Overwatch Tracer memes invade TikTok with cringeworthy clips
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Overwatch Tracer memes invade TikTok with cringeworthy clips

Brittany Vincent—
Overwatch tracer gameplay shot

Nerf Bastion.

The internet is awash with cries of “I’m already Tracer,” and you’re probably wondering where the peculiar phrase came from.

The meme has its roots in the music video for the song “No Mercy” by The Living Tombstone. The song is an ode to players who “should have been Mercy,” referring to players who go about their own business and play who they want to instead of who would better support the team and lead everyone to victory.

In the video game Overwatch, you can only choose one of each hero character for your team. If someone logs on before you and picks your main, you’re out of luck until the next round—if they decide to go with someone else. This can be frustrating, especially if your main happens to be a massively popular pick, such as D.Va, Mercy, or as the song starts out, Tracer.

Too many players opt to go on the offensive with their favorite characters and totally overlook support roles, which includes heroes like Mercy, Zenyatta, and Lucio. This, in turn, means there are no healers on the team or characters to offer support, and so the team in its entirety suffers. That’s why you should always try to pick a support character to complement the other players’ roles when possible.

Not long after the video made its way online to YouTube, users took to the popular short video platform TikTok to make their own videos that featured the song. Some of the videos were grating. One TikTok clip featured a D.Va cosplayer, who (embarrassingly) chose what appears to be a corded PlayStation 2 controller as a prop while lip-syncing to the song. The game isn’t available on PlayStation 3, as users have already pointed out several thousands of times.

In response to the cringe-inducing clip, @theasianthatyeet recorded their own response to the cosplayer’s video, taking the Xbox One version out of their console and tossing it into the yard with the caption “Fuck you and fuck this game.”

From this TikTok clip alone, it isn’t hard to see why Twitter (and the rest of the internet) is tired of looking at these videos and hearing this song.

Everyone is very upset about her using the wrong controller.

Many of the women uploading TikTok videos have made similarly embarrassing videos in the eyes of the Overwatch faithful, showing the wrong controllers in the video or flubbing the lyrics.

The guys aren’t really doing much better, although they are giving us something to laugh at in the meantime. They are singing along and doing the same thing…

…there’s a lot…

of “I’m Already Tracer” memes…

on TikTok. And if you watch too many of them, you just might go crazy. Or at the very least, you won’t be able to get this irritating little song out of your head.

But the meme didn’t stop there. It’s slowly but surely evolved past its initial status as a TikTok meme and has infiltrated the social lexicon as we know it. The phrase “I’m already Tracer” is a meme in and of itself now.

https://twitter.com/gods_live/status/1064928952290951168

It looks like, for better or for worse, the “I wanna be Tracer” meme firmly has everyone in its grasp and won’t be going away any time soon. At least now you know what it means though, right?

Brittany Vincent

Brittany Vincent

Brittany Vincent has covered gaming, anime, tech, and entertainment for over a decade. When she’s not writing, she’s replaying Um Jammer Lammy or Day of the Tentacle for the hundredth time while pining for a Harvester sequel. Find her on Twitter @MolotovCupcake.

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