So, about new Antertica map

what “lore” would be added? Or rather, apart from specifying the tools they used for research, where would be the “buff” on Mei’s lore? :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile:

The fact that Overwatch did send a rescue team to try to find the scientists?

We know they tried to send an SOS - but it gives us more questions than answers.

Did someone rescued the rescuers? What is that big anomaly? Did something specific cause the storm that trapped Mei and her team in the first place?

There was some interview of Dion Rogers about Antarctica :

we wanted to build a space where her teammates and her scientist friends were doing during the time when they were trying to figure out the superstorm and what was this anomaly? Antarctica is actually a big part of the lore moved forth in Overwatch. Antarctica plays a large part in that storyline so we needed to revisit it in some ways to help continue the story of Overwatch.

Blizzplanet: We know that there’s a hint of a story arc in Overwatch about climate changes, anomalies, and so on. And what kind of anomalies were found by Overwatch on Ecopoint Antarctica? Earthquakes, biological threats, or maybe aliens as Mei suspect?

Dion: They don’t know what it is yet, but that’s what the story were telling with Antarctica, you’ll get more hints if you keep exploring the map. There’s little pockets of what it might be, but it’s more likely an energy-based anomaly. There’s some sort of energy that’s coming, that makes them not understand, they believe this is what caused the superstorm that trapped them in the Ecopoint, but obviously, you wouldn’t want something like that to happen again because we lost lives and then the rescue team even needs to be rescued. You know, that the Icebreaker ship that stuck. That was the rescue. Team comes to rescue them. So now the rescue team needs to be rescued, so they want to solve what caused this superstorm and it does play a role in the lore of Overwatch.

I still believer that it’s the secret Omnium Ramattra reactivated that caused that “energy-based anomaly” - but that doesn’t explain what happened to the rescuers…

Guess we’ll find out Soon™ :upside_down_face:

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I swear to god, if they manage to link this mysterious energy form back to the Iris and go full bore into ‘It was magic the whole time!’ I’m actually just going to throw my computer out the window.

Great minds must think alike, because this is a pet theory I’ve been nursing since Rise and shine came out.

well, that the rescuers had had a problem intervening it could be assumed that it was due to the weather conditions. and so far I agree. but on the anomaly… I think this will be more of a lore that will be explored rather than told by the map itself as happened in the past. :thinking:

Yeah, but like… is the map set up in the past? They didn’t stay there for 9 years just like Mei in cryostase, right?.. RIGHT?

Oh god, please, let it be anything but the “it was magic the whole time thing”… it’s the laziest thing ever to do in a sci-fi universe (yes, i’m still kinda mad with Kiriko’s lore - even if I like her gameplay very much) … if I wanted magic, I just would have stayed on World of Warcraft.

I’ve always speculated about what was in Antarctica and why scientists shouldn’t go look into it. That the ecopoint was maybe sabotaged from the outside, and that something (or someone) prevented a rescue mission.

But ever since since the Reflection lore short came out - with the description of the Omnium location (rock and ice and all that), yup, it’s the first theory that can be supported fully with lore bites.

When Overwatch 2 was announced, my big question was "where do all those new warships and war bots come from? How can no one notice they were built??? "

And my best two options were Antarctica and the Moon. (well, with Lucheng and some short story about it that is going to be released this year, maybe I wasn’t too far off the truth…)

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Yeah, it makes the most sense in my opinion. It’s described as a massive energy source of unknown origin, and given that the core of any omnium is some kind of nuclear reactor, it seemed the most plausible. Especially since an omnium built by omnics would have no need for something like, say, radiation shields that might contain that signature.

If I was working on the narrative team, you could bet your bottom dollar I would 100% be stealing that once scene from the new Star Wars film where all the star destroyers come up out from under the ice and substituting the flying fortress factories. You couldn’t ask for a more badass introduction to illustrate how threatening Null Sector has become in a single shot.

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