Overwatch's Lunar New Year Event Begins, All The Details Confirmed

Blizzard recently announced a Lunar New Year event for Overwatch but provided no details about what it would consist of. A series of leaks have revealed many of the specifics, and now, with the event live on all platforms, Blizzard has fully unveiled everything it features.

Most notably, this event introduces a new Capture the Flag-style mode as a Brawl called Capture the Rooster. This is played out on an updated version of Lijiang Tower (pictured below) and forces players to "get creative with their team compositions as they attempt construct a lineup that's simultaneously built for offensive speed and defensive stability." Blizzard doesn't intend to add it to the Quick Play or Competitive rotation, at least currently.

As with previous events, standard Loot Boxes have been replaced with new ones. Lunar Loot Boxes come with a variety of new items, but these packages will only be available for a limited time. You'll be able to keep and continue using anything you earn between now February 13. They can be earned or purchased like standard Loot Boxes and are guaranteed to include at least one of the new set of items, including skins, icons, sprays, emotes, highlight intros, victory poses, and more. You can see all of the new skins here.

Coinciding with the event and holiday, Blizzard has put together a version of a classic Chinese story starring Winston. You can check out Winston's Journey to the West here.

In addition to the trailer above, Blizzard released a developer update video. In it, director Jeff Kaplan discusses the approach the studio took to developing a CTF mode. Blizzard has typically found that the game plays best with modes with only a single objective, whereas CTF has two. You can watch him explain how that issue was addressed, and why Blizzard is okay with its balance imperfections, in the video directly above.