Overwatch Anniversary Event arena maps revealed, new modes teased

With Overwatch‘s one-year birthday fast approaching, Blizzard is preparing to unleash the latest themed event on players, but we’ve been kept in the dark as to what exactly we’ll be playing come May 23.

The Overwatch Anniversary Event will reportedly add in three new arena-style maps, and perhaps even a dual-type mode unlike anything we’ve seen in Overwatch before.

Speculation is heating up about the event, which starts in less than a week, and Blizzard may just keep its hand close to its chest before the birthday celebrations officially kick into high gear.

The ever-crafty Overwatch community has been digging around the game’s latest file updates (via PVP Live), finding voice files that point to arena-based gameplay, modes, and rewards.

Perhaps the most interesting of the files is that of Athena saying, “Welcome to the Arena”. There’s also some World of Warcraft terminology thrown in for good measure, with “Challenger” and “Gladiator” files also found. They both refer to ranks in WoW.

Listen to those audio files below. What are your thoughts?

There’s also some interesting sound bites from the likes of Reinhardt, Winston and Soldier: 76.

Let the predictions begin! Could we be getting the space-themed mode and map that was alluded to in past datamining efforts?

We know for sure that the three new Arena maps are coming as part of the Anniversary event, as Blizzard actually tweeted out a teaser video of the new content.

The maps appear to be new takes or perhaps expansions of the current Dorado, Eichenwalde, and Anubis maps. Check out the teaser below.

Here’s a sneak peek at three new ARENA MAPS coming soon to our Overwatch Anniversary celebration.

The party begins May 23! ?? pic.twitter.com/umXbr0bq7k

— Overwatch (@OverwatchEU) May 18, 2017