Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan sat in front of a yule log (a Christmas classic) for over ten hours on Christmas Eve this year. Well, not exactly.
A yule log is an old European tradition that was eventually carried over to America as a television program on New York station WPIX for over 30 years. As with many Christmas traditions, it may have derived from pagan rituals that were later culturally integrated into the holiday (although no one is exactly certain when & how it began).
This year, Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan played out the tradition in his own way by apparently sitting in front of a burning fireplace on a Twitch livestream for nearly ten hours. Mr. Kaplan appeared to move very little throughout the stream and not much of interest took place, although the occasional event did break the tranquil holiday peace. YouTuber SpartecusNL collected all of the clips of action (as it were) in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVuibVnkv4o&feature=youtu.be
Points of interest in the video include Jeff Kaplan eating a cookie, taking a call from a telemarketer, and getting bonked on the noggin with a boom mic. The entire stream was clearly an excellent effort of editing on the part of someone on Blizzard's video production team as the occasional morph transition into one of the many loops can be caught throughout the stream. It proved weirdly popular on Twitch, with over a thousand people watching it and racking up nearly 300,000 views so far. The stream concluded with Mr. Kaplan teasing the next hero, only for the stream to glitch out at the critical moment where he was to reveal the details. (Perhaps a certain Mexican hacker played a part in the affair?)
If for some reason you wish to tune in to the nearly 10-hour livestream, you can check out the VOD on Twitch here. Overwatch players have another surprise in store in-game with five free Winter Loot Boxes being gifted to every player, just as had happened with last year's Winter Wonderland event.
Happy Holidays from all of us at TechRaptor as well!
Did you catch the Overwatch Yule Log Featuring Jeff Kaplan Stream? What did you think of the video? Let us know in the comments below!