Rebekah D. April 1, 2019
Multiple Overwatch League teams have taken part in a joke rebranding exercise celebrating April Fools’ Day.
The Chengdu Hunters, Seoul Dynasty, and Hangzhou Spark all introduced new names and logos for their teams in the early hours of the morning.
The Hangzhou Spark revealed its new name and branding on Twitter. Called “Hangzhou Seals” for the day, the team assured everyone that the organization’s beloved pink coloring would stay, but that the new logo would prominently feature seals. The team then shared a cute new graphic of the full logo and updated its Twitter profile picture to the new design.
Hangzhou wasn’t the only team to feature a joking rebrand, as around that same time on Twitter the Seoul Dynasty shared that they too would be updating in both name and logo. Seoul teamed up with Chengdu Hunters to announce that the two teams would be merging under a new name, “The Endangered”. Each of their announcement tweets also came with the hashtag “stand for wildlife”.
Their new team logo featured a roaring panda to reflect the Chengdu branding, but in the colours of the Seoul tiger. Like Hangzhou, Seoul updated its Twitter display picture with the new logo, and even thought to update its banner as well. Fans were also presented with a skin preview of what the new team’s home skins would look like on Overwatch heroes in-game.
Shanghai Dragons didn’t rebrand for April Fools’ Day, but instead released a statement that New York Excelsior DPS Dohyeon “Pine” Kim would be joining the team’s roster, sharing a picture of him in a Shanghai jersey. The twitter account was an additional one made by the team under the handle “ShanghaiDragoms” so that the news wouldn’t be taken too seriously.
Blizzard also updated Overwatch servers for the day, determined to take part in the fun. For the duration of April 1, players who choose Reinhardt will find that all of their text in chat is automatically converted to capslock, reflecting Reinhardt’s trademark enthusiasm. Some of his voice lines also appear at the end of any text typed in chat, adding more of Reinhardt’s character. “CATCHPHRASE!”