Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch League Slated To Debut In 2017

[Guest]

Overwatch is currently one of the most popular games with millions of players every month

E-sports is now one of the fastest growing markets with its popularity rising as more games are added to the lineup

 

Activision Blizzard announced that the Overwatch e-sports league will arrive soon 

Quote

Activision Blizzard, Inc. announced that it is creating a professional e-sport league for its wildly popular first-person shooter, Overwatch. Blizzard plans to start the league in 2017, with competing teams set up to represent major cities, much like in existing professional sports. At the beginning of the new season, Blizzard will host a combine, or an event that will allow players to demonstrate their gaming skills. Eligible gamers will receive invitations to try out for teams after a series of assessment tests.

 

Typically, e-sports leagues choose from a pool of existing teams already competing in tournaments, but Blizzard is interested in building teams from scratch.

 

With e-sports revenue estimated at $500 million in 2016 and an estimated $1.1 billion in 2019, according to Newzoo, professional gaming is opening up as a viable career path for those with the right skills.

 

Its really interesting to see that major cities will be represented which mimics what most sports do; the possibilities of seeing each city cheering on their team is actually pretty exciting

I personally hope that e-sports becomes more widely accepted as a legitimate market for entertainment given that most people still view it with suspicion 

The leagues are growing and more and more people are watching, I know I am 

 

Source: http://theticker.org/activision-blizzards-overwatch-league-slated-to-debut-in-2017

[ZimFreak]

I welcome with open arms any and all Overwatch esports/competetive developments. Especially with the new 3v3 and 1v1 modes. Those solve a lot of problems Overwatch has had in gaining esports popularity, mainly that it was hard to follow and hard to even see what was going on with so many abilities. 3v3 is still very fast paced but less cluttered with spam abilities getting thrown at the choke point. Also, each kill is very important in the new modes and it's much more clear who's doing well and who's not.

[Orangeator]

The more people get interested in PC gaming, the more people buy PC's, the more demand there is for parts, the more companies appear to take advantage of the demand, more competition in the market place, cheaper PC components! Yay!!! 

[WereCat]

25 minutes ago, Orangeator said:

The more people get interested in PC gaming, the more people buy PC's, the more demand there is for parts, the more companies appear to take advantage of the demand, more competition in the market place, cheaper PC components! Yay!!! 

The more PC gamers...the cheaper the PC parts. The more cheaper PC parts...the more PC gamers.

Cycle continues.

 

 

I really like what is Blizzard doing with Overwatch even though I think the 2nd season was a misstep. I haven't played the 1st season but 3rd looks like will make things a lot better.

[niofalpha]

People still play Overwatch?

[MageTank]

6 minutes ago, niofalpha said:

People still play Overwatch?

It's getting bigger from what I see. I personally play it, and the community is quite large. This is evident by the large fanbase of the Overwatch Youtube community. 

[That Norwegian Guy]

This is why esports are self defeating. Only the easiest games have enough audience and deluded participants to get traction.

[MageTank]

5 minutes ago, That Norwegian Guy said:

This is why esports are self defeating. Only the easiest games have enough audience and deluded participants to get traction.

"Easy" would be subjective. The hardest part about Overwatch isn't exactly playing the heroes, it's proper coordination. Finding people to coordinate is extremely difficult. Once you master that, then it becomes a game of team skill vs team skill. Even then, a lot of the weight will rest on the shoulders of the damage dealers (and tanks to a certain extent). 

 

Now, if you mean easy from a mechanical point, then I agree, the less complicated mechanics, the better. It's why CS:GO does so well. Mechnically, it's a very simple game, but skill goes a very long way (and again, coordination is key). 

[That Norwegian Guy]

12 hours ago, MageTank said:

"Easy" would be subjective. The hardest part about Overwatch isn't exactly playing the heroes, it's proper coordination. Finding people to coordinate is extremely difficult. Once you master that, then it becomes a game of team skill vs team skill.

The roof is found super early though. Maps have 1-3 avenues of attack at each junction, so the strategy is pretty shallow.

 

Natural Selection 2 had way more depth than Overwatch while being pretty similar, and a much higher skill cap, and it never took off as an eSport because all the eSports crowd wants is an easy game that more than 2% of players can really master. Nobody wants to be second best, everyone wants to think they are in the upper tiers. In NS2 it was always obvious that there was no catching the elite if you weren't good enough, whilst in Overwatch it's more open because there are hard and low limits to every skill category.

[zMeul]

• e-sports - not sports
• Overwatch - highly overrated and overhyped
• this isn't tech news

[Entropy]

ITT: Overwatch is apparetly a failure with 20 million players and apparently e-sports not a sport. 

[MageTank]

3 minutes ago, Entropy said:

ITT: Overwatch is apparetly a failure with 20 million players and apparently e-sports not a sport. 

Also it apparently requires little skill, according to the unranked people that do not play it, lol. 

[AlwaysFSX]

14 hours ago, MageTank said:

"Easy" would be subjective. The hardest part about Overwatch isn't exactly playing the heroes, it's proper coordination. Finding people to coordinate is extremely difficult. Once you master that, then it becomes a game of team skill vs team skill. Even then, a lot of the weight will rest on the shoulders of the damage dealers (and tanks to a certain extent). 

 

Now, if you mean easy from a mechanical point, then I agree, the less complicated mechanics, the better. It's why CS:GO does so well. Mechnically, it's a very simple game, but skill goes a very long way (and again, coordination is key). 

It's a lot harder to be good at a game than it is having coordination with a team. I've played FPS games with a group of friends for years. Fantastic communication, never really won any serious games because they were terrible players.

[MageTank]

1 minute ago, AlwaysFSX said:

It's a lot harder to be good at a game than it is having coordination with a team. I've played FPS games with a group of friends for years. Fantastic communication, never really won any serious games because they were terrible players.

It's different in overwatch, which has ultimates where you press Q to win. Even the worst players that communicate can pull off a Zarya/Reaper combo and wipe an enemy team. In that regard, coordination > individual skill. If you have a ton of skilled players, but they don't work together (wasting Zarya ult when nobody can follow up on it, using a damage ult without a heal slave dedicated to keeping you alive, etc) you won't get far. The biggest problem in high plat/diamond is people thinking they are the stars of the show, then complaining when nobody buffs them, heals them, or tanks for them. You see so many skilled DPS shooters that can't deliver and blame their teams because unlike them, the enemy team coordinates. A high level of coordination can easily offset a skilled uncoordinated team.

 

That being said, if both teams are coordinating well, then it becomes an issue of which team is more skilled. Far too many variables in overwatch to compare it to a traditional FPS, with all the skills and ultimates (cooldown management).