Today, Overwatch announced the PachiMarchi Challenge, the latest event in honor of the game weird half onion, half octopus mascot Pachimari. Starting today, players who win games in Quick Play, Arcade or Competitive mode can win Pachimari-themed cosmetics, including a Pachimari Roadhog skin that, depending on your inclination, is either very cute or extremely disturbing.
When you look at the trailer it feels like you are being held hostage in a primary colored fever dream. It’s utterly chaotic when Roadhog and his partner (Romantic, platonic, who can tell? They’ll never tell) Junkrat take turns showing off their Pachimari awards while shouting in Japanese. It’s very big “Never give up“Energy.
Pachimari is a fan favorite. When my friends and I played Overwatch together we had an unspoken rule that your player icon should be a whiff of Pachimari. I even have a Pachimari hug. It sits next to my bed looking at me with its beaded, black eyes, mouth open to devour me or let go of a scream of pain * ahem *.
It makes sense that Roadhog was chosen as the face of the PachiMarchi Challenge. He has an emote called “secret friend” in which the imposing tank character, who never speaks more than five words at a time, secretly takes out a Pachimari toy and squeaks it before splitting it out again. I’m still not sure which camp I fall into between ‘cute’ or ‘nightmare exciting’, but I can say this: I want a real version of that hat.