The Overwatch League has become a widespread phenomenon in the esports scene. If you haven’t heard of (or participated in) this spectacle yet, you’re definitely missing out.The newly-worked viewing experience present in the Overwatch League is worthy of standing with the titans of eSports. The league features area-specific sports teams, real-world tycoons of the sports team markets, and even numbered jerseys for the competitive players. Blizzard Entertainment is truly bridging the gap of sports and esports. And the dedicated channel, located on Twitch, is already hitting a staggering number of viewers at well over 300,000. It’s no secret that Blizzard has been a main contender in the ever-growing esports scene; however, the Overwatch League is redefining the scene as a whole–for the better. Managers, trainers and player drafting is all meshing with that of the sports scene. The last incredible step Blizzard Entertainment made toward this mesh was broadcasting the first “Heroes of the Dorm” tournament on ESPN. This event was a collegiate league, with the winnings being a full scholarship, and pitted many college teams against each other in Blizzard Entertainment’s MOBA, Heroes of the Storm.
One reason the Overwatch League is succeeding so well is the simple take on the competitive teams. Blizzard has applied colored jerseys (both in and out of game) to separate regions. The current roster of the league stands at 16 teams that are either a collection of great players, or pre-existing teams already in the Overwatch scene.
“The incredible global success of ‘Overwatch’ since its launch, coupled with the league’s meticulous focus on a structure and strategy that clearly represents the future of esports made this the obvious entry point for the Kraft Group,” Robert Kraft exclaimed in a statement.
Even if you’re not a fan of Overwatch, or plain uninterested in the esports perspective, you can’t argue that huge gears have begun to rotate because of Blizzard Entertainment’s embrace of the future of esports.
Esports is an incredible spectacle for any fan of gaming, especially if that particular game fancies your particular game pool. As said before in the previous Blizzcon Retrospective article, the slick viewing experience presented in Overwatch League makes it elementary for the casual viewer and engaging for the most hardcore supporters. I urge anyone that regularly plays Overwatch to participate in the viewing experience currently going on, and furthermore urge one to send an outsider of the Overwatch community to tune in.
A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.