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[Newtype-001]

EU > US

Tfw top US teams are full of EU players.

 

[kami_sama]

Tfw top US teams are full of EU players.

That's the issue, we in Europe have a huge pool of great players, but no money to field them locally.

 

[specdot]

Bob Kraft the 🐐

Hasn't that man had enough success??? Stick to football Kaft, let the Wilpons win something in my lifeti- oh who am I kidding? The Wilpons are lifetime losers.

Spoiler

-A heartbroken Mets fan

 

[Tawpgun]

This hasn't been the case with traditional sports for many, many years.

Yeah, last one I remember that was the best case for this was Steven Gerrard. Liverpool born and raised, was in their youth team program and ended up playing his entire career at the club. (minus the MLS "retirement" stint)

 

[Gentleman Jack]

Is high-level competitive Overwatch play really popular enough to justify this? It doesn't even look fun to watch for the average person.

That's up to the owners to worry about, and they'll have to spend handsomely to build and audience.

I'm also skeptical of the long-term payoff of their $20M investment but hey, pro DOTA is still a thing so maybe this thing has a shot.

 

[dimb]

At the end of the day foreign players make a stronger scene especially when the US players as a whole are not dominant in many popular games.

As LG evil Jake put it
If youre scared of foreign players coming over you're admitting failure as a reigon

Okay...? SC2 died in the west because nobody could compete and the player base stopped caring as a whole about the game without representation, and no path to being competitive. Different story for shooters obviously but there should always be restrictions in place to keep a region's team feeling like it belongs to that region. If you just have five import players who can barely speak English how does that reflect or represent Miami? Why even set up home cities for these teams?

 

[Blam]

Tfw top US teams are full of EU players.

So just about nobody is going to beat them unless there's a fluke gotcha. Just like csgo.

 

[AngryMoth]

Blizzard seems to have crippled it by asking for so much money. 7 teams is not enough

 

[Tawpgun]

Seems like there are room for more teams but these are the initial ones. They just need team owners in the EU

 

[Diablohead]

Blizzard seems to have crippled it by asking for so much money. 7 teams is not enough

This complain was bought up before also, they overvalued ovewatch so much i'm surprised even seven teams agreed.

 

[Antiwhippy]

So just about nobody is going to beat them unless there's a fluke gotcha. Just like csgo.

Nah, one of the NA orgs managed to nearly take down the top EU residing in NA this week in an epic grand final.

They did it by having half the team comprise of koreans lmao.

 

[Newtype-001]

So just about nobody is going to beat them unless there's a fluke gotcha. Just like csgo.

The top 2 teams in the US for the longest time was Rogue and Envyus. Rogue is now all French and Envy is a mix of 4 EU players a Korean and Thai now.
😂

Still theres some strong competition in NA right now. Immortals has been looking strong with their two new koreans they loss to Rogue 3-2 in a really good series

Team Liquid has been getting better with Shadder and their new korean and Arc6 an unsigned team took rogue 2-0 before getting reverse swept so its not all down.

 

[Leezard]

If your team is bad, you get booted from your franchise spot in League, and there are still slots that are open to anyone.

This by comparison is 100% permanent teams and only permanent teams no matter what.

That's kind of an overstatement on how easy it is to get booted. Your team has to be consistently worst bad over a long period of time to get booted from the NA League.

We are also implementing a policy in which teams can lose their right to compete in the league if they finish in 9th or 10th place 5 times over an 8-split span.

 

[mebizzle]

So I feel like

A) they need to quickly implement a minor league type feeder series that lets existing eSports orgs and grassroots teams compete at a pro level without the buy in

B) Why the fuck are Miami and Orlando grouped? They are not really culturally similar and are almost as far apart as LA and SF are.

C) This seems like a pretty big step to have high profile owners of video game teams like this, I hope its leading to eSports becoming much more socially acceptable.

 

[Antiwhippy]

The top 2 teams in the US for the longest time was Rogue and Envyus. Rogue is now all French and Envy is a mix of 4 EU players a Korean and Thai now.
😂

Still theres some strong competition in NA right now. Immortals has been looking strong with their two new koreans they loss to Rogue 3-2 in a really good series

Team Liquid has been getting better with Shadder and their new korean and Arc6 an unsigned team took rogue 2-0 before getting reverse swept so its not all down.

Also let's be real here, EU are not the top dogs of overwatch. It's the koreans.

 

[takoyaki]

Boston confirmed to be cheaters.

They will win by deflating the payload!

Seriously though, this approach to esports is weird but interesting. Let's see what other teams they'll have in the future, hoping for some EU representation.

