Introducing the latest Overwatch hero: Jeff Kaplan. YouTube user Astronot has re-imagined the Blizzard executive and game director as an actual Overwatch hero in an, admittedly, pretty hilarious parody video. Entitled much like a legitimate first look at an upcoming playable character, "New Hero Preview: Jeff Kaplan" sees the game's development team crafting the newest, most powerful, and "totally unfair" hero in Jeff.

The video describes Jeff as hero that "evolves and pushes the boundaries of what the Overwatch universe could be," inspired by designs, stories, and even art that has popped up throughout the character development process. This statement is, of course, a subtle nod by Astronot to another YouTube creator, dinoflask, who has published a slew of earlier Jeff Kaplan parody videos.

Overwatch's imaginary Jeff hero, according to Astronot's mash-up backstory, grabs its abilities and skills from what Reinhardt can do and what Zarya looks like. Taking the idea of marking a single spot and moving menacingly across the game map like the Rocket Hammer-wielding hero, the character Jeff transformed into a "gothic Zarya" that is "really unbalanced" hero made up of a "combination of cobbled-together parts."

The parody character supposedly wears a modified version of one of Zarya's alternate skins and carries Bastion's cannon, but physically in the Photoshopped mock-up, Jeff is simply the real-life Kaplan's head copy-and-pasted onto the body of Team Fortress 2's the Heavy. Fans can "get their hands on" fake Jeff when he "releases" on April 31, 2018, a fittingly non-existent date for a non-existent Overwatch hero.

Though Kaplan himself has yet to comment on the latest video done by Astronot, past evidence has shown that he's taken parodies with a grain of salt, not getting too fussed over the public jokes. Just a few weeks ago during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session, Kaplan commented on dinoflask's series of supercut videos that largely parody him. He called the re-purposed mash-up clips "hilarious," even stating that he thinks the creator is "super talented."

However, Kaplan did mention that the videos incite a bit of embarrassment on his end, as he believes he's quite awkward on camera -- a fact that the parodies seem to highlight:

"Obviously, I feel embarrassed when I see them. I mean, I am this middle-aged, awkward nerd with 0 points in charisma and really don't belong on camera in any way, shape or form. But if I look at the videos objectively -- like if they were of anyone but me -- they are hilarious."

Many in the game's community commend Kaplan's dedication to the audience and to providing players with in-depth, routine check-ins through developer updates, like the recent introduction of the Overwatch server browser feature. Likewise, fans appear to appreciate Kaplan's level of interaction with them, an attribute that can sometimes be missing from game developers, as they do lead busy lives on the other side of their popular titles.

The most recent actual new hero preview shows off the long-awaited 24th playable character. After it was almost unanimously agreed that Doomfist would be the next hero joining the roster, Overwatch pulled a fast one to introduce Orisa, the tank hero created by 11-year-old robotics prodigy Efi Oladele. The announcement video was, of course, parodied by dinoflask, but perhaps fans can anticipate another creation that re-imagines another Overwatch dev as Orisa herself.

Overwatch is available now for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Astronot – YouTube