Overwatch Year of the Ox event is launching on February 4

Overwatch has announced via Twitter that the new Lunar New Year event for 2021, the Year of the Ox, will launch on February 4 on consoles and PC. 

Debuting a new D.Va highlight intro, Overwatch has revealed the dates for the Year of the Ox. The event starts on February 4 and ends on February 25. Typically, events like this introduce new skins, highlight intros, emotes, player icons, and sprays. 

Over the next few days leading up to the event, Overwatch will most likely reveal more new content as they have with events past. Overwatch’s Twitter account will release one new skin or exciting new content each day leading up to the event. With the announcement being made today, D.Va was the first teased with a new highlight intro. It shows D.Va popping out of her mech as in her ultimate, and instead of her mech exploding like a bomb, the whole thing turns into a fireworks display in the sky. 

What new content is coming to Overwatch Lunar New Year 2021?

The Overwatch website hasn’t updated to the Year of the Ox yet, but fans can typically expect the same new content that was brought to the game last year for Year of the Rat. The Lunar New Year themed skins are always among the most anticipated cosmetics that are added, and developers typically add 5-8 new skins for each event. Last year, the Lunar New Year event saw seven new skins, two new emotes, and one new highlight intro. 

As always, new things added to the game will cost 3,000 coins, but older event-specific additions will be cheaper. Some things will also only be unlocked via weekly challenges. Overwatch has been implementing the weekly challengs as a way for players to earn new skins instead of having to get lucky and get them out of loot boxes. Each week players can earn skins, emotes, and sprays by winning three, six, and nine games, respectively. The ninth win usually unlocks a particularly desirable skin that is not obtainable any other way until the following year where they can be purchased with points. 

What games modes are in Overwatch Lunar New Year?

Lunar New Year used to be the only event where players could play the Capture the Flag game mode, but players liked it so much that it was added to the rotation for weekly arcade game modes. Last year, Capture the Flag Blitz was added where teams are pitted much closer together and six captures are needed to win instead of the typical three.

In the past, a competitive Capture the Flag mode was also added in the arcade section of the game. The competitive mode of Capture the Flag game mode was added in 2018 and will likely be available to play again this year. The mode still requires a series of ten placement matches to determing skill ranking, and players can receive up to four competitive points for each match they win. Because there are no draw outcomes in the game mode, winning is the only way to get competitive points.