The newest Animated Short for Overwatch has been released and it’s focusing on everyone’s favorite defense hero Mei. This short tells the origin story of Mei, who was working as a climatologist in Antartica. After entering cryosleep, a power failure occurs that ends up killing the rest of her team, but freeing Mei 9 years later. Now alone, Mei has to not only figure out what happened, but come up with a plan to survive and eventually escape.
Like many Overwatch shorts, there are various easter eggs and references for the diehard fans. When looking through the trailer we found a few fun and interesting ones that also give us an idea of when this story actually takes place. Here’s what we found:
- Ecopoint: Perhaps the most obvious reference is actually the setting of the short itself. This is an Elimination map that was first revealed at BlizzCon 2016 and has grown to be one of the core Deathmatch style levels. In the short, we see multiple locations, including the broken tower that Mei repairs near the end of the video. Funny enough, the actual ice that Mei uses to freeze it in place is not on the in-game tower.
- The Summer Games: When Mei emerges from cryosleep at the 1:34 mark she is actually wearing a shirt with the Summer Games logo on it. This outfit is actually pulled from a special spray called “Pajamas” which was released during the Anniversary Event.
- King’s Row Omnic Riots: When Mei opens up the file on her large computer at 2:44 we are barraged with a number of different headlines. While most of them simply talk about how Overwatch disbanded, one of these papers references the Null Sector riots in King’s Row. This was another event called “Escalation” which debuted during the Anniversary Event in June. The robot on the front page is a Nulltrooper, which is one of the base infantry units.
- Mondatta: Continuing with the headlines shown off, we get a quick glimpse at a picture of two Omnics and a human on a talk show. One of them appears to be the Omnic monk and leader of the Shambali, Mondatta. Sporting roughly the exact same outfit he wore during his time in King’s Row, the only real difference is this one is yellow instead of gray. The Omnic in the photo also appears to have a golden jaw, which is the same thing that Mondatta has. For those unfamiliar with the lore, Mondatta was actually killed by Widowmaker in King’s Row during the “Alive” Animated Short.
- Winston’s Message: Another obvious reference for fans of Overwatch is the message Mei receives at the end of the video. The video features Winston pleading to the other members of Overwatch to stand up and join him. This moment takes place after Reaper attacks his facility in the “Recall” Animated Short. This lets us know that Mei’s story takes place after most of the major events, but before the assassination of Mondatta by Talon.
- Squid Icon: At 8:55 right before Mei leaves the base she decides to honor her dead co-workers by placing a mug next to their cryo-chamber. The farthest one actually features the “Happy Squid” Player Icon, only the image is actually reversed on the coffee cup.
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Overwatch Rise and Shine Animated Short Easter Eggs