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Is The Next Overwatch Hero A Giant Robot Spider?
The internet is abuzz with rumors, theories, speculation, and conjecture after yesterday's reveal of Efi Oladele. What character could this mean? It's not likely that Blizzard will send an 11-year old girl into the heat of battle, so many current theories are guessing that it's a robot of her creation, or even that she'll pilot drones or mechs from the safety of the loadout zone (or off the map entirely).
As with the elaborate Sombra reveal, every possibility is being explored on the deepest corners of the internet and especially on the highly active Overwatch subreddit. Everything from Efi being some distant relative of Doomfist (Really he's still got to be the next hero coming, right, right?!) to being the creator of yes, a giant robot omnic character that also happened to grace some concept artwork that Jeff Kaplan stood in front of today at today's D.I.C.E. Summit. The same crazy spider thing also showed up very briefly in a Sombra video. Kaplan was quick to point out that "that character isn't who we think it is" but who knows what that means.
But really, one of the main origins being touted that the next hero is a giant spider omnic that's of Oladele's creation is an alleged 4chan post from last month. 4chan has been home to many significant video game leaks in its history, but it also houses plenty of Anons that are just looking to stir the pot betwixt piping plates of tendies that Mom brings them between troll posts. The post describes the next hero as a "female omnic quadraped codenamed 'Anchora'." Some Overwatch fans are lending increased weight to this particular rumor, as the same post seems to have previously correctly predicted some other future Overwatch elements, such as the Lunar Festival event.
Our Take
There are a lot of other potential spoilers and rumors floating around at the moment, so it will be interesting to see what comes true and what doesn't as we lead up to Overwatch's next big hero reveal. It's certainly possible that none of the rumored identities will turn out to be real, or that some small shred turns out to be part of the truth. Whatever the case, it's clear that Blizzard has its fans buzzing over the potential reveal, and the studio is happy to let the rumor cauldron bubble for a while longer before revealing the truth.
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