Velma's passive ability has been a hot topic in the MultiVersus community as she would call the police on her target if you collected enough clues, paying homage to the Scooby-Doo cartoons. However, with police brutality, discrimination against Black people, and constant videos of people harassing, following, and then calling the police on Black people for nothing, this was seen as offensive. As such, Player First Games has swapped it out for the gang's Mystery Machine.
"Instead of calling the police, Velma now solves the mystery and calls the Mystery Inc. gang and the Mystery Machine to take the bad guys away", the latest patch notes stated.
It's unclear what Fred and Daphne do with the person they essentially kidnap, but it's a welcome change among fans. Meanwhile, the patch notes also include reduced weight and nerfs such as the Air Up Special no longer applying weakened stacks on hit, while air and ground neutral attacks don't heal Velma anymore when she hits an ally with a speech bubble. Her movement speed has also been decreased to 2,100.
Velma's ability has been drawing ire from the community for a while now, blowing up into the public eye back in early August when YouTuber NgObscure tweeted, "I am enjoying Velma in [MultiVersus] but maining a character who's special move is calling the police on her enemies definitely don't sit right with me as a black man... 'Get em sheriff!' that shit kills me. Karen ultimate."
Others chimed in saying that it's the reason they can't play Velma, adding that it makes them "feel gross". Flashlight_Eyes even suggested on August 2 that Player First Games swap it with the Mystery Machine - one month later, that's been made a reality.