A professional Overwatch League team, the New York Excelsior, have come up with quite the interesting skin idea for Sombra — a new “Hack the Rich” version of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Met Gala dress.
Normally, Overwatch skin concepts come from fans and random surges of inspiration. This one is different on both fronts; it’s an idea thrown to the internet by an actual OWL team and its inspiration is very, very specific.
The Met Gala was full of interesting looks, including a Kim Kardashian fit that has been compared to Call of Duty: Warzone’s Roze Operator. But NYXL found their inspo in Congresswoman AOC.
Her Met Gala outfit itself was pretty controversial (although it didn’t get as much backlash as Addison Rae and Dixie D’Amelio’s looks), but, somehow, it kind of fits Sombra’s hacking, saboteur energy.
The medium is the message. pic.twitter.com/b4Ssr6HkYR
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) September 14, 2021
As you can see from AOC’s tweet, she wore a white dress with red paint splashing “tax the rich” along the back. Her caption reads “the medium is the message” (a reference to Marshall McLuhan’s work) and the message, given text and context, seems to be a disruption of the bourgeoisie.
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Well, that all vibes with Sombra, whose in-game lore paints her as a hacker committed to helping the poor via digital espionage to disrupt and unseat the powerful.
So, while Overwatch’s hacker typically prefers pants, putting her in a dress with anti-elite messaging actually doesn’t feel too odd — especially with the minor tweak NYXL opted for.
Who wore it best? pic.twitter.com/rhrUdyYjBH
— NY Excelsior (@NYExcelsior) September 22, 2021
The Sombra version of AOC’s dress features “hack the rich” in bright letters. She does have ties to Talon and Los Muertos, after all, so stealing from the rich is most certainly closer to her wheelhouse than hoping for new tax brackets.
It’s unlikely the skin ever actually makes it into Overwatch, but the idea is a fun one anyway. Although some replies to the NYXL tweet are annoyed; some thought it was funny and others are simply off imagining how a “democratic socialist Sombra” could fit into Overwatch 2’s lore.