Within the Overwatch lore, Jesse McCree is now officially Cole Cassidy. A new event in the game that marks his renaming ceremony has gone live. The event will reward sprays, skins, and deep lore pertaining to the character’s name change. McCree was renamed in Overwatch a few weeks beforehand, but this event signifies the character and the game formally leaving old monikers behind.
A new comic that expands the story behind Cassidy’s name is also now available. The digital comic is published by Dark Horse Comics and written by Ray Fawkes who previously did work on numerous Batman comics runs. The artwork has been done by Irene Koh, who previously drew The Legend of Korra: Turf Wars comics. The comic will release in five parts with the first coinciding with the start of the new in-game event.
“Cassidy’s New Blood Challenge” is now live and will run through November 21. The event takes the same format as D.Va’s Nuk-a-cola, Ana’s Bastet, and others that came before it. Overwatch players who take part and complete any playlist event get 1 point, while winning the game counts as 3 points. There are 3 reward levels: 9 points gets a new Player Icon, 18 points nets a new spray, and 27 points unlocks the new Cole Cassidy Epic skin, called Sandstorm.
Players that have their Battle.net accounts linked to Twitch will gain three additional sprays from watching eligible streamers. One of the new sprays features him and Ana sitting at a table drinking coffee, or what’s probably tea for Ana. The skin references an interaction the two characters will have in the comic.
The event officially marks a new era for the character renamed after his former namesake, Jesse McCree, former Lead Designer at Blizzard, was implicated in the infamous “Cosby Suite” lawsuit filed by the DFEH in July. McCree has since left the company, leaving fans wondering what the Overwatch team would do with the character that was named after an individual involved with fostering a toxic work culture. Blizzard continues to grapple with the fallout of the scandal as it struggles to right its wrongs and retain staff and players. Overwatch 2 and Diablo 4 were recently delayed amid the ongoing internal strife as team members left the company.
Current employees and fans of its biggest franchises are continuously reminding the company executives that they are unsatisfied with the work that Blizzard has done so far. The skin and the renaming are small steps to Blizzard recovering from its misdeeds, but by far not the final step it needs to take to recover any parts of its reputation or company stock value.
Overwatch is now available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
