OWL teams need new names

#1

remiska

All Overwatch League teams (Cloud9, Immortals, and NRG Esports) will have to rebrand their Overwatch League teams ahead of the tournament series' start. Teams will create new geolocated brands with dedicated business corporations, Blizzard confirmed to ESPN.
http://www.espn.com/esports/story/_/id/20457062/overwatch-league-teams-required-create-new-geolocated-brands-confirms-blizzard
https://dotesports.com/overwatch/overwatch-league-team-branding-16912
here full list of rosters and citys revealed (and rumoured) so far for owl https://www.over.gg/5409/overwatch-league-teams#32

prersonaly dont like this move

#2

bweesh

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Here's what flame said on reddit which I completely agree with

Hello fellow well informed geniuses with great opinions and insider insight. I would like you to take a moment to think about shit for 2 seconds.

You're Jack from Cloud 9.

You buy an OWL Slot, and name your team London C9
Blizzard and you work hard to make London C9 in game items, branding, merchandise, advertisements
You're still Jack, Manchester United wants your London Slot in 5 years, you sell for 3 trillion dollars
Manchester United now owns your London team, but they cant be the London C9 anymore, because you're still Jack, you still own C9
Blizzard now has to erase all of that London C9 merch, in game items, branding, logos, etc, because you sold, and make new ones for the London United and your fans are pissed they have to change all of their swag

The flipside is you're Jack

You buy a London slot, team is the London ULtimates (LUL)
You sell to Man U in 5 years, they stay the London Ultimates
Everything (branding, merch, ingame items, logos) stay the same and your fans are happy

So smart.

#3

remiska

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this^ talks about 2 different things, selling team and selling organization that owns the team

look at this:
You're Jack
You buy an OWL Slot, and name your team London ULtimates (LUL)
Blizzard and you work hard to make LUL in game items, branding, merchandise, advertisements
You're still Jack, Manchester United wants your London Slot in 5 years, you sell for 3 trillion dollars
Manchester United now owns your London team, but they cant be the LUL anymore, because you're still Jack, you still own LUL
Blizzard now has to erase all of that LUL merch, in game items, branding, logos, etc, because you sold, and make new ones for the London United and your fans are pissed they have to change all of their swag

flame before trying to sound smart should think

even if c9 creates new team for london they still own it, it will be a team owned by c9 just under different name

#4

harsha

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presumably the name would be tied to the slot rather than the brand, or it would be negotiated as part of the deal. there's no reason for jack to keep "LUL" in this case when it only applies to overwatch.

#5

remiska

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i think name would be owned by the company (that owns the spot)

#7

KuroiRyuu9625

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That's not how sports team ownership works, look it up.

#9

remiska

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thats normall sports, how will it work in owl?
and if its the way itll work in owl "jack" would have also sold london c9 name

#10

KuroiRyuu9625

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It won't be the London C9, as explained by Flame and the ESPN article it will be a new name/brand so if Jack sells the team he will be selling the whole OWL org/spot instead of the players as would normally be done in eSports.

AKA he (C9) owns the London Royals, he sells the team and is no longer associated with them. C9 would be more of a parent company.

Current sports example, the LA Clippers owner was forced to sell the team that he owned. They are still the LA Clippers but under new ownership.

#11

remiska

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yes i know it wont be, im just talking about the example and that in one case "jack" sold team with name and in other case without so it wasnt a good argument

#14

KuroiRyuu9625

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He was pointing out why there's a need to make the OWL team it's own separate entity from the C9 Jack brand because you're essentially buying the right to be in the Blizz's League, you're buying a spot that can be resold so there's a need to have it be independent of your own company brand so that you no longer own the rights to the name if you do end up selling it.

#6

KuroiRyuu9625

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I'm not sure I understand the point you're trying to make. If you look at traditional sports, which OWL is trying to model itself after, teams don't share names with other sports entities even if they're owned by the same company/group.

This is a standard in sports and makes sense whether it be for selling the teams or branding in general.

Remiska before trying to sound like you know everything how about you think about other logical possibilities, I can't blame you for your lack of foresight, but you just sound like an arrogant prick when you try and dismiss another's opinion.

#8

remiska

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i agree with you about owl and why blizzard is doing this
but that argument was wrong coz in one case "jack" sold team/spot (without brand/naming) and in the 2nd case he also sold brand/name and thats the difference
other thing is that in sport most names are historical so they have not much to do with companies but thats offtopic

#12

KuroiRyuu9625

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The names are historical because the teams are old, it doesn't apply to new teams/organisation. Their names can still be changed if the new ownership deems it necessary with the risk of possibly alienating long time fans.

