It’s all falling into place: Yesterday, Overwatch announced an anniversary event, a Game of the Year edition and a free weekend. Today, Blizzard gave us out first look at three new Arena Maps. What this means is that at least one of the supposed leaks leading up to this event was either true or a very lucky fraud.
The last leak, resulting from a datamine predicted a new Overwatch event to coincide with the game’s one-year anniversary (check), and up to three new maps (check). Since both of these main aspects turned out to be true, we can also safely assume the rest of the leak is also true.
Unfortunately, the rest of the leak was not that descriptive, confirming only a handful of skins, Tracer being the most-skinned hero as expected. But what has this and other Overwatch leaks said about Doomfist? Let’s explore.
Why Does Anyone Think Doomfist Will Be In The Event?
While not a leak, it all started in December 2016, when the Overwatch team released a 2016 “Year in Review” video. In this video, Kaplan confirmed that several new heroes were in the works, with one specifically having already made it to the final art stages. This hero was most likely Orisa, who was released in March.
Before Orisa’s release, Kaplan once again confirmed that new “heroes” were being developed, and that they didn’t want to tease anything because of the fallout over the Sombra ARG. So this means they were actively working on heroes during and after Orisa, with several reports also stating that the Overwatch team was well underway on the game’s 25th hero.
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One leak on 4chan from a user claiming to be a Blizzard employee. The leak alleged that Doomfist would launch in the second quarter, and described him has a tank counter to Reinhardt and Roadhog, and also described his abilities in detail. This leak also stated that two other heroes, Bria and Ivon, were planned for Q3 and Q4 this year, detailing their abilities as well.
But Will Doomfist Be In The Event?
On one hand, it makes so much sense: release the hero mentioned in the very first cinematic video on your Anniversary Event. This would drum up a ton of support and buzz such that even those who may have put the game down recently would likely want to pick it back up.
On the other hand, a few aspects of this leak, as well as what we already know from the datamine, lead me to think that it won’t happen – or, at least, the leak that said it would happen is fake. For one, Doomfist was not mentioned in the Overwatch datamine that we now know to be accurate with an anniversary event and three new maps being confirmed by Blizzard. Would a datamine that revealing really say nothing about a new hero if there was going to be one?
While I’m skeptical, perhaps it could happen. But, let’s talk about the 4chan leak: two details it mentioned seem to be incongruous with the facts we know. For one, it didn’t say Doomfist would be a counter to Reinhardt; it said Doomfist would be a counter to “Reinhart” without the “d.” Would a Blizzard employee really misspell the name of one of its heroes? Probably not, but a troll who’s never played the game probably would.
But perhaps most damningly, other parts of the same thread insisted that Doomfist would release on May 24th, but we now know the event starts officially on May 23rd. Those familiar with Overwatch know that every event, and most updates drop on Tuesdays, but someone who doesn’t play could have just looked up when Overwatch released last year and assumed that’s when any anniversary event would start.
Overall, this leak is highly suspect and its inconsistent with what we now know to be true. But, as I said, it makes too much sense for them to include Doomfist as a part of the event, so I wouldn’t be surprised if my skepticism is unfounded.
