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Blizzard Entertainment is celebrating the Lunar New Year again this year with special events in multiplayer games Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm. The Year of the Dog kicks off this week and runs until March 5, adding Lunar loot boxes with unique skins and other cosmetic goodies.

The Year of the Dog is bringing over 50 new seasonal items to Overwatch, as well as bringing back items from last year’s Lunar celebration at a discounted price. There are six new legendary skins: Mercy, Pharah, Genji, Zarya, Widowmaker, and McCree.

A new custom map has also been added featuring the Capture the Flag mode that was introduced during last year’s Lunar New Year event. The map is Ayutthaya, in Thailand. It’s half classic temple design and half modern-future aesthetics.

Capture the Flag has seen some notable improvements since last year. Instead of a draw, the mode will feature Sudden Death, moving both teams closer to the flag. Flag pickup is now instant, and cannot be picked up for five seconds after being dropped. Flags return to their base after four seconds. Mobility and invulnerability skills will drop the flag. Capture the Flag will now have its own competitive mode, with placement matches, skill ratings and competitive points.

You can watch the always friendly Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan explain the new changes below.

Heroes of the Storm is also celebrating the Lunar New Year event with new skins, sprays, mounts, portraits, and more. Like Overwatch these loot boxes will only be available until March 5.

 


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Eric has been writing for over nine years with bylines at Dicebreaker, Pixelkin, Polygon, PC Gamer, Tabletop Gaming magazine, and more covering movies, TV shows, video games, tabletop games, and tech. He reviews and live streams D&D adventures every week on his YouTube channel. He also makes a mean tuna quesadilla.