Mei

Official artwork of Mei

**Mei-Ling Zhou** is one of the many Attack-type heroes in *Overwatch*, as well as its sequel *Overwatch 2*. Mei is a former climatologist who uses several ice-based abilities to damage and zone out enemies. Mei was revealed at BlizzCon 2015 along with Genji and D.Va.

## Biography

Mei is a world-renowned climatologist with the primary goal of preserving the environment. She specializes in the study of abnormal climate phenomena and their effects on ecosystem.

Mei's biggest mission was being assigned to Watchpoint: Antarctica, one of the many Eco-Watchpoints set up by Overwatch to discover the origin of the planet's rising unexplained climate phenomena. While her team was stationed here, a catastrophic polar storm unexpectedly struck the Watchpoint. This left the scientists stranded and losing supplies, so in a last ditch effort they entered cryostasis. Before entering the pod, Mei recorded a video in which she expressed excitement in the new dataset from the storm.

Upon waking, Mei found that nine years had passed. An external message had woken her, but the signal was too weak for it to properly display on the computers. Alongside her droid Snowball, Mei looked over the dataset and realized the storm was much worse than she thought. Not only this, but during those nine years Overwatch should have come to retrieve her team.

After discovering that Overwatch had been shutdown and Ecopoint: Antarctica was considered lost, Mei realized she had not seen any other members of her team. Rushing back to the cryo-chamber, Mei finds that all other pods had malfunctioned, causing her friends and coworkers to perish. This resulted in Mei promising to get the data they collected to the world, or die trying.

In order to receive the message from Overwatch, the only hope of her escaping, Mei had to fix the radio tower. Mei was able to scavenge enough materials to create an endothermic blaster and a makeshift antenna. Nearing completion, the base's power shut off. Although all hope seemed to be lost, Snowball sacrificed itself to give the last bit of power needed. Now able to fix the tower and place the antennae, Mei finds that the message was from Winston, who was calling all former Overwatch members to band together and fight the current problems in the world. With newfound confidence, Mei pays her last respects to her friends, and begins to travel across the Antarctic expanse in order to answer Winston's call. To Mei's delight, Snowball gains enough solar energy to turn back on.

## Blitzchung Affair/Hong Kong Protests

On October 6, 2019, *Hearthstone*player Chung "Blitzchung" Ng Wai was suspended by Blizzard for making comments supporting Hong Kong protesters after winning a match at the Hearthstone Grandmasters. In retaliation, many *Overwatch*fans began to use Mei as a symbol of the Hong Kong resistance.

## Appearances

 Heroes of the Storm
 Overwatch 2

* Added in an update post-release

## Artwork

Mei's ingame modelMei's official *Overwatch 2* artworkPoster created by Jungah LeeMei as she appears in *Heroes of the Storm*Concept art of Mei's Yeti Hunter skinPromotional art for Mei's *Heroes of the Storm* releaseCover art for the *Yeti Hunt* comicMei's bear pajama skin from *Heroes of the Storm*
## Trivia

* Mei has two events themed around her; Yeti Hunt, in which five Mei's try to take down a single Winston, and Mei's Snowball Offensive, a 6v6 snowball fight between Meis.

## References

1. ↑ Gibson, David (June 6, 2016). Overwatch: How A Hero is Mei'd. YouTube.
2. ↑ Dyer, Mitch (November 6, 2015). BlizzCon 2015: 3 New Overwatch Heroes Announced. IGN. “The new Heroes are D.Va, a heroine who can enter and exit a mech suit, Mei, an ice-centric Hero who can freeze enemies and create walls of ice, and Genji, Hanzo's robot-suited ninja brother.”
3. ↑ 小美的冒险日记 (MEI'S ADVENTURES). PlayOverwatch (November 2, 2015). “A little bit about me: my name is Mei (yes, that Mei!), and I specialize in abnormal climate phenomena and their effects on different ecosystems around the world.”
4. ↑ Dai, Ben (August 23, 2017). Overwatch Animated Short. YouTube.
5. ↑ Lum, Patrick. 'No regrets': Hong Kong Hearthstone gamer banned over pro-democracy support. The Guardian.
6. ↑ Ashcraft, Brian (October 9, 2019). Overwatch's Mei Is Becoming A Symbol Of The Hong Kong Resistance. Kotaku.
7. ↑ Entertainment, Blizzard (June 23, 2020). Heroes of the Storm Live Patch Notes - June 23, 2020. Blizzard. “Our next Heroes of the Storm patch is live and brings a new Hero - Mei, the Nexomania II event, a new Nexus Anomaly - Climate Phenomena, along with a Mal'Ganis rework and more! Read on for more information.”
8. ↑ Lee, Jungah (2017). Overwatch. ArtStation.
9. ↑ McClusky, Kevin (December 12, 2017). How to Win Overwatch's New Yeti Hunt Winter Event. GameCrate.
10. ↑ Moore, Bo (December 14, 2016). Overwatch's new snowball fight is fun but spoiled by slow respawns. PC Gamer.