By Andrew Dodson on February 23, 2018 at 8:04am
With the current competitive season winding down, the good people over at the ever-popular game "Ovewatch" have deemed it an appropriate time to start teasing the next hero to be added to the growing line-up. The tease came in the form of a tweet that detailed a now declassified mission that took place during the Omnic Crisis.
SUBJECT: After-Action Report, Operation ZX24AL, “WHITE DOME”
Strike team under the command of myself, CAPTAIN ANA AMARI, was deployed to the outskirts of Istanbul, Turkey to deal with a remaining pocket of omnic resistance. Personnel included Lieutenant Reinhardt Wilhelm, Chief Engineer Torbjorn Lindholm, and Private First Class Emre Sarioglu. After routine insertion, the team was ambushed, taking heavy fire from the entrenched omnics. While the team was able to overcome and neutralize all hostile combatants without casualties, the battle resulted in serious injuries to Lindholm and lesser injury to Lt. Wilhelm. Had it not been killed. Due to conspicuous bravery on the part of Lt. Wilhelm, I am suggesting a commendation for his actions.
So, we have an after-action report written by Ana about a mission she commanded with everybody's favorite shield-tank Reinhardt, the grumpy Swede Torbjorn and...a new name. Private First Class Emre Sarioglu. The name is of Turkish origin, which makes the popular theory right now that Hero #27 will be a male character of Turkish descent. Given that the described Operation "White Dome" took place in Istanbul (not Constantinople), it certainly adds a bit of weight to that theory. Also, if Operation White Dome took place during the Omnic Crisis, when the listed heroes were young and in their prime, it wouldn't be that far-fetched to assume that Emre will be on the older side of the Overwatch team.
With the nod toward Istanbul as a mission location, we may also be seeing that area come up as a new map along with the new hero. It may come to us first as an event map with set characters (Ana, Reinhardt, Torbjorn and Emre), following the intense events of Operation White-Dome.
There's no release date yet with this tease, but the developers have been working on Hero #27 for a while with the first hint of his existence earlier this year in a dev update. If "Overwatch" follows it's typical strategy with new heroes, we can probably expect a few more teases before the big release....or they'll just throw the hero into PTR one day and surprise everyone.
