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Ilya Bryzgalov is now immortalized in the popular video game ‘Overwatch’

By Rachel Cohen

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August 9, 2017 12:18 pm

Launched in May 2016, Overwatch took the gaming world by storm, gaining millions of fans around the world and winning over 100 “Game of the Year” awards. And now it’s even better. In a limited time seasonal update, the game has introduced a random nod to Ilya Bryzgalov.

The multiplayer first-person shooter is set sixty years in the future and thirty years after the end of a failed robot uprising known as the “Omnic Crisis.” There are currently 25 playable characters in the game, ranging from Ana, an elderly Egyptian woman who literally snipes medicine into you to heal you, to Winston, a genetically engineered gorilla from the moon.

But the character we’re focusing on today is Aleksandra Zaryanova aka ‘Zarya‘, a Russian weightlifter-turned-soldier with a powerful particle cannon. On August 8th the Overwatch team at Blizzard Entertainment launched their summer seasonal event for 2017: the Summer Games. As with all their seasonal events, players can earn “loot boxes” which unlock event-specific skins/outfits, emotes, and voice lines (among other prizes). And hockey twitter noticed Zarya’s new unlockable voice line sounded… A tad familiar.

Video

Yeah, that’s Zarya quoting Mr. Universe Ilya Bryzgalov himself. Guess sometimes the world isn’t so humaaaaaaangious big after all.

The idea was first pitched on tumblr by user lord-bilingual and was quickly reblogged countless times on the blogging site.

http://lord-bilingual.tumblr.com/post/154451777754/request-for-new-zarya-voiceline

Looks like the developers at Blizzard heard the fans cries.

The hockey world took notice quickly as well, with places like SB Nation and BarDown pointing out the reference.

This is not the first time Overwatch had delved into hockey. The support character Lúcio has two hockey-themed skins players can equip. Hey Blizzard, if you’re listening, we have a couple more ideas for hockey references in Overwatch starting with giving Zarya this victory pose:

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