An Overwatch Fan Predicted the Wrecking Ball Twist A Year in Advance

Blizzard threw a curveball with the latest Overwatch hero, but a handful of fans had already predicted the twist.

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hero to be added to Overwatch will be Wrecking Ball, a spherical battle-mech piloted by Hammond the hamster.

Hammond’s name was first mentioned as a subject at Horizon Lunar Colony over a year ago, and while it comes as little surprise that he’d eventually make his way into the game as a hero, the details of his character weren’t anticipated by most.

The prevailing theory for Hammond was that he, like Winston and the other gorillas of Horizon, was a primate of some sort. It had been revealed that he was smaller than the others, and a brief glimpse of a chimpanzee had been seen, and so it was assumed that Hammond was either said chimp or another, smaller primate.

• Read more: Jeff Kaplan Reveals Blizzard Is Still Actively Working on Overwatch’s “Looking for Group” Based on Feedback

The eventual twist, of course, was that Hammond isn’t a primate at all. Instead, he’s a hamster, who had also undergone genetic therapy at the Horizon Lunar Colony. This made him bigger and smarter, although still unable to talk – that would be ridiculous.

With the reveal of Wrecking Ball, the spherical mech piloted by Hammond, Blizzard caught the vast majority of fans off guard. One player, however, managed to predict the hero a whole year in advance.

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• Read more: Blizzard Announces Details of New Overwatch Hero “Wrecking Ball”

The prediction came with the very first reveal of Hammond over a year ago, when new details about Horizon Lunar Colony came to light alongside the release of the map set in the base. At the time there was heavy speculation that Hammond was to be the game’s next hero, but while Blizzard obviously had plans for Hammond, it’s only now that he’s appearing in-game.

While u/TheDumplingz’ prediction was amazingly prescient, it was also a complete shot in the dark at the time. On the basis of more recent evidence, however, another redditor, u/stmaurer, also put together a compelling case for the hamster twist before it was revealed – even if it was perhaps intended to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek at the time.

Wrecking Ball’s full backstory was explained by Jeff Kaplan in the latest developer update, and players can try him out right now on the Overwatch PTR.