So Blizzard dished out the news about Wuyang’s official launch in Overwatch 2, Season 18, sometime next week. And to be honest: the reaction has been nuts. The players aren’t just excited; they’ve churned out tons of beautiful fanart, montages, and sculptures of this new character. Blizzard is begging for all of it, so that’s cool.
For a while now, Wuyang has been teased, so finally having a concrete timeline is a big deal for Overwatch–making it-out-to-be-wonderful-or-big-thing-on-the-entire-front-how-ever-ever. Well, Season 18 is looking to be one of the most anticipated updates in recent times because everything is about this one character. But then really, who is Wuyang? From the tiny piece of information given, he screams some heavy aquatic feelings, hence the water emoji in the tweet, and already players are differentiating him from existing heroes with fresh new ideas.
It’s overwhelming at this point. Lee Koii_ shouted, “I LOVE WUYANG OVERWATCH SO MUCH!!!” while posting some art. Amen to that. Then there is rxsselin who declared they have been making fan art since June: “The hype is real!!! 🤩🌊 can’t wait for S18!”
Making progress has crept to the realm of sculpture beyond digital art; User kum0cloud said: “I’m working on a handmade sculpture of him. I could share it?” Next-level fun. Mm-hm, Gianna_Draws simply said, “orb be upon ye” along with some art description-mood.
Of course, critical mentions do pop up. “and remove brasil server when ? , latam deserves another server than this dk bullshit,” lost user patgames, um, server discussions are completely different subject matter, but wanted to refocus on Wuyang hype for a moment? Anubirai then said, “Until he arrives in Stadium he’s worthless.” Pretty damn harsh; well, everybody has their old-school five cents to throw in.
Looking at what fans can create is really nice. There are Twitch overlays courtesy of cnidaria_smc, whom users were like, “Ooooo, where’d you find this?” and montages by yeehns who stated: “i only have this wuyang montage !!!” It’s like a massive crashing wave of art over the fandom.
The reply section is loaded with great humor. For instance, user Linanry went on, “Tell us all about her identity, we need something spicy, the trans fad is so 2024,” which is… an opinion, but it just shows interest and genuine curiosity about the character’s background. There are also times an “worse” was thrown in the reply chain around, community dynamics in full effect, lol.
Then, behind the jokes and the art, becomes a real excitement void. Yuneim210 expressed, “LOVE HIM!! I CAN’T WAIT TILL SEASON 18🥹💧💧💧,” which was quite the sight to witness. The countdown is on, and people are filling their calendars with nothing but anticipation to dive into Season 18 and grab Wuyang.
Blizzard gets the marketing axe here; not only is the new character’s release being promoted, but a community is being forged whilst channelling creativity with the encouragement of the fans to share their own interpretation. That would build hype and keep the players invested in the game’s ecosystem. Well, the result is indeed A-OK not bad.
One thing is for sure with next week fast approaching: Wuyang, far beyond being a mere fresh name on the roster, is already morphing into a communal cornerstone of Overwatch society. There is an ocean of art, serious discussions, and, yes, a whole lot of cliché, but is all this worth it? Time will tell, but for now, the riders of this wave are loving every bit of it.
If you have not started putting pencil to paper, time is up; Blizzard wants to see; your art might be the next craze. Hurry, Season 18!
