Zazza Has Commented on the Marvel Rivals Black Widow Rework

Zazzastack, who is one of Marvel Rivals’ most well-known Black Widow players, has commented on the character’s new rework. Here’s everything to know.

Marvel Rivals’ Black Widow Rework in Season 9

Marvel Rivals Season 9 includes a whole host of changes (check out our full roadmap guide here), but a complete Black Widow rework is probably one of its most significant. Her Primary Fire now gives her steady, reliable damage instead of prioritizing risky one-shot picks. Her Ultimate is also completely changed, with a scope and six long-range shot bullets.

The rework pushes Black Widow into a much more aggressive Duelist playstyle overall. Mobility increases mean she can move around the map freely and chase down low-health enemies, creating more impact. She also has a new close-range AOE dive. Basically, she’s shifted from a passive long-range pick into more of a flanker. Fundamentally, Black Widow’s main draw is no longer her status as a sniper. That’s a quick summary: full changes are located here.

Who is Zazza in Marvel Rivals? Most Famous Black Widow

Black Widow has not always had the best reputation. Originally, this phenomenon just stemmed from how difficult she is to play (she had a relatively high skill ceiling, but an unbalanced high skill floor) and her poor win rate. In almost every Season, Widow had the lowest win percentage of any Marvel Rivals character. According to the stat tracking site rivalstracker.com, this number dipped as low as 40% in some Seasons.

Widow’s standing in the community got even worse after an infamous beef between streamers Zazzastack and Kingsman, who participated in a creator tournament together. During the event, Zazza infamously refused to swap off of Black Widow despite performing poorly, stating she was playing the character “for the vibes.” The move arguably caused young creator Kingsman to miss out on a significant prize pool, which could have seriously benefited him at the time. The community rallied around Kingsman after the drama emerged, and Marvel Rivals has even immortalized the occurrence with ‘for the vibes’ themed in-game cosmetics. Pro player aramori even referred to a similar tournament loss as ‘getting Zazza’d’.

Marvel Rivals’ Season 9 Black Widow changes are part of an effort to revive the character, both stat-wise and in the eyes of fans. The title’s devs also dropped a summer swimsuit skin for the character recently, adding her to its most popular cosmetic line.

Zazza Comments on the Rework

Nearly 6 months later, Zazza has re-emerged to share some thoughts on the Black Widow rework. In a series of posts, she expressed frustration with the rework, calling this update “the most DEPRESSING session of Marvel Rivals that I think I have ever played in my life.”

Zazza continued, calling the new Black Widow ‘unplayable’:

“Gonna give the rework another try in my next stream, but today she was unplayable. There isn’t a single other hero on the roster who can bring me the enjoyment that playing Black Widow used to.”

In another comment, she stated: “It hurts to pour so many hours of hard work and dedication into this character just to remember that she dies in Season 9.” Zazza also said, “I’ve unironically been crying over [the update].”

Zazza also reacted to the Season 9 update live on stream. She questioned, “why are we catering this skillful hero to new players?”

The Marvel Rivals Community Responds

Zazza’s posts received over 100,000 views, with mixed responses. Many community members replied and referenced the Kingsman incident. There was also much speculation about how Zazza’s own performance on Widow could have contributed to the Heros’ in-game reputation decline.

One comment, which earned over 1,300 likes (almost as much as Zazza’s original post), wrote: “I thought you were playing for the vibes.”

In a longer response, user @james294877 wrote, “The hero was changed because of YOU, literally YOU are responsible for it because of your lack of performance, you are recognized not just by the community but by rivals devs themselves as a thrower, just like your playstyle.”

All that said, Zazza is definitely not alone in her feelings about the Black Widow changes. Additional streamers and content creators have spoken out with frustration, especially fellow Widow mains. Their main qualms stem from the fact that Black Widow is now fundamentally a different Hero, and her skill floor is far lower. Though the rework will make her more popular in-game and likely increase her win rate, it could lower her skill ceiling and eliminate a rare opportunity for sniper playstyles.

Stay tuned for more Marvel Rivals esports news.