'Overwatch' fans get an early peek at Sombra, probably

Is this the face of Sombra, the long-rumored next hero coming to Blizzard Entertainment's Overwatch roster?

The image was reportedly discovered on Monday evening in an accidental Blizzard online store listing. The filename listed in the url includes the extremely telling phrase, "sombrafineart."

The image was eventually removed, but not fast enough for the internet.

While it's true that this might not be Sombra, the evidence is hard to dispute. The original JPG filename alone is the closest you can get to confirmation without Blizzard actually saying "Ok fine, you got us. Meet Sombra."

The art also bears a striking resemblance to the woman featured in an image that was part of a larger leak in early October. It was the same leak that outed the existence of an Overwatch Halloween event, which turned out to be true.

The earlier leak included documentation that revealed Sombra to be a "notorious hacker" who had once worked with the Los Muertos gang in Mexico. All of that is consistent with the little we know of the character so far from the long-running ARG that has seemingly been building up to a formal reveal.

On top of everything else: the newly leaked Sombra image bears the signature of John Polidora, one of Blizzard's talented concept artists. You can see the full version below.

Whoever this mysterious woman is (spoiler alert: it's totally Sombra), you can expect a reveal soon. Blizzard's annual Blizzcon fan and esports event kicks off on Friday, and the developer usually has big reveals to share at the show.

What's more, a fictional news post on the Overwatch website refers to the unveiling of a nuclear plant in Dorado -- one of the game's map locations -- on Nov. 1. It's hard to imagine Blizzard running with a full Sombra reveal before Blizzcon, but we could be hours from the first, official tease.

CARD ID: 112126, CARD TYPE: Imgur