During the playoffs of the Inaugural Season of the Overwatch League, New York Excelsior support player Bang “JJoNak” Sung-hyeon was named League MVP for his unbelievable Zenyatta play. According to post on the Overwatch League website recently, a conversation took place during the offseason between Arnold Tsang, the Assistant Art Director for Overwatch, Marisa Palumbo, the Senior Producer for Overwatch eSports, and JJoNak of course. The pair wanted to create a custom MVP skin for JJoNak.
As if there were any doubt, a new skin was created for Zenyatta, JJoNak’s signature hero. According to the post, they didn’t flat out ask the league’s first MVP what kind of skin he wanted but instead focused on “his signature animal, the octopus; his favorite color, pink; his fashion sense,” in order to craft the perfect skin for him. A few months later, the task was complete and the result was “a deep-sea take on the omnic hero, which fuses aquatic elements with classic NYXL branding, and the crowning features: an encased pink octopus where Zenyatta’s metal dome normally perches, and a wreath of those same octopi in orb form.”
The reveal was made to both JJoNak as well as his Excelsior teammates. Do-Hyeon “Pine” Kim, in particular, was quick to comment on the meld between cute and cool. “It is cute, but at the end of the day, you’re gonna be in first person wearing the skin, so it’s going to be gross to whoever looks at you,” said Pine. JJoNak was also pleased with the skin, delighted with the fact that not only is Zen’s head an octopus but his orbs, as well as Transcendence animation, take on a cephalopodic quality.
While JJoNak will be the first to don the Zen-Nakji skin, it will be available for players June 27 through July 14 for 200 tokens.