Highlights
- Overwatch 2 Season 7 introduces the Samoa Control map, which features an embassy representing the Polynesian League, formed to combat climate change and its effects on Polynesian nations.
- The dialogue inside the embassy reveals that the Polynesian League invested in education and a Coral Restoration Initiative, creating Super Coral that purifies the oceans and spreads across the Pacific.
- The presence of Hawaii in the Polynesian League suggests its independence from the United States, which opens up possibilities for further exploration of the game's lore.
A fan recently discovered some deep lore about the history of Polynesia, Samoa, and the oceans of the Overwatch 2 world. This new lore can be heard inside one of the buildings of the new Samoa map introduced in Overwatch 2 Season 7.
Though Overwatch 2 Season 7 introduced tons of new stuff to the game, including a new PvE game mode and a rework for Sombra, one of its biggest gameplay changes was the addition of the Samoa Control map. This new map has been added to the rotation players can encounter in both Quick Play and Competitive.
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However, fan and lore aficionado Portergauge discovered some interesting worldbuilding hidden in the Samoa map in Overwatch 2. One of the areas has a building that appears to be an embassy featuring statues representing New Zealand, Hawaii, Samoa, and the Cook Islands. Voiceover inside the structure gives a history debrief to visitors and indicates these and many other islands and nations formed the Polynesian League after global warming and pollution threatened to wipe them out.
Here is a transcript of the dialogue heard in Portergauge’s Overwatch 2 clip about the Polynesian League:
“Several decades before the Omnic Crisis, the world was suffering significant damage from climate change. Polynesian nations like Samoa were particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels, ocean acidification, and pollution. When advocacy with the United Nations failed to produce results, the nations of Polynesia joined together to form the Polynesian League, hoping to pool their resources and political power to survive. The Polynesian League began investing in education and scientific moonshine projects. The most effective and controversial was the Coral Restoration Initiative, which created what is popularly known as Super Coral. These polyps grew at astonishing rates by converting carbon and waste to food. For decades, they have been spreading across the Pacific Ocean, creating a cleaner ocean for everyone. And that is just one of the many gifts the Polynesian League has given the world. The League is dedicated to partnership with every nation on the planet. After all, the future starts with all of us working together for a better world.”
This new bit of Overwatch 2 lore is huge for the history of the world. While a lot of the lore in Overwatch 2 focuses on the events leading up to the Omnic Crisis, the time between modern history and that major event is less covered, with almost nothing in regard to Polynesia. This is the first players have heard of the Polynesian League, or the Super Coral that apparently has been purifying the oceans for generations. Additionally, Hawaii’s presence in the League also suggests it fully succeeded from the United States of America at some point, which is in itself a huge lore drop that begs further exploration in the future.
Samoa holds other secrets as well. Overwatch 2 players have discovered an apartment belonging to Mauga–the former partner of Baptiste, and one of the biggest candidates to be the next Tank hero. Many fans think this Easter egg may be teasing Mauga as the new hero, and some wonder if the Polynesian League will be involved in his full story in some manner.
Luckily, fans won’t have to wait long to find out. Overwatch 2 confirmed it would be revealing the new tank hero during BlizzCon on November 3. Regardless of whether Mauga is the next Overwatch 2 hero or not, this new lore about Samoa and the Polynesian League has added a new aspect of the universe some fans are excited to learn more about.
Overwatch 2 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
