Fresh from wrapping up Overwatch‘s massive anniversary event and releasing a huge new patch on the live servers, Blizzard has fired up the old social media accounts to tease the newest Overwatch hero. And, by tease, I mean troll the living hell out of its 40 million players, because there’s no way that Hero 28 is a chipmunk in a giant mech suit, right?
Assuming for a second that we haven’t all gone completely insane, there’s something even more impressive than Blizzard’s imagination here: the fact that several Reddit sleuths correctly predicted what was going to happen, based off clues littered in some of the maps and a healthy dollop of good luck.
All we know about Hero 28, Killer Chipmunk Overlord, is what you can get from this tiny teaser video that Blizzard posted on Twitter:
The champion revealed. pic.twitter.com/0Fdpg2iBcs
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) June 28, 2018
But this isn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision for Blizzard: it seems that the developer team has been leaving clues about the chipmunk in-game for months. One particularly salient Reddit post from yesterday sums the evidence up:
Blizzard has done a great job keeping Hammond’s identity a secret, but I’ve figured it out. I’ve done it. Here is the Evidence for my later conclusion:
Emails between scientists about Hammond being in the ventilation. Hmm, similar to tubing shown on Horizon. Hammond needs to be small for that.
Emails between scientists about not caring where Hammond is/out of cage. Scientists don’t care if he’s running around, so he’s not dangerous.
Hammond’s has a cage opposed to the bed of most other specimens. (Ruling out he’s dangerous) The cage prevents him from escaping/crushed when the room door is opened/closed.
Carrots in the cage. Needs to be some creature that enjoys them.
Toy blocks have nibbles on them in Hammond’s room. What nibbles on everything?
Toy Ball strapped to Winston’s escape pod. The only way the Hammond knows how to travel: a ball.
The first teaser showing the Scrapyard champion “Wrecking Ball”
The second teaser showing how wrecking ball moves around. Similar to Hammond’s toy ball model.
My logic is solid. The evidence is undeniable. Hammond is…A HAMSTER.
Like seriously, what is the perfect name for a hamster? Hammond.
Not even that sleuthing can compare to this throwaway comment from a year ago, however, which said “Look, I’m going to say that Hammy is an Evil Hamster in a robot suit.”
