Overwatch: Story of Mei
Fluffy, soft, huggable, and deadly. Mei is my favorite Overwatch hero and has earned that title with many, many other players throughout the world.
Her unique design and gameplay make her a joy use, and she is considered one of the best designed first-person shooter characters ever to grace our screens.
So just how did Mei come about, though?
Mei, then known as Dr. Mei-Ling Zhou, was a part of a multi-year initiative set up by Overwatch to study and ultimately determine the cause of the rising climate crisis.
The general populace blamed the climate changes on the growing omnic population, advances in technology, and the increased rate at which resources were being consumed. Overwatch was not convinced, and they established a series of eco-watchpoints at critical worldwide locations.
Sr. Mei-Ling was an exceptional climatologist. She had developed and engaged cutting-edge technology advancements that protected at-risk climate areas in Asia, and the greater world.
She was sent as part of a team to Watchpoint: Antarctica, where an atmospheric anomaly about the region became the focal point of their studies.
Suddenly, a massive polar storm hit the facility and cut them off from the outside world. With dwindling supplies, time was running short.
The scientists decided to enter cryostasis until a rescues mission could be carried out. Before this, Mei made a tape where she excitedly anticipated all the data she would have to study when she thawed out, as she left the facilities’ sensors on.
Nine years pass, and eventually, Mei thawed out after the base received Winston’s recall order. Naturally, after nine years of being frozen, she made some tea, put on some clothes, and along with her pet droid snowball, went to check out her acquired data.
She discovered that the anomaly was much worse than predicted.
It was then that snowball revealed that it had actually been nine years since she entered cryostasis, much to Mei’s horror.
She wondered why Overwatch hadn’t come for her in that time and attempted to contact them, but the bases comms were still down.
However, over the years that communications were up, it had gathered up several news reports. These reports revealed that the Ecopoint had been considered lost in the storm and that Overwatch had since been disbanded.
Realizing that she was the only one to have woken up, she checked on her fellow scientists. The other pods had malfunctioned over the nine-year period, and the others had all perished.
Determined to get their findings to the world, Mei attempted to transmit to the world, but the station's dish was broken.
She taught to try and intercept the signal that had woken her up, to begin with after discovering it was being sent on an Overwatch emergency frequency.
Over the next few days, she built an endothermic blaster and an antenna.
Climbing the radio tower, Mei discovered that the message was a recall order from Winston, which she set out to answer.
Mei, to the present day, spends her time traveling the globe, attempting to reestablish the eco-watchpoint network.