A recent Overwatch patch has made tweaks to this and that, but the most notable inclusion is Blizzard’s tribute to a brave fan who tragically died before the game launch.
On the Lijiang Tower map, there is now a reference to Hongyu Wu, a 20 year old student at Guangdong University of Technology in Guangzhou, China.
You may or may not have heard that Wu saw someone stealing a classmate’s motorcycle on campus. He then attempted to chase down the thief on his own bike, but was severely injured when the two bikes collided.
Not long afterwards, Wu died from his injuries in hospital. The alleged thief was eventually caught, and Wu was awarded a posthumous “Courageous Citizen” award for his efforts.
As for Wu’s Overwatch tribute, you can see that below. A spacesuit display can be found that includes his name and a special message.
The messages are written in Chinese. Wu’s name appears on the spacesuit, while the message above it reads ‘Heroes never die.’
Redditor czhihong reports Wu was super excited about the release of Overwatch, and would often talk with his friends about it.
For further, heartbreaking context, you can check out czhihong’s post. It includes translated messages that Wu sent to his friends about the game on the day of the incident.
It may be a small gesture, but it’s a lovely touch from Blizzard all the same that will forever immortalise a brave kid who tried to do the right thing.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.