There are many speculations as to who the new Overwatch hero could be. Or it could be multiple, you can never tell in reality. But some fans go further than the average person like you or me to find out information about certain tidbits of information, only to end up creating a full blown, thought out theory for a new hero that could be added to the Overwatch roster. Whilst the hype for Sombra, and all the hints that Blizzard have been giving about her, it's safe to say people are already on the lookout for clues related to the mysterious hacker. But what about some of the more subtle hints that Blizzard has dropped? What about a possible new hero, who goes by the name Liao? Let's take a closer look at the information we've already got on this possible new addition to the roster.

Firstly, who is Liao? And why should I care?

Liao, funnily enough, was one of the original members of the Overwatch team we know today. We can find this just by looking at the Overwatch Blog, around the time when the game first released. The Overwatch team has a deep history, and the original founding members were around before Overwatch was officially even formed. Story wise, the United Nations needed a "small, nimble strike team" to deal with the rising omnic crisis the world was facing at the time. The legendary founders of Overwatch: Morrison, Reyes, Amari, Wilhelm, Lindholm and Liao. Just knowing this alone brings up two different things itself. Firstly, Liao was one of the founding members of Overwatch. We already have everyone else on that list in the current Overwatch roster, apart from Liao himself. Everyone knows each other, everyone has voice lines to interact with each other, but none of them mention Liao? Funnily enough, Reyes even has a line on Dorado where he asks for Sombra, so what exactly happened to Liao, and who is he? Why doesn't anyone mention him?

Another point that can be brought up about the blog post listing the founding members of Overwatch is something quite clear. When the game released, we had every single playable character apart from one: Ana Amari. We didn't really have any information at the time prior to her release about her becoming a playable character. Funnily enough, everyone thought that the hints that we were getting for Ana were for Sombra! But, instead we got Ana. Since we knew nothing about Ana at the time, and now she's currently back with the rest of Overwatch, that means one thing. Liao is the one last original Overwatch member who isn't a playable character as of now. This doesn't confirm Liao as a character, but it's a pretty big possibility and definitely increases the chances.

Taking a closer look at Liao...

Firstly, let's look at the character of Liao himself, and some possible backstory to the character. If Liao's name is true to the meaning, it's very likely that the possible new Overwatch hero comes from the Henan province in China. With a bit of research, you can find out that the name Liao actually was a place in an ancient state within China. It's now known as the Henan province, and was home to 4 different capitals. Without going into too much detail about Henan itself and Chinese history, it's pretty clear to say that the region is historical, which shows that our character, if true to the meaning of their name, will very likely have some sort of ties to the area, and the history it brings. Names don't always have a connection to their history, but it's a video game. We're allowed to speculate and hope aren't we?

But let's move on from Chinese history and onto hints about the character that Blizzard themselves have given us, leaving us to fortell the aesthetics and attributes of the possible new character. Funnily enough, a lot of information ties back to the Ana trailer that was released by Blizzard. When going back through the trailer (and looking at the image above), you'll notice that the original Overwatch members are all lined up together. While we may recognize Pharah and Ana, Reyes and Morrison and so on, there's two characters we don't actually know. The woman on the far right, who looks to have a bionic arm. And the crouched, built Asian guy on the far left, similarly in build to Soldier 76.

Going off of the origin of the name Liao, and the history and meaning behind the name mentioned previously, we can take a guess at the guy on the far left being Liao, meaning that it would actually be a guy. There's not much else we can see from this, however all we can tell is that Liao is fully human and not omnic (at least from the waist up), and fairly well built. It's very likely from the history of Overwatch and it's founding members, that Liao was a soldier similar to Morrison, taking his build into account too. We can also tell by this image that Liao is very likely to be around the same age as Soldier 76, possibly a little younger.

What's the big deal then? Why doesn't anyone mention him?

As mentioned previously, even the good old Sombra, who loves to just be a pain in the backside for the community trying to hunt down her hints, has a voice line of her being mentioned. But, nobody, not even the founding members of Overwatch, mention Liao. If Liao was one of the original members of Overwatch, and his name was so legendary according to the launch blog post by Blizzard, why doesn't anyone else in the game mention Liao? Well, the possibility was that it's the same kind of story as Ana. Original Overwatch member supposedly passes away, people and time move on. Except, well, they don't die. Or Mercy revives them, or something. It's pretty complicated. But the reason this was mentioned, is because even if a character is dead in the Overwatch universe, it doesn't actually mean they're dead. Looking at you, Mercy, who 4 man revived the enemy team to clutch out that game...

Possible new expansion of Liao's story

Later this year, thanks to Blizzard and Dark Horse, we will be getting a new graphic novel related to the Overwatch story prior to the current game's time named Overwatch: First Strike. It's possible that the graphic novels will expand more on the history of the character, and possible many more. Considering the graphic that was released as a teaser for the new graphic novel has multiple characters we haven't seen yet (and a really, odd shaped Torbjorn. Is that just me thinking it's a weird shape?).

While Liao isn't confirmed, it's safe to say there's some pretty solid evidence for him being a possible playable character in the future, and if not, we'll hopefully be seeing an expansion on his story, and the rest of the Overwatch team in the new graphic novels. We also still have a lot to speculate, such as what role Liao would play within the game, his personality and character, etc. So keep an eye out for any more hints you find.

Credit to:

- Curse Liao Theory Video
- Overwatch Gamepedia
- Overwatch Blog