An icy scientist from China is the latest new Overwatch hero to be teased by developer Blizzard.
Mei-Ling Zhou—yes, that Mei, her adventure diary reads—is apparently a Chinese research scientist who works with Winston, the iconic glasses-wearing gorilla scientist seen in Overwatch’s official trailer. Her thing, it seems, is ice. She’s working on an endothermic diffuser (“Note to self: come up with a less science-y name,” she writes) that apparently gives her some control over the temperature (considering field testing it left her arm frozen solid, but with no permanent damage).
Her diary chronicles an adventure through the Yukon testing her gear before heading to Los Angeles and then another mountain range depicted in a screenshot attached to the article.
It’s the typical way Blizzard has introduced new characters to the game so far. Last week the company showed us D.Va, a fictitious Korean StarCraft 2 pro who now spends her time defending her homeland wearing some kind of mecha suit of armor (if the in-game posters with her visage in the map Hanamura and its arcade are to be believed).
Details are scant regarding D.Va’s skillset, but Blizzard hinted on at least one of Mei’s abilities in her diary. The Oct. 30 entry states that she used her diffuser to create a walkway that allowed her to cross an impassable obstacle. That sounds like some kind of Iceman-esque ability to create a walkway teammates can use to traverse the map in new and interesting ways, which would make her a potentially exciting support character to attack chokes in Overwatch.
Fans speculate that the two new characters are perhaps the final two silhouettes in this piece of concept art released earlier last year:
Overwatch origins concept art Blizzard
All but the final four heroes in that picture are already released. The second to last one looks like a beefy battlemech, which would fit D.Va’s description as a member of MEKA and a former StarCraft 2 pro with top actions per minute. The last character could be Mei herself, wielding some kind of ice pick and clawed feet to dig into the icey terrain.
The game currently features five offense and defense classes but just four tanks and supports, meaning that D.Va as a tank and Mei as a support would really round out the character list.
It also adds a little diversity to the game, something Blizzard is often criticized for especially regarding its previous titles like World of WarCraft. Its Overwatch world seems like a perfect place to show a wide range of characters, though the initial slate only included one Asian, Hanzo. Now the game will soon have a hero from three of the biggest gaming regions in Asia, and the world. Also, with the introduction of D.va and Mei, eight of the 20 heroes are women.
Of course, that’s all assuming the two heroes are actually soon released. All signs point to them being revealed at BlizzCon, Blizzard’s annual convention, later this week. But you never know with Blizzard. The company even hinted at a third new hero in Mei’s diary—Olivia Rai, star of the movie Six-Gun Killer, which Mei is “dying” to see. That piece of concept art features a woman in the fifth slot in the bottom row holding some kind of gun and wearing a stylish dress that could end up being Rai. But that’s just going further down the rabbit hole with vast and growing Blizzard’s Overwatch universe.
Image via Blizzard
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