I think everyone here is desperate for new content and I thought of making this thread to analyze what we already know over what’s coming to HotS. We are all desperate for this endless winter to end and start a new page of new fresh content, maybe even a hero too.
If you do not want to get spoiled or at least know what is coming and let the element of surprise kick in place, then please by all means leave this thread and probably mute it to hide it from the main page.
Keep in mind that all of this can fall under theories and not 100% facts!
Otherwise keep reading if you want to know.
Before we start I need to highlight few things:
- The analysis goes around content that was either officially posted by Blizzard or files that were discovered (aka leaks and datamined).
- This is all theory crafting and not 100% factual, all of this can be subject of change if the developers requires (eeehh…) another post pone or time.
- All of these dates all the way from CraftWars 2020 patch from last year, whether it could be from much earlier such as 2019 is unknown.
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Back in CraftWars there was some interesting content posted, cool skins, awesome themes and so much more. However there was also 2 new events that were nicknamed the following in the game files:
- classic21
- owc20 (OverWatch Cosplay)
Now this is not something new really for example CraftWars was nicknamed “craft20” and Calduem Complex was nicknamed “scifi19” and even small mini skin events all the way back in 2018 such as Raiders of Warchrome were nicknamed “madaxe18”.
So back in CraftWars a lot of stuff was added on top of some behind the scene, which includes skins that are also accessible in vs AI (and yes they are just tint variation of already defined and released skins), the most important thing that stands out is the textures that were released which were emoji packages that showcases a lot of relevance to both event nicknames mentions above.
If you want to have a look you can check out this reddit post by /u/WorstMedivhKR
Although ironically posted on April 1st all of the content shown has been known since CraftWars patch, (slightly off topic) speaking of April 1st, the April fools patch that was posted here 4 weeks by me and few others was based around these datamined content (no, Blackthorne is still not happening that was made up).
Now that we put all of this into mind.
As shown in the reddit post there’s a lot of diverse emojis that depict different heroes cosplaying other heroes from Overwatch which have similar designs including silhouette to some extent.
Additionally during Blizzconline the Blizzard Arcade Collection was announced fuel the idea that “classic21” might happen real soon in celebration of the anniversary later this year.
There was also a gallery hosted, for each game that showcases art content and HotS had its fair share of content to showcase they made over the years, from HotS keyart to Orphea and much much more from other events, each image had also a small description and explanation over its history however the last image as shown below was never seen before and had no detailed description explanation when it comes to its history, yet it was added there.
Image above shows heroes cosplaying as Overwatch heroes, from left to right, Raynor as Soldier 76, Stitches as Roadhog, Johanna as Reinhardt and Valla as Reaper.
Considering the previous content of emojis and this image mysteriously popping into the gallery, it can be assumed that this is all relevant to the “owc20” event nickname that was found upon through datamining reasons.
That is all we know now (and hopefully I didn’t miss anything through writing all of this).
On a side note, some thoughts on my mind that I may have got the idea what is the upcoming event:
While it’s also Blizzard’s 30th Anniversary this year its also Overwatch 5th anniversary in 4 weeks, could it possibly mean that in 4 weeks from now the next event is Overwatch related in celebration of Overwatch 5th anniversary? Or we might probably also get it with the classic event at the same time, additionally we also haven’t seen any hero released and a hero related inside one of these events is also a possibility, BUT what it would be remain a mystery or the fact that a hero might get released with one of the events at all.
What do you think from all of this? We are clearly getting close to an actual event despite this long Christmas.