What's important isn't the name, it's the entity, the sports team and it's association with a unique sport/location. That's what you're buying/selling and endemic orgs don't make sense in that context.

#13

remiska

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yes i know, im not disagreeing with this move (i said i dont like it because i like some of the current esport logos and am not sure if ill be happy with what they come uo with)

i just said why this "jack" argument was not logical (comparing 2 different situations, one where name is associeted with team/city like in sports, and other that is not)

#15

remiska

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but getting off the jacks topic at least ill have some decent names in my list not this "los angeles v.2" with which i dont know what to do
can i somehow add picks to post? (logos when their available) dont think so but maybe i missed something

#16

KuroiRyuu9625

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Here's the thing, I agree that it's not the best for endemics since they inevitably lose part of the brand identity when it comes to Overwatch but I would assume that marketing and advertising would heavily link the two organisation to make sure as much of their fan base as possibly is informed and aware that this team, no matter the name, is theirs, probably through the use of social media.

It remains to be seen how much the endemics will win or lose because of this but with the league model they've been pushing for many months now this is a logical outcome. Hopefully it's worth it for them in the end, for both theirs and the league's sake.

#17

remiska

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i think that with well established esports brands and classic sport teams it will create quite some interest and that should be a good headstart for owl

#18

Pixelfish

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I actually like this. At the end of the day it'll be the city and the roster that makes me decide which team to root for. I'm excited to see what the names they come up with are!

Also Remiska stop arguing with people buddy, gotta learn to have a more normal and toned down debate

#19

robokun87

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So who own the players then, Jack or Blizzard since they own the spot and I can't imagine someone would buy out the London spot if the players didn't come with it which is the case in every other sport and considering Blizzard want this to be a sport then yeah. Who also owns the merchandise? I'm sitting here wondering what Jack gets out of buying the spot and players only to be told he can't have C9 in his name or sell C9 merchandise so it's not like he can use this as an opportunity to make C9 a household name because if a noobie comes into OWL and sees the London Ultimates playing how will he ever know they represent C9 unless he Googles them? or will it be a cluster fuck of advertising where each match is announced that the London Ultimates representing Cloud 9 are playing against the Miami Misfits?

Far too much fucking about with this OWL, I like the way e-sports is now and has been for 15-20 years when people host a tournament and teams enter it, go to the LAN and win it with the same team name and players they've had for years without all this bullshit.

#20

remiska

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blizzard needs to approve players but their payed by organization (team) so the team should own them but from what i know they also have some contract with owl itself (right there was somehting about it)
and they will play for london ultimates that is owned by c9, you prodably know a lot of real teams but have no idea what comapny owns them so its like in normal sport but it will also mean c9 needs a lot of advertising (for c9 and for lul)

#21

Involv3r

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This thread became way too overcomplicated for no reason imo.

C9 buys the spot. OWL is not an open league, there are limited teams that will be competing in it.
If C9 wants to sell their spot, the fans can't have London C9 becoming London EnVy (for example). First, it creates confusion among the fans, second and as listed above, all the merchandise and marketing value will drop immensely after selling.
So, Blizzard asks for fixed names for every spot, so they avoid this quid pro quo. Teams, and other businesses, change owners, but the brand stays the same.

And for #19, the players are contracted to Cloud9. All players sign a OWL contract that, I'm guessing, lists rules and conditions for them to be able to play in it.
Merch will be a Blizzard-Org thing where they work together on them imo, but not sure about this one.

#22

darkcvc

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This thread became way too overcomplicated for no reason imo.

Yea it did. I am so confused by the confusion. All makes total sense to me.

#23

SKYTRiXSHA

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wtf russian is coming close to my stars

#24

CookieBeast

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Wut

#26

KuroiRyuu9625

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Huh? If you mean my flag it's Haiti, not Russia, there's no white.

#25

SKYTRiXSHA

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wtf actually he has gone over me lol

#27

penda

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Skytrixsha he posts 12 times per day there's nothing old timers like you or me can do

#28

Swennnnn

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His secret is posting 3 times before anyone else to post two links and his thoughts in his own thread so he gets more upvotes.

#29

Pixelfish

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KuroiRyuu tryhards the crap out of over.gg

I just do my best to post a few times a day, and build up my stars slowly but surely.

This guy however couldn't care less about anything else in his life, its all stars or nothing

#30

CookieBeast

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I really liked the sound of Miami Misfits and Los Angeles Immortals

#31

Swennnnn

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I would like the sound of SFNRGFE if FNRGFE got sponsered by NRG

#32

CookieBeast

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New York Yetis plez