welp
https://twitter.com/Movistar_Riders/status/884386584832946176
time for the next candle
Because Blizzard are making it pretty clear that they're not looking at attracting endemic e-sports organisations, they're interested in the bigger money from traditional sports orgs. They've not said there'll be any incentives for existing orgs in the OWL, in fact they seem to be heading towards the opposite, where teams pick and choose from free agents. Therefore it's better for orgs to drop teams, see how it goes, then if it's looking up again pick up players from the ever-growing free agent pool.
The doomsayers will tell you overwatch e-sports is dying. I think (hope) in reality the scene is going to change dramatically, and the scene as we know it now might die, but to be replaced with something bigger.
I agree with #10.
In all seriousness though, everyone is overreacting. Blizzards intentions for OWL is to have the biggest possible names. That means they're going to split their league between having the absolute largest real sports names (Patriots, Mets, Dolphins, etc.) and only keep the true giants of endemic eSports orgs. Immortals and NRG as organizations in eSports are significantly larger than Movistar Riders (in terms of eSports, not the actual company), or complexity, or LDLC. OWL is going to have the biggest names in the industry.
Another note is that every team that has been dropped thus far has been struggling as of late; that can't be a coincidence. Movistar may have looked strong for a while, but they've been in a plummet ever since takeover and have failed to regain the form that they displayed during the PIT championship. Their "recent LAN win" was against Tier 3 Spanish teams.
There hasn't been a single top tier 2 or tier 1 team dropped yet, which goes to show that OWL is going to be for the best and only for the best.
I expect to see maybe Misfits dropped soon, as well as maybe even CLG and LGE if they don't up their performance.
Please, please everyone, have a little faith.
IMT and NRG are the biggest names only in the sense that they have the biggest cash. They're lower than Dignitas and Fnatic in terms of brand, experience, fanbase, history in esports, etc. afaik. Especially for NRG, Immortals have done a much better job but still have a very VC approach.
You seem to be defining tier 1 and 2 teams literally based on whether they've been dropped or not, in some form of circular reasoning, and your assessment of Movistar's "plummet" is quite ridiculous. Name another esport where teams are dropped after a "poor" performance in two tournaments after previously being one of the best in Europe (and even in their poor performances came top 4 at the biggest lan in six months and then lost to the eventual winner in contenders season zero and qualified for season one). It happens in esports where only the very pinnacle is sustainable. That's not a good thing.
Faith is fine but you have to be reasonable with where and why you throw blind optimism around. I agree with you that those orgs could drop but that doesn't mean it's "fine" or OW is still looking super strong without them. They are top teams! They could be winning NA tournaments. If orgs think they can't get value out of that in the knowledge that Contenders is a long-term system, with a view to the offseason and OWL potentially boosting viewership overall then things are getting a bit dicey.
I think the issue is how long would it take for an Overwatch team to be sustainable. Right now the big boys with the big money are okay but apparently the smaller Orgs don't want to take the immediate risk instead opting for a wait and see approach.
I don't know if that's indicative of things getting dicey or if people really do want to wait on these big promises that Blizz is making to "maybe" get back into the game.
But again, I don't know how much of a negative effect that behavior could have on the success or viability of Overwatch as en eSport.
I'm not saying that OW is in a strong spot right now, but I feel like a lot of the teams that we're losing aren't necessarily affecting the top competition.
I have faith towards the future of OWL, because I have a strong feeling that it will only be available for the top talent and orgs in the scene (including the massive market of free agents we have right now.) I'm just saying that a lot of people keep jumping to conclusions about how the scene is dead every time an org drops their team. The scene is simply shifting in a different direction, and like you said in your article, we may look at these times a year from now as simply a restructuring.
Maybe I do have some blind optimism, and maybe I'm just hoping for the best because I love Overwatch as an eSport so much, but I think a little optimism is something everything could use right now instead of always berating the scene.
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