blizzard to the games fans, some parts of the story are still unclear, leaving the fans asking even more questions about characters and certain interactions between the characters.

One very popular question asked by the fans of the game is how McCree lost his arm.

One thing is certain however, McCree lost his arm after his Overwatch days when he was part of Blackwatch, the covert ops team of Overwatch that was kept the secret from the public before it was disbanded.

Although Blizzard has not given any official statement regarding the matter there have been theories by the fans themselves which make a lot of sense. Here is a list of the most credible theories along with reasons they could be true.

How Did McCree Lose His Arm?

FAN THEORIES

Keep in mind that none of these have been confirmed by Blizzard so try keeping an open mind while reading these stories.

McCree and Junkrat

During his time after Overwatch’s disbanding, McCree was arrested after leaving the group because of his crimes with the Deadlock gang, at this time it is suspected that Junkrat and McCree were arrested at the same time, just because of being together by coincidence, because they were both at the wrong place at the wrong time, together. They were both arrested and handcuffed to each other. While in the same cell, Junkrat and McCree planned their escape.

When the time came, McCree and Junkrat made it out of the prison but were encountered by a robot police enforcer who McCree defeated using a laser cutter. After defeating the police enforcer, McCree realised that the handcuffs him and Junkrat were tied with had a tracking device on them. After trying the laser cutter on the handcuffs and realising that isn’t working the both had to cut each other’s arms.

This is one of the less believable stories as it depends entirely on coincidence but at the time fans will have to accept what they get.

Uprising Event

McCree was shown to have his arm during the Blackwatch incident in Venice as shown in the Retribution event and in uprising however, which chronologically takes place one year after the Blackwatch incident even though Uprising was released a year before the Retribution event, McCree was shown with his arm battling a omnic.

However, it is suspected that McCree did, in fact, lose his arm during the mission while battling a mission. This could be possible as McCree could not have had such a huge fight that would cause him to lose his arm after the Uprising incident as Overwatch was disbanded right after.

B.O.B and McCree

In the reunion short, when Ashe and McCree are having a conversation, it is hinted that B.O.B might have something to do with McCree losing his arm when Ashe says ‘’I am going to make B.O.B rip off your other arm too!’’.

This suggested that McCree might have had a confrontation with the Deadlock gang after he left Overwatch and might have lost his arm due to a fight with Ashe and B.O.B. This  theory was the most believed between fans but was eventually dismissed by Michael Chu, the lead story writer of Overwatch.