New Overwatch hero Echo is apparently Singaporean, speaks Singlish in-game

Echo, the latest hero to join the ranks of Blizzard's Overwatch, is quite the interesting new addition. Not only is she a sentient robot who has the unique ability to mimic the skills of opposing heroes, but a little-known fact is that she hails from sunny Singapore.

While neither Echo's reveal trailer or any official write-up of her nationality (after all, do robots even qualify for such a thing?), a recent gameplay video by Team Singapore community lead Caldoran revealed that she can speak Singlish - the informal cultural language of Singapore.

Real talk: I chanced upon this voice line while spamming Blinks as Echo-Tracer. (Pics unedited. Promise.)

For the uninitiated, "shiok" is distinctively ??/?? slang and used to convey pleasure or enjoyment.

Please confirm if Echo is Singaporean @PlayOverwatch @westofhouse! ? pic.twitter.com/eO3kVFBe0l

— Caldoran (@Caldoran) March 20, 2020

Caldoran discovered Echo's voice line while playing her in the Overwatch PTR (public test realm) servers. And as he pointed out, shiok is Singlish for describing one's pleasure or enjoyment. It can range from eating good food, getting a massage… or even dropping foes in Overwatch.

In video form, for those who'd like to hear it! ??? https://t.co/pLhhPrrMzc pic.twitter.com/5fJMftkzAC

— Caldoran (@Caldoran) March 20, 2020

Curious, Caldoran went to ping the dev team and lead writer Michael Chu for any confirmation, to which he received a favourable response from the latter, who responded in Singlish:

Liao was, confirm plus chop.

— Michael Chu ?? (@westofhouse) March 20, 2020

And of course, Echo's nationality is supported by that of her original creator in the game's lore, the late Dr. Mina Liao, who was Singaporean. While many might overlook this small detail, it does add a lot more depth to the diverse nature of Overwatch's hero roster.

We, and many players who hail from the Little Red Dot, definitely can't wait for Echo to finally release, and browse through all her voice lines to see what other Singlish phrases she might have in store.

This article was first published in Geek Culture.