 

[10k]

This whole thing is set up to fail.

First, the entire first season is going to take place in LA. All regular season matches in one US city. So the whole 'represent your city' thing is wasted. Hard to root or care for a home town team when they never play in your town let alone continent.

Second, after the first season, they'll be hosting and playing in the team's cities. These will likely be weekly matches. Have fun flying players across the world (14+ hour flights) with jet lag and interfering with scrimmage and practice. NFL players bitch about playing in the UK once a year. Imagine doing it week in-week out.

Third, no Europe. ok.jpg

I don't see how this can succeed until they get enough teams in each region to play against each other.

This.

Also, no Canada, especially no Toronto, upsets me greatly.

 

[Newtype-001]

Also let's be real here, EU are not the top dogs of overwatch. It's the koreans.

True Rogue got destoryed at Apex. T1 kr are like t0 in the west
But Envy did good with Effect.

Mayb every1 just needs a korean🤔

 

[haozz]

So a few years back, Activision noticed that they had zero capability to launch new IPs outside of Blizzard, and bought MLG in an attempt to turn eSports into an NFL like business. Part of this was hiring the former president of the NFL and I think a former CEO of ESPN.

The idea was to do this with Call of Duty, but they realized no one cared about Call of Duty, so they eventually transitioned the idea into Blizzard with Overwatch even though it was supposed to be a new way for the Activision branch to generate revenue.

This is similarly why they started a Film and TV division shortly after focused on Skylanders TV shows and Call of Duty movies, though they reserved the right to move that over to Blizzard's IPs if it failed in the Activision branch.

Eventually they realized both of these were hard, and just bought King to try and solve their issue of Activision being unable to support more than two game franchises, so they could at least grow with two of their branches (Blizzard and King).

But basically, this is the implementation of an idea that was meant for an entirely different product due to creative bankruptcy on the Activision half, so it was kind of just forced on there, and we're seeing the results of this with the astronomically slow uptake of franchisees.

This is an interesting narrative, but haven't they succeeded with Destiny as a new franchise?

I do buy that Activision is definitely interested in esports however, as they're trying with Call of Duty and Overwatch.

 

[Thewonandonly]

One thing I really hope is that they for the love of god use names. Nothing is more off putting then hearing "butbuster3000 just took out EdgeLord37 with the help of his teammate babbabook"

Like na man use your god damn names get that regoninition guys because your killing it out there. Don't hide behind the gamer tag...

 

[Nirolak]

This is an interesting narrative, but haven't they succeeded with Destiny as a new franchise?

I do buy that Activision is definitely interested in esports however, as they're trying with Call of Duty and Overwatch.

This eSports idea started after Destiny came out, because they were looking to grow beyond that as Skylanders was declining and Guitar Hero failed to take off.

 

[jett]

So a few years back, Activision noticed that they had zero capability to launch new IPs outside of Blizzard, and bought MLG in an attempt to turn eSports into an NFL like business. Part of this was hiring the former president of the NFL and I think a former CEO of ESPN.

The idea was to do this with Call of Duty, but they realized no one cared about Call of Duty, so they eventually transitioned the idea into Blizzard with Overwatch even though it was supposed to be a new way for the Activision branch to generate revenue.

This is similarly why they started a Film and TV division shortly after focused on Skylanders TV shows and Call of Duty movies, though they reserved the right to move that over to Blizzard's IPs if it failed in the Activision branch.

Eventually they realized both of these were hard, and just bought King to try and solve their issue of Activision being unable to support more than two game franchises, so they could at least grow with two of their branches (Blizzard and King).

But basically, this is the implementation of an idea that was meant for an entirely different product due to creative bankruptcy on the Activision half, so it was kind of just forced on there, and we're seeing the results of this with the astronomically slow uptake of franchisees.

Man that's more complicated than I figured. Thanks. Well uh good luck with this, Activision.

 

[Newtype-001]

One thing I really hope is that they for the love of god use names. Nothing is more off putting then hearing "butbuster3000 just took out EdgeLord37 with the help of his teammate babbabook"

Like na man use your god damn names get that regoninition guys because your killing it out there. Don't hide behind the gamer tag...

Like barely anyone has names like that and when they do its fun to see casters reactions using them.
Part of the appeal is that esports doesnt have to be super serious

 

[Thewonandonly]

Like barely anyone has names like that and when they do its fun to see casters reactions using them.
Part of the appeal is that esports doesnt have to be super serious

Ya I was kind of excaturating but it's still anoying exspecially if they are going for a more NFL type then they should use the real names.

