Boris is the voice of Sigma, the newest addition to the ever-expanding roster of playable characters in the wildly popular video game Overwatch.
Developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, the minds behind the genre-defining Warcraft and Starcraft series, it is a team-based first-person-shooter in which people play in two groups of six each playing as a single “hero” from a talent pool of over 30 all with their own unique play-style. They then use teamwork and skill to either secure/defend control points on a map or escort a payload across the map before the timer runs out.
Sigma (real name Siebren de Kuiper) is a brilliant Dutch scientist and astrophysicist who falls under the “tank” archetype of the Overwatch roster, meaning he’s designed to soak up damage and attention from the other team leaving the others to go about their business securing locations or killing off members of the rival team.
In an attempt to understand the fundamental mechanics of the universe he was involved in an experiment that went catastrophically wrong, leaving him deeply psychologically damaged but with the power to manipulate gravity. He is crafted into a living weapon by Talon, a terrorist organisation lead by Doomfist (another playable character) who believe that humanity is made stronger by war and conflict; and let loose on the battlefield.
Sigma has joined a stacked roster full of incredibly varied and eccentric characters including a Japanese cyborg ninja, a literal cowboy, a Swedish dwarf, a Brazilian DJ, a genetically-enhanced gorilla from the moon and a hyper-intelligent hamster who rolls around in a heavily-armoured wheel strapped with heavy ordinance.
To get a sense of how mind-blowingly popular this game is during the first year of its release (2016) Blizzard Entertainment made over $1 billion in revenue and had more than 40 million players worldwide after two years. To put that into perspective, if every single person living in Canada played Overwatch at the exact same time, you’d still be over 3 million people short.
The reveal trailer for Boris’ character has already reached 4.7 million views in 2 days and is, at the time of writing, the top trending video on Youtube.
Overwatch is also a widely-played esport, with an entire league, creatively named the Overwatch League, of 20 international teams playing in a fully-fledged sports leagues with points, tables, play-offs and a championship final worth $3.5 million to the winners, the most recent being our local team London Spitfire. There have even been calls to have esports, including Overwatch, as part of the Olympic Games.
For Boris’ profile click here
For the reveal trailer click here
For more information click here
