It took me 4 years to realize this and ask myself, why is lucio in the rio mission with tracer, rein and mei? in the lore of the game he is just a dj who fights to deffend rio from vishkar, why reinhard or tracer or anyone in ow would know him and make him part of the new ow? in the trailers and demos we have seen of the rio mission he acts like he is friend with everyone since the first overwatch, why he have so much importance?
Lucio is a worldwide celebrity, and in Orisa’s book it is perceived that he had a strong notoriety as an activist as well as a DJ. I think it is natural that they meet with the common goal of countering terrorism. Perhaps in the gameplay it will be a little more natural to see how their relationships connect rather than relying only on what little we saw at blizzcon 2019. It reminds me of the same approach of StarCraft 2, where the traveling companions join the protagonists as the gamer continues in the chapters of the story. it’s fantastic and allows you to travel around the world with PVE solving new situations and contextualizing them.
it’s also one of the reasons why I don’t really like what they did with Baptiste, Zarya and D.Va with New Blood: these three characters are completely unrelated to Overwatch, and would have been perfect to introduce them in a PVE that sees them protagonists to be convinced in an adventure to volskaya industries or Busan just like it will be for Lucio in Rio, Torbjorn in Gothenburg or much more likely Orisa in Numbani in the near future. It seems to me that with New Blood they skipped multiple methods to include more PVE adventures for South Korea or Russia. I’m less disappointed that Cassidy and Pharah joined Overwatch almost immediately considering their ties to Ana or the task force.
Including Lucio in this way is a bit like having recruited Zarya AND D.Va who are also known for their actions in defense of their country. Except that in the case of the latter two they did it through a comic, and it was really a wasted opportunity to expand the lore on Volskaya or the MEKA team much better directly in the gameplay, and not in an extremely hasty comic. On baptiste I vaguely like the comparison with Cassidy about the turbulent past, but maybe it was better to include him in a PVE mission against Talon instead of in a train station fighting against … scribbles. it’s terrible the way they draw the talon soldiers in that comic saga, we’re a long way from the days when there were decently drawn talon soldiers storming a train in Houston (Cassidy’s first comic).
lucio being a celebrity doesnt mean he has to be close to tracer or winston or reinhard to be considered to be part of the new ow, for the few things we have seen he looks like is very close to everyone from the old ow, like even winston make him part of the recall. i havent read the orisa book but somebody told me in the book he says he is going to present orisa to the new ow, wich again, why he knows ow good enough to recruit members?
i think there is a big part of the lore blizzard just skipped, lucio, did he even have a short story or video? he fights against vishkar in rio and the first story mission is set in rio, ok that makes sense he is part of the story mission, but why he is part of the story mission? where is the new blood comic of his recruit because he is famous and is a freedom fighter? maybe not recruited by mcree but tracer
dva and batiste makes some sense they were recruited, dva is part of an elite military group and is equally as famous as lucio, at least in korea, and batiste he have some story with old ow members and talon, now zarya, i dont know, she is bodyguard of the most important woman in russia, thats enough? (parentesis, remember how important was for the lore sombra blackmailing zarya and katya in the first year of ow?, yeah that went to nowhere, and sombra conspiracy?) ana was the onw who told mcree who recruit, so maybe she already was investigating people with potential
of course pharah was the first and most obvious new person to be recruited for ow, my problem is that her reunion with ana deserved more than just a comic with the stupid mcree involved, this should be an important moment for pharah and ana alone
we all know blizzard only dissapoints and the story will go nowhere, it took 7 years to continue the story past the recall wich was the first stupid or second stupid animated short they relased, ow will be death before we even get new story missions besides the 3 of season 6, was maybe can get some short stories and comics because the anime was another dissapointement and blizzard animated shorts never go forward
Ok, but as I said before… I have no idea how they first come into contact with Lucio and why of all parts of the world just Rio. we honestly just have to wait for the pve and know if there are any developments on the first contact with the new overwatch following their intervention in Paris in Zero Hour. we just have to wait for season 6 to get a real idea.
I honestly don’t see as much confidence with tracer / rein as you allude to, or at least it’s no different than the one created between orisa and lucio in the book (and they fight together against Doomfist) simply based on the fact that Lucio is an activist as well as a DJ. and it can hardly be said that it can be understood in very short pieces of Blizzcon that will probably be changed in multiple details today.
…
do you really need to explain that those little “genesis” videos are made for new audiences who don’t know anything about the lore instead of us veterans who remember that there were official OW1 articles in 2016 that explain it 
? Nowadays, if someone wants an explanation of the lore, they are practically forced to consult the old wikias, I don’t find anything wrong with giving more current reference ids for those who have arrived now.
That they then wasted that “2” in the title and in fact I obviously agree with you but… always the season 6 with its PVE in hand we have to judge, not now with a season 5 that begs to finish as soon as possible.
and as i saud before, blizzard just skipped lucio lore, i dont think the pve will explain anything of why lucio is with ow, or what happened between paris and the story missions, everyone was in paris and sudenly they were around the world, or wtf happened to talon, reaper, doom, widow, werent they the main threat in the ow world? or why ana isnt back with the new ow? ughghghghg so much potential wasted, no more pve until maybe never
the lore of the game was always on external sources, if you were a new player in ow1 you still need to investigate if you want to know whats up with the game, new players in ow2 dont need to investigate a lot, there is barely any new lore since 2019 to date