Overwatch Anniversary event brings returning modes, legendary skins

Blizzard has announced the start date for the next seasonal event for Overwatch, along with the first of the new upcoming legendary skins.

The event celebrates the birthday of the game and is aptly named Overwatch Anniversary 2019.

The starting date of May 21 was announced across social media on Saturday with a short six-second video featuring the phrase “You’re invited!” As with previous Anniversary events, players can expect to see the return of all seasonal game modes as hinted by the rotating color schemes and artwork seen in the invitation.

With the event set to begin soon, the first legendary skin has also been revealed by the PlayOverwatch social media accounts. Titled “Academy D.Va,” this legendary skin was first hinted at by Overwatch lead developer Jeff Kaplan during the most recent developer update as a skin that would “break the internet.”

At first glance, the Academy D.Va skin looks like a typical school girl outfit. The hero is seen in a uniform, glasses, and with braided hair. Her mech is covered in pink tones, reflecting D.Va’s base color scheme. However, fans of the classic anime Evangalion may be able to spot some more specific design inspiration.

Looking at the top of D.Va’s mech Tokki, there is a metallic feature that looks like a head and isn’t part of the standard hero silhouette, and is instead reminiscent of the Eva mechs shown in the Evangalion anime. Other similarities can be drawn between the idea of a school student saving the world by piloting a mech, and the look of character Mari Makinami, complete with check skirt, glasses, bunches, and a pink and gold mech.

As of May 24, the team-based shooter will be three years old. The anniversary event has always been released as close to this date as the update schedule allows, but fans had begun to wonder if the event would be delayed in 2019 due to a lack of an earlier announcement. Instead, Blizzard simply announced the event later than usual, just three days before the start of the event.