Holy hamster balls, Overwatch has been teasing this devious new hero for more than a year

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The Overwatch lore for new hero Hammond actually checks out

Hammond, the newest Overwatch hero, who happens to be a hamster in a giant gun-studded ball.

Update: Blizzard has revealed the new Overwatch hero's name is Wrecking Ball, but yep, that's definitely Hammond. Check out this origin story video to find out more.

The next hero for Overwatch has been confirmed, and it's almost definitely not what you were expecting. Unless you were expecting a hyper-intelligent hamster named Hammond with his own robotic rolling hamster ball, in which case, nicely done! Check out this teaser video from the official Overwatch Twitter for your first look at the squeaky little engine of destruction. 

Yeah, I know, if we were anywhere close to April 1st, I'd think this was a prank, too. Overwatch has its sillier parts but how could a cackling hamster possibly fit into the lore? It's actually not as much of a stretch as you might think. In fact, this Reddit user outlined a full day before the reveal how Blizzard has been teasing Hammond's true form for over a year! I mean, when I read those in-universe emails about keeping Hammond in a cage and him getting loose in the ventilation system, I just assumed he was an evil chimp. But nope, hamster.

Hammond comes from Horizon Lunar Colony, the same moon-based facility that was the former home of Winston the scientist (also ape). Horizon specialized in experiments with enhancing animal intelligence, and though many of its subjects were gorillas like Winston, the staff emails also teased "smaller subjects" who were particularly difficult to keep track of. Winston escaped to Earth after the inevitable ape uprising, and that's pretty much the last we'd heard of Horizon. Turns out Hammond secretly towed himself to freedom behind Winston's escape pod.

As for how Hammond got that giant robot hamster ball, and why he decided to make huge guns come out of it… Well, no one ever said a hyper-intelligent hamster would also have the most friendly disposition, right? It always sounded like Winston was an exception among the Horizon test subjects in terms of that whole "kindness and altruism" thing. The biggest question I have is what the heck Hammond's been up to for several yearsif he landed on Earth at the same time as Winston.

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Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Former GamesRadar+ News Writer

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and was formerly a staff writer at GamesRadar+.