The Mysterious PachiMarchi Overwatch Event Has Players Puzzled
What do you get when you mix an onion with an octopus? Well, in the weird world of Overwatch, you get PachiMari - the game's unofficial mascot. While many just see PachiMari as a way to shift merchandise (to be honest, we're sold), they've popped up in plenty of Overwatch lore and fan fiction. The problem with a pun-filled Overwatch PachiMarchi event, is that no one outside the secretive doors of Blizzard Entertainment seems to know exactly what it is or what it's supposed to achieve.
With BlizzCon 2021 having just wrapped, there was plenty of news on what's next for Diablo and World of Warcraft, as well as a tease of the eventual release of Overwatch 2. Since Overwatch 2 was first announced at BlizzCon 2019, there's been plenty of hype for the next entry in the franchise. Unfortunately, PachiMari spreading its tentacles across the map isn't exactly the Overwatch 2 tease we were asking for in the aftermath of an underwhelming BlizzCon on the news front.
What is the Overwatch PachiMarchi event?
So far, a trailer for the Overwatch PachiMarchi event has simply filled the map with hundreds of bouncing version of this little bundle of joy. Is Overwatch about to be overrun by PachiMari, and we'll have to tear through them like waves of Xenomorphs in the Alien movies? Typically, Overwatch events throw limited-time content into the mix with two weeks of themed challenges and rewards. Even if Blizzard isn't lifting the lid on what PachiMarchi has planned, we're expecting all the usual themed skins, icons, emotes, voice lines, and sprays. You can normally earn and unlock these through loot boxes, levelling up, or buying through the online store.
From March 9 to 22, the PachiMarchi event is an adorable addition to Overwatch, and importantly, is the first event to ever be focussed on a non-playable character. The trailer simply showed a tonne of PachiMaris raining from the sky. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs anyone? Blizzard did expand on what you can expect in the Overwatch forums, there will be six PachiMari-themed sprays you'll be able to unlock by launching Overwatch during the event. Unlike previous events, you won't be able to earn them through Twitch, meaning you'll actually have to log in.
What else do we know about the PachiMarchi event?
Although Blizzard hasn't revealed what these community-created skins will be, it's been on the assault by retweeting fan art since the PachiMarchi Overwatch event was first announced. It's likely that at least some of these will be coming in the drop. Aside from PachiMari emotes and character icons in-game, it will be interesting to see how the devs add the odd mascot to the game this time around. Remembering the Kanezaka Challenge included an Epic skin for Hanzo, we're hoping one of the other heroes could get a remodel passed on the occult octopus.
PachiMari has been part of Overwatch since 2016, and came from the need to have toys in the Hanamura map spawn room's crane machines. Concept artist David Kang created PachiMari and used the Korean word for onion ("pa") to help come up with the name. Since then, PachiMari has become the de facto Pikachu of Blizzard's hero shooter. With it looking increasingly likely that Overwatch 2 won't release in 2021, it'll take more than distracting us with the adorable PachiMari before we'll forget that fact. Either way, get ready for this "sizzlin' cephalopod showdown".
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