New Overwatch lore character Efi Oladele sparks an interesting theory
I spider evidence.
Blizzard has revealed a new character in the Overwatch lore: 11-year-old robotics and artificial intelligence genius Efi Oladele.
She's from Numbani, has won a "genius grant" and dreams of building "something that can keep us safe". We know this from a short lore post on the Overwatch website attributed to fictional news network Atlas News.
Oladele will celebrate her win by flying away on a short trip with her parents, which sounds ominous.
Is Efi Oladele the next - the 24th - playable Overwatch hero? Remember, Doomfist probably won't be.
Unlikely. Efi Oladele is a child, a minor, and to have her be shot at would cause serious controversy for Blizzard. Could she turn up as older in the game? No. Michael Chu, lead writer, confirmed Oladele's 11-year-old age as correct in present day Overwatch.
But could Oladele be the creator behind a new Overwatch hero? It's the most promising theory I've read.
It begins with the sighting of a diagram for a four-legged spider robot in the Sombra animated short. The diagram is linked with an image of the Doomfist gauntlet.
Then in January this year there was a community post touting leaked upcoming Overwatch content. It accurately predicted the Year of the Rooster event for Chinese New Year before Blizzard announced it.
The post said the next new Overwatch hero would not be Doomfist - this also appears to now be true - but a female omnic quadruped (four legs) called Anchora. A tank from Numbani.
A tank, someone to protect the team. It tallies with Efi Oladele's dream of building "something that can keep us safe", and it obviously tallies that both Oladele and Anchora are from Numbani too.
Overwatch is in need of another tank who, like Reinhardt, can keep a team protected. Another anchor - an Anchora, perhaps.
How Efi Oladele will go from girl winning a grant, to girl being the brains behind a spidery half-machine (maybe full machine) hero, we don't know. But it would be perfect content for an Overwatch animated short, and a new season of those is expected soon. Michael Chu said recently new story content "should hopefully start to roll out in the very near future".
Other tidbits of note include 'Oladele' being recognised as a name of the Yoruba people in Africa. And in Yoruba religion, minor gods are referred to as Orisha. In the Overwatch lore post, Efi Oladele says, "Someday, my dream is to build something that can keep us safe, like the new OR15s!"
'OR15' and 'Orisha' seem too close a match to be a coincidence.
What will Efi Oladele be involved in and who will she be involved with? Will the Numbani link embroil her in Doomfist's story too? That is where the gauntlet is after all. Whatever the answers are, at least we aren't on an ARG wild goose chase, as we were with Sombra, this time.