Overwatch "Year of the Rooster" teaser leaks out [Updated]

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The video features Mei, Mercy, Symmetra, and other heroes.

Update: Via Reddit, a teaser featuring Mei, Mercy, Symmetra, and others has appeared on Chinese social media site Weibo. It's still not official, but it's getting there.

Original story: 

The upcoming Overwatch seasonal event "Year of the Rooster" is due on January 24, and we may have just gotten a sneak peek at some of the new legendary hero skins. According to an allegedly leaked advertisement for the event, a quartet of skins are coming modeled after characters from the Chinese folk tale Journey to the West.

The image was posted by Redditor hythl0day, who says a Chinese player "accidentally found an ad about the 'free week' event of OW in China." Apparently, the text on the poster translates to: "Journey to the West limited skins. Year of the Rooster, free trial: January 24 - January 31."

The four skins depict characters from the famous Chinese novel, which has seen adaptations in everything from Dragon Ball to the video game Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Zenyatta's skin is the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, also referred to as Tang Sanzang or, in some English translations, Tripitaka, while the three tank heroes are dressed as the monk's three disciples: Winston is Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, Roadhog is the pig monster Zhu Bajie, and Reinhardt is Sha Wujing, a sand monster that terrorized a river. 

We don't have any hard proof that the ad is real, so it's entirely possible these skins don't end up making it to the game. Having said that, the character design is high enough quality to suggest some credence. We'll find out either way when the event launches on January 24.

Bo Moore
Bo Moore

As the former head of PC Gamer's hardware coverage, Bo was in charge of helping readers better understand and use PC hardware. He also headed up the buying guides, picking the best peripherals and components to spend your hard-earned money on. He can usually be found playing Overwatch, Apex Legends, or more likely, with his cats. He is now IGN's resident tech editor and PC hardware expert.