So I've been theory-crafting about the Overwatch League. I have no inside knowledge and haven't done any hard-hitting research like Sideshow--just thinking about how it might be dreamed up in a successful way. I remember some opinions being a bit skeptical how it would work, but I don't think it's too crazy an idea.
-
Focus on NA/EU/Asia/ETC (4) divisions. You could try for 6 regionals teams in each area. Let's take NA as an example: North-east/SE/MidWest/South/Cali/NorthWest (I completely neglected Canada here, oops.) BostonNY?/Miami/Chicago/Austin/Cali/Seattle
-
"Combine" - invite try-outs from competitive ladder players at gaming/LAN cafe event centers, where that regions' team would play in future events.
-
Local transport is cheaper if you stay inter-regional. Not that expensive to send 6 players, a coach, some assistants across the US, I know Europe train prices are pretty reasonable too.
-
Final World Series event could be top 4 teams from each region. At a big Blizzcon like event.
-
Overwatch League runs separate from the sponsor-driven competitive team market, invites only players within a certain region. Must be citizens of that country maybe? IDK if that's fair even, but it would limit people moving across regions just to play top OW.
-
The OW World Cup was the most solid Overwatch produced tournament to date, but the games weren't as satisfying and the finals were depressing due to Korea's amazing team. Bringing real player talent from competitive ladder who aren't already on Pro teams, as well as maybe various local-Pro's should up the quality of the gameplay.
- Overwatch does seem widely popular, and I can imagine lots of people who may not normally be seen as gaming pros get to try out, playing on 144hz+ screens with good equipment. Seems like a cool event if you're from that gaming area. (Note Blizzard surely could crunch the numbers and find areas with high concentrations of Overwatch players.)
Seems like an interesting way to create a more NFL/MLB league system where teams are associated with popular cities/areas. I think that's all I've come up with.
Thoughts?
Discord