New Details Announced for Overwatch's Year of the Dog Event

Overwatch's Year of the Dog event begins soon with new skins, updated game modes, and a new map, all of which were detailed in a new update from the developers.

In the new video update centered around Overwatch's latest event, game director Jeff Kaplan returns to talk about everything Overwatch players can expect to see during the event. Starting things off is a new map that'll be playable during the event, a location in Thailand known as Ayutthaya.

"One side of the map is ancient and shows a temple that's very, very gorgeous, and the other side is bright, beautiful, and very modern," Kaplan said regarding the new map. "We think you'll enjoy it, but the coolest part, in my opinion, is that it's the first map that we've ever built specifically for capture the flag."

Which is a brilliant segue into the next important part of the Year of the Dog event, the capture the flag improvements. This occasional game mode appeared the year before during the Year of the Rooster event, and it's now returning with a few changes based on player feedback from the first go-around.

"First off, there are no more draws anymore," said Kaplan. "We know historically, every time we've had draws in Overwatch, there's been discontent in the playerbase, and we want to get rid of draws. We know they're not very exciting and they can be anti-climactic, so we've added a sudden death mechanic."

This mechanic involves the map being adjusted for the final round with each team's flag being moved closer to the center of the map. The overall mechanics for picking up the flag have also been changed outside of the sudden death match as well to allow for quicker, more offensive games. Capture the flag will also be getting its own competitive season that'll run for a few weeks for those who are really into the mode.

As for the skins, Kaplan didn't reveal what the skins look like within the video, but he did provide a quick teaser by confirming that six heroes will be receiving Lunar skins, two of them being Genji and Mercy.

The Year of the Dog event kicks off on Feb. 8 with all the changes mentioned in Kaplan's video above.