Overwatch's Doomfist Teased Again, PTR Launch Soon?

Doomfist, a much anticipated character withinOverwatch’s lore, has finally been directly teased by Blizzard. An in-world news post was published as if by the Times of Numbani Staff title, “Talon Involvement Confirmed in Previous Attack On Helix Facility.” The post refers to a Talon incursion whose objective was to set free a certain prisoner. That’s right, Doomfist, also known as Akande Ogunimu, is free and working with Talon.

The news gets better when considering the release schedule ofOverwatch’s last major character, Orisa. Orisa was teased in a similar news post by Blizzard – an admittedly mysterious post regarding a young girl which would be revealed to be Orisa’s creator. Orisa would hitOverwatch’s public testing server not too long after. If history is bound to repeat, Doomfist could be available for testing as soon as early next week, so watch for that July 11 update.

One might think that perhaps Blizzard is throwingOverwatchfans for a loop by teasing Doomfist, but planning another event or character release. After all, Doomfist has been an ever-present tease since the game launched. Yet there’s more evidence that it’s Doomfist himself coming next. An eagle eyed file diver going through the last PTR patch found references to the current version of the game in crash logs a week ago. The version’s name: “1.13.0.0 Doomfist/Summer Games.” Just for reference, the current game version is 1.12.0.2.37636.

More worldlyOverwatchfans have been able to give some background to Doomfist based on the bit of info Blizzard’s shared so far. Doomfist’s actual name of Akande Ogunimu likely originates from the Yoruba people commonly native to Nigeria. Akande Ogunimu translates to First Son, which has some interesting ramifications of its own. There’s an interesting trait to the Yoruba people, in that they have a staggeringly high twin birth rate, almost 1/10 live births are a twin. CouldOverwatch’s First Son have a First Daughter sister?

There’s also another interesting bit of detail worth mentioning regarding Doomfist. Doomfist has been previously revealed to be an inherited title with at least three different individuals carrying the name. Banners outside of aDoomfist museum exhibitread off the additional titles of: The Savior, The Scourge, and The Successor. It’s assumed that Akande is The Successor, the only Doomfist without their name listed, but as mentioned earlier, Blizzard loves throwing players for a loop. Luckily, we’re likely to find out more information soon.

Overwatchis available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.