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The Overwatch League

Started by Chaosphere, January 19, 2018, 01:56:51 AM

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Chaosphere

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Well I thought it about time to post something on here about the Overwatch League. This is Overwatch's first major foray into the competitive eSports scene (outside of Korea where it has cut its teeth with Apex). The league is set up as with 12 global 'franchises' representing 12 countries / cities. These 12 franchises are sponsored by fairly large businesses, brining (quite frankly) obscene amounts of money (a minimum of US$20 million per franchise) into the game for what really is the first baby step in its uncertain competitive future. This has led to players with proper (US$50k minimum) salaries, healthcare, and pension plans. The first season takes place in the newly constructed Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, and features 'professional commentators', sponsorship left right and centre, and is broadcast live (as well as saved as VODs) on Twitch, YouTube, MLG, and Blizzard's Overwatch League site itself. This significant investment and effort on Blizzard's part has led to fairly respectable first week viewer numbers (with a peak of 441,000) that Blizzard will no doubt be hoping to maintain and grow over the coming weeks and months.

But enough of that nonsense, what about actually watching the games? Well, although Blizzard has put a lot of effort into cleaning up what we see as a spectator (with, for example, team colours for not just the characters but for all of the various effects in the game too), Overwatch remains a difficult game to watch. If you don't play the game regularly (I hear Wednesday nights are good for that) and with a fairly competitive focus, the game can be a nightmare just to follow. It can be a fast and furious, colourful and chaotic mess for the uninitiated. Keeping up with what is going on is hard enough, before even getting into the deeper strategic game being played behind all of the light and sound. Following this wider strategy with its co-ordinated engagements and their to-ing and fro-ing, ultimate economy, picks and counter picks, and so on, is hard to do even for those of us with hundreds of hours in the game. The pace, particularly at this high level of play, is perhaps one of the hardest challenges Blizzard faces when trying to attract the more casual Overwatch player.

If you can weather that storm though, and grasp enough of the deeper game to go beyond scratching the surface of what is going on, the league is showcasing some fantastic Overwatch. These 12 teams bring some of the best players in the world together, resulting in some brilliant matches showing us what a phenomenal game Overwatch can be when played at its highest level. As both the game and the league continue to grow and mature, this should only get better. Blizzard take their time, but they are always working on both expanding the game and better balancing its current state to bring each of its 26 Heroes into the fray.

I've dropped links below to some of the best games I have watched so far, with some seriously skilled pro play. Check them out and see what you think! If they give you that itch to jump back into some Overwatch, come scratch it on Wednesday nights with some other dMw-ers. We try to run competitive (but friendly) 6v6 customs whenever we can, and Wednesday is the best bet. If nothing else, consider this good practice for the dMw LANs, where Overwatch has become one of the core Saturday tournaments (a position it may well stay in for a while, who knows :flirty:)

Cheers all! :boxing:

[SPOILER=Seoul Dynasty vs Dallas Fuel][video=youtube;ei41JgvKQqk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ei41JgvKQqk[/video][/SPOILER]

[SPOILER=Dallas Fuel vs Los Angeles Valiant]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5G_oUgdZ1Y[/SPOILER]

[SPOILER=New York Excelsior vs Houston Outlaws]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tiBZCfwR3M[/SPOILER]

Finally, if you did enjoy these videos, the YouTube group 'Your Overwatch' are doing some great breakdowns of what is going on in the league, that may help with better understanding the game being player under the surface. Check them out!

[SPOILER=Your Overwatch]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJq_PQfOCvc[/SPOILER]
All our Gods have abandoned us.

Chaosphere

#1
Saturday gave us one of the best matches so far, as two of the best teams went head to head. It features some fantastic team and individual play from some of the best Overwatch-ers out there, not counting dMw of course :flirty:

[video=youtube;VNcVFam6ta4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNcVFam6ta4[/video]
All our Gods have abandoned us.