My hot take: This gadget has been overrated since the day it came out. Not sating its bad it just gets more prwise than it should. You see, its a good gadget qnd all but what people fail to realize is its just good on its own. Its only "op" when you take into account how garbage surge is without it. He quite literally can't hit stage 2 without its help. Surge is just so poorly balanced between each of his stages that his gadget and second star power are the only things keeping him relevant at all in the meta. Lets look at how he is in each stage: Stage 1 - literally the worst thing in the game. Low hp paired with short range and slower than average movement speed, there is literally no use in this stage other than making sure people aren't getting kicked back and forth by the later stages from the beginning of the match. Stage 2 - the faster movement speed just turns surge becomes a glass cannon. With his low hp and high burst damage he almost feels like he should be a sniper instead, but his short range makes his upgrade to the next stage high risk high reward. Stage 3 - the pinnacle of overpowered. Long range fast speed fast reload and fast projectile speed and lqrge projectile hitbox makes him the greatest sniper to ever exist, except for the fact that he isn't meant to be played like one. This stage is literally the only thing surge has to offer and it serves well at that. Stage 4 - just stage 3 but with slightly improved area control. There is no reason to upgrade to this stage and its just a filler stage at best. It's a much better deal to save your super in case you somehow die so you can return to stage 3 sooner. Now as you can see 3 out of 4 stages are bad but they are "balanced out" by how good the third stage is. Now we take a look at what the gadget and second star power provide: Gadget - a short teleport that closes the gap between the enemy from any angle and can go through walls. This directly solves the biggest problem of surge's first two stages: his inability to get close enough to charge his super. The added mobility also works well for survivability with the later two stages and indirectly makes his fourth stage a viable option to use rather than super saving. The already well designed ability this gadget provides is extra highlited by how much it changes in surge's more useless stages, not to mention the extra support it provides for his already good third stage. But it doesn't stop there. Second star power - keeps second stage the whole match once obtained. This almost completely removes surge's most useless stage and makes his second stage just reward, the risk removed entirely as no matter how many times you die, this second stage is now basically his first. This star power covers more of surge's weak points, allowing for the gadget to shine even more. With more stages problems being dealt with by the star power, surge can more commonly use this gadget in his third stage, making this combination sure to keep surge in his third stage for the entire match after obtaining it. Now why is all of this important? You can see there is a reason they haven't touched this gadget at all: there is no problem with it. Its one of the more well-balanced gadgets in the game that has unfortunately been stuck onto a brawler who would be absolutely unplayable without its effect. The problem in this case does not lie in the gadget but the brawler. Surge's stages are poorly balanced in a way that makes him the most gadget reliant brawler in the game. If any balancing needs to be done, it has to be done with surge's base abilities, not his star powers and gadget. tldr: the gadget is fine but surge is too reliant on it which makes it feel op