After the big Winter Wonderland seasonal event, nobody expected Overwatch to launch into a new seasonal event so soon. The official Overwatch twitter account teased the upcoming event, which looks to be based on the Chinese New Year.
🎊 Good luck and great fortune await! 🎊 pic.twitter.com/Az6XkHScV5
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) January 19, 2017
Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival in China) typically begins in late January or early February – the first new moon of the year. Each year is dedicated to a different animal within the Chinese Zodiac 12-year cycle. As seen in the Overwatch teaser video, 2017 is the Year of the Rooster.
The ten-second teaser video doesn’t share much information other than a date: January 24 when the even kicks off. A new Mei skin is shown in the video. Mei, the scientist armed with freezing abilities, is the game’s resident Chinese hero. The Overwatch Korean twitter account shared a slightly different teaser that featured a new D.Va skin.
Previous seasonal events have added new loot boxes with themed skins, sprays, poses, etc. Several maps are often decorated to celebrate the new event. New Arcade Modes were added in the last two events as well. In 2016 Overwatch hosted three seasonal events over about six months: Summer Games (based on the Olympics), Halloween Terror, and Winter Wonderland.
