Blizzard seems to have released the first clue for this year’s Archives 2019 event on Sunday, April 7, and it looks like the Overwatch team could be headed to the Caribbean.
Archives is an Overwatch seasonal event that gives players a PvE mission based on Overwatch lore, like Uprising from 2017 and Retribution in 2018.
On Sunday Overwatch tweeted out a link to a fictitious newspaper story from Havana, Cuba, which could be a hint for the next new PvE mode’s setting.
What’s the newspaper say?
The story has to do with a family who were forced to sell their small rum distillery to an “anonymous financial group” – we’re not naming any names, but this seems like it has “Talon” written all over it.
Besides the distillery, the story also mentions the historic Havana Sea Fort as also being purchased by the same anonymous financial group and turned into private property.
There’s also a story about a hurricane about to hit Cuba after the main feature on Don Rumbotico, so the Archives missions could take place during a crazy storm.
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Overwatch doesn’t have a Havana map yet, so Blizzard could be teasing an entire new map for players as part of the event as well.
https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/news/22940239?blzcmp=app
What does it all mean?
The stories definitely set the stage for more hints and reveals in the days leading up to the beginning of the event, which according to leaks should begin on Tuesday, April 16.
We still don’t have any idea what kind of map “Havana” will be; it mentions multiple locations, like the distillery and Sea Fort, that could indicate a King of the Hill map set, but if we look at previous Archives events, they’ve used longer hybrid/escort maps like Rialto and King’s row to make the PvE missions.
Cuba is an interesting choice, and it fits with Overwatch’s newest hero, Baptiste, who is from Haiti. Cuba and Haiti are different countries, obviously, but they’re both on islands in the Caribbean.
New Overwatch maps are usually released about every four months, in between new hero releases, but it seems like Blizzard may be giving Overwatch players an extra map to celebrate this year’s Archives event.