For anyone involved with the Overwatch community, the past 24 hours has been really exciting.
Blizzard, ever the teasing little troublemaker, released on its fictional Atlas News news outlet an interview with Efi Oladele, a scientist from Numbani (that’s the map that carries the Doomfist on the payload).
In the interview, it’s revealed that Efi has made huge strides in development and innovation of robotics and artificial intelligence at the ripe old age of 11.
As is to be expected whenever Blizzard reveals a new character, the Overwatch community went into hysterics at what was initially thought to be the game’s 24th playable hero. But there appears to be more to this story than simply Efi being the next hero to join the crew.
This is where the fun begins. Are you ready?
Efi being 11 years old suggests she probably isn’t going to be a playable hero. Blizzard would have to be pretty ballsy to let players shoot up an 11 year-old African character. Actually, that’s not going to happen. There’s certainly nothing suggesting she won’t be added as a hero in her older years, though, although the evidence suggests this also won’t happen.
The interview shed some light on her role in the Overwatch universe, and it’s clear that it pushes in the direction of what we can expect from the new hero.
“Well, I’ve always been interested. After my mom and dad got me my first robotics kit, I became obsessed with putting together little drones. When I started to get good at it, I tried to build robots to do my chores and help around the house. My parents think it’s cheating… It’s no fair! (laughs)”
The hottest theory going around right now is that Efi is working on a new hero, and considering the connection to robotics and AI, it looks set to be a new Omnic hero.
Interestingly, this theory actually dates back to before Efi’s reveal, way back in early January (which is a long time in Overwatch time).
This user on 4chan hypothesised that the next character wouldn’t be Doomfist, something game director Jeff Kaplan would eventually hint at. Instead, they predicted that the next character would be a female quadruped Omnic, which would be introduced to balance out the tank roster.
Her name would be Anchora, and her home base would be Numbani, the same as Efi.
Now let’s turn over to Sombra, one of the recent additions to the Overwatch roster. If you thought things were interesting before, now it goes into overdrive.
In Efi’s interview, she mentions the OR15s, an Omnic that “keeps people safe”. This has led to suggestions that the new Omnic could potentially be the new Doomfist, as “The Successor”.
This theory actually has little basis (outside of people being convinced we’re getting a Doomfist hero), and players have now turned to a sneaky reference in Sombra’s reveal trailer.
As you can see there, there is a Doomfist, a quadruped Omnic, and an obvious connection between those two, Sombra, Efi, and Numbani.
Now, in Efi’s interview, she says she’s working on something new. She also mentions that she’s going on a trip with her parents, which seems like a really strange, random tidbit to include. Could it be that something happens on the trip, which causes Efi’s new creation to join Overwatch to battle Talon?
In artwork for the game dating back to when it was still called Project Titan, we see a quadruped Omnic at the back of the group.
But wait: there’s more!
Blizzard has made some sneaky changes to the arrivals board in the spawn area on the Numbani map. Note that a number of “Remarks” have been changed, and that Sydney, Singapore and Taipei have been added to the list.
Now this at first appears to have little to do with the new hero, but it has to be more than just a coincidence that all of a sudden, just as Efi and rumours of a new character surface, the arrivals board gets updated.
Theory Summary
- Efi doesn’t appear to be the next hero.
- Rumours of a Greek hero appear dead in the water following recent revelations.
- A new quadruped Omnic, created by Efi, could be the next hero.
- This new Omnic could potentially be the Doomfist, although that appears increasingly unlikely considering the nature of the silhouette on the Doomfist poster.
- A quadruped Omnic has been sourced in Overwatch concept art dating back to the before the game was even called Overwatch.
What are your thoughts on all of this? Sound off int he comments below!