In a move that probably very few people expected, Overwatch has announced a Year of the Dog Puppy Rumble via the game's official Twitter account.
At the moment, the Overwatch League is on a weeklong hiatus following the conclusion of the inaugural season's Stage 1 title matches. It's giving fans and players alike a much-needed hiatus in order to catch up on VODs, practice on the new patch, and decompress following five solid weeks of high-level professional action in the game. In an unexpected move, Blizzard Entertainment is going to get in one special event prior to the beginning of Stage 2: The Year of the Dog Puppy Rumble. Take a look at the video in the tweet below for a preview of what's in store.
https://twitter.com/PlayOverwatch/status/964937496583749633
To be absolutely clear, this is not an in-game event: actual dogs will be donning Overwatch-themed costumes and presumably playing some kind of game in a specially-made arena (perhaps at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles County.) Those of you who may have been hoping for additional in-game puppies following the introduction of Orisa's emote last year will have to wait a bit longer, it seems.
Now it comes down to the matter of what exactly the Year of the Dog Puppy Rumble will be. At a glance, one's instincts bring up images of Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl, a yearly event that runs alongside the Super Bowl. The Puppy Bowl involves a bunch of cute dogs running about a miniature football field trying to take toys into the end zone. In the above Twitter video, we see a bunch of pups being outfitted with costumes reminiscent of the game's characters like Junkrat, D.Va, and McCree.
As the current Year of the Dog event centers around Capture the Flag, we may see something similar for this upcoming Overwatch event. (Whether or not we'll see a bunch of pigs running around for next year's change of the Chinese Zodiac is a question I'd love to see the answer to.) If it sounds like the kind of thing you'd like to tune into, you can catch it live on twitch.tv/playoverwatch on Monday, February 19, 2018, at 6:00 PM Eastern Time.
What do you think of the Overwatch Year of the Dog Puppy Bowl? What do you think the event will entail? Let us know in the comments below!