 

[Newtype-001]

also incase it wasnt obvious already
https://twitter.com/MLG/status/885119667877986310

more teams are expected to be added between now and launch

 

[LordofPwn]

they need like 9 more teams and some euro talent to really get this going.
I'm very interested in following this and see where it goes. hopefully we get a lot more info at blizzcon, ideally before though.

 

[Won]

No EU team and only one SK team. The people behind this must be sweating like crazy.

 

[Gxgear]

Surprised companiea are investing so heavily on a game that's still not fun to watch.

 

[JinnAxel]

Other related articles:
Potential conflict of interest revealed in OWL franchise list (in China)
OWL commissioner on league expansion and localization
Blizzard in active active discussion with potentially 12 teams in first season
Overwatch League Commissioner Nate Nanzer on teams dropping out of Overwatch, picking cities and player scouting

I'm curious as to what Gaf in general thinks about this considering they're after the general audience for viewership and not just Overwatch players.

I think a big point is the teams announced today are those who finalized agreements. Could be that the remaining 5 are still in talks.

 

[molnizzle]

One thing I really hope is that they for the love of god use names. Nothing is more off putting then hearing "butbuster3000 just took out EdgeLord37 with the help of his teammate babbabook"

Like na man use your god damn names get that regoninition guys because your killing it out there. Don't hide behind the gamer tag...

+1

I hate that shit, it's so unprofessional. Real names or GTFO.

 

[PrinnyBomb]

Hope they didn't pay Blizzard those ridiculous premiums

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Surprised companiea are investing so heavily on a game that's still not fun to watch.

It really is terrible to watch. It's unreadable as a spectator (there are times where it's impossible to know what's going on because of all the effects getting spammed), and it's not balanced for competitive. Wombo combos and ults being the only way to win makes it boring to view even when you can see what's happening and lowers the skill cap.

It's a great casual game with sensational player feedback, but it sucks as an esport. Tournaments' anemic Twitch views reflect this.

You should look up the countries of origin of the prominent players on your local sports teams. You might be surprised at what you learn.

You should look up the reasons Starcraft II died in the west. You might be surprised at what you learn.

 

[holysan]

Is the price ActiBlizz is asking for really that much? They're making almost a billion profit each year. 25 mios seem like nothing.

 

[Falchion]

Pretty small group, I'm interested to see if this gets any traction.

 

[Abilidebob]

You should look up the reasons Starcraft II died in the west. You might be surprised at what you learn.

Why did SC2 die in the west?

 

[TheRedSnifit]

Why did SC2 die in the west?

There were a lot of reasons, but one of them was Blizzard set up WCS (a global competition), and then they allowed the top Korean players to represent regions other than Korea. Competitive fans became bored of seeing a Korean player representing North America, playing against a Korean player representing Europe etc.

Have a look at the representatives for the 2014 global final where the top players from each region come together. All 16 players were Korean.

 

[Abilidebob]

There were a lot of reasons, but one of them was Blizzard set up WCS (a global competition), and then they allowed the top Korean players to represent regions other than Korea. Competitive fans became bored of seeing a Korean player representing North America, playing against a Korean player representing Europe etc.

Have a look at the representatives for the 2014 global final where the top players from each region come together. All 16 players were Korean.

Jesus. At least DOTA 2 is more diverse regarding countries "dominating" the game.

 

[hanspampel]

That's the issue, we in Europe have a huge pool of great players, but no money to field them locally.

money is here
but orgs rather invest in CS:GO or Fifa with a less risky and immediate ROI

 

[shira]

This is so dumb. Why are they using the "home city" as a marketing tool. It works in the NFL because the community literally pays for the stadium. If the NFL team fails a huge chunk of the economy is invested in that team - so it's a huge boon or bust depending on how the team fares.

50% skins revenue is debatable. If the quality is there then it's bonkers good like each team has specific skins. If it is all generic with like I❤️NY sticker lul

 

[Antiwhippy]

Cloud 9 bought into a london spot.

Some dude named kroenke bought into another LA spot.

EnvyUS rumoured to be taking up a Dallas spot.

Honestly, I dunno, seems like the gears are moving, but the amount of money involved is making me feel real uneasy.

 

[Syf]

Excellent. The league feels real now with a C9 team to hate on.

 

[BriareosGAF]

I watch a lot of AimbotCalvin but haven't been able to suss out how those guys feel about it other than a few offhand comments about some pros being disappointed in the setup. Can anyone point me towards any summaries of sentiment or anything from top GM players like that? I suppose it's likely they don't want to rock the boat with public statements.

NB: not speaking for my employer.