Very difficult, sure. But I'm not sure it was hopeless. They have some work to do with the new roster but I don't think it's an impossible task.

They have their work cut out for them.

It's still a fact that the game is very young, and infrastructure in the earlier days really wasn't their to support it as an eSport imo. So no, I don't believe adding the beta phases warrants more than 15k people watching when it was really was more geared towards being accessible and fun to play.

You know full well that OWL isn't geared towards the demographic you just listed. As per Nate himself the first Season isn't even looking to bring in non OW fans, just the ones that already know the game but that might not know it as an eSport. I think you're discounting the effect that being a pioneer in eSports has. What CS was able to build didn't get done overnight and the legacy it carries means a lot. As eSports grew so did the scene, so yes, I think it does matter quite a bit.

There's opinions form both sides. And for the same reason you don't see why people are "positive" some don't see why you're "negative". I've mentioned this a lot but without enough information and expertise to make an educated and informed analysis we have to default to a side. I'm in the opinion that all the money being pumped in from notable business men who know much more than we do is an indication that there's some manner of viability for this model.

Advertising doesn't guarantee anything, but without it you get nothing. I don't know what the OWL, or each individual team's campaigns will look like so that's not something I can speak on. I do however think that a lot of people hope it "blows up", more than they "assume" it will. Assumptions on either side can only be speculation because again, unless anyone has insider information or a magic ball, no one actually knows.

I don't think you're wrong in being skeptical of the league's success, I also don't think you can call others wrong for believing it will succeed. My reason for not assuming it's downfall is that I chose to defer the business people and the large amount of capital that's being put in, but I'm also aware that mismanagement is a thing so I don't assume it'll be a raging success.

Tier 1 only .

You're correct, I've never claimed I was, and stars have nothing to do with it because, as you said, I'm not a mod.

This isn't about you, I just value respect, regardless of the message being conveyed. And Hopefully we can keep threads from devolving into fling fests.

Another step towards diversity in this young games life.

Article:
https://dotesports.com/overwatch/m8-gaming-womens-ow-team-17226/amp

Oh Robokun good ol' Robokun. You're basing you're opinions on 18 months worth of overwatch events that have nowhere even touched the scale of what OWL is going to be. It's truly impossible to predict viewership yet because we haven't seen what Blizzard has in mind for marketing, and how they're going to advertise this brand new, international sports league. It may start off slow, but it will expand. Just give it time my dude.

Fixed it for you, now you seem like less of a condescending teenager, though I agree with your overall argument.

450 seats ain't the issue it's how many viewers we get, if we end up with 450 seats barely getting filled and about 20k viewers for these matches then it ain't looking good is it, those CS events are yearly sure but even the league matches online every week get more viewers and they don't have such ambitious plans like this, makes me wonder what these big guys putting £20m are getting out of the OWL unless something drastic happens in the next 4 years and we get 15k people in attendance and 100k watching at home. Then again there's more chance of world war 3 happening first.

Pitting a game that's a bit over one year old against a very long standing game like CS doesn't make for realistic comparison imo. I do think their are several questions to be asked and issues to be ironed out but those big guys putting in the money means they believe it will be worth it. They obviously have more information and expertise than we do so while a healthy amount of skepticism is needed, I think we'd do well not to assume we know more/better than they do. We're not the ones that have made millions.

Good job by BLANK on control but the next three modes really favor FW's better team play. This is where BLANK needs to step it up.

Yeah, maybe not having their in game leader and captain required more of an adjustment than their assumed. Control is always a bit of a toss up in those situations because it's so skirmishy, but they showed how big the skill gap was on the 2nd map and beyond.

It's too bad the Japan National team couldn't get together and compete. They probably would have crushed everyone else in Japan and may even have been able to compete at a similar level than that of BLANK in the OPC.

Hopefully they can eventually figure it out...GANBARE NIHON! FIGHTO!!!

Hard to tell who wins here. On one hand, Nesh is an absolute monster and he's already shown the impact he can have on their last Gibraltar run but on the other hand the new TS squad looks really good with PoPiFresH being the only question mark for me since I wasn't able to really gauge how much impact he had on that last match.

I think I'll give a slight edge to TS, maybe a 3-2 win? I honestly have no idea what direction this one will take but it should be interesting either way.

No problem, if it FeelsBadMan 4 Nippon it'll be EZ 4 Nihon Kappa.

Jokes aside they did get a map off of FW so who knows what they could pull off here.

That being said, I think M17 wins 3-0, but hopefully Libalent can make something happen and surprise us.

It does, though I think it makes sense for Contenders and OWL Season 1 since I feel like it's an appropriate amount of seats for what is essentially a new platform.

Looking forward to seeing what Contenders looks like and what it'll mean for venue size going forward.

It's possibly but I'm not convinced. If the Gambler thing is true Janus would take the Lucio spot and they have JJoNak (or Pine if they go that way) for the support role.

With Mano also on the squad Twilight and Gamsu would probably be on the bench. Granted their salaries might just make this enough of a compelling offer compared to how shit most KR players get paid right now.

At the very least it's not outside of the realm of possibility!

Ultima Kappa.

Ardeont's first match against a top three team of the previous season. They seem to be overall stronger than ahq but this will obviously put some cold hard numbers on the table. Each team has largely dominated the other non top teams they've faced so it's possible that this could go either way.

In the end though I think Ardeont wins 3-0, but hey, this is Overwatch.

Another big match that will shape the landscape at the top of the OPC, with BLANK looking lost against HKA they need to step it up here to have a realistic chance to win.

My gut reaction is that Ardeont win 3-0, but I'm hoping BLANK can make this competitive...maybe even win?

I know Katowice was described as relatively small, but i'm not sure how big the others were in comparison. Extra points if they build their own version of the LOTTE building to steal some of that KR production magic.

Would be interesting but it might be difficult to manage. It would need to be bumped constantly to stay on the sidebar, deciding which threads get added and when it would get too long it wouldn't be that useful anymore.

I think it could work but we'd probably need a way to sticky that type of "roundup" thread.

Good idea overall, imo.

Confirmation that Goliath will be subbing in for Fahzix for this match.

Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6yobxk/fahzix_not_playing_against_kungarna_this_weekend/

Both teams could be out a key player if iReMiix isn't able to make it.

Remiska, the unidsputed master of self promotion on over.gg, LEARN FROM HIM STUDENTS.

But yeah you really see the direction Blizz is taking in regards to their eSports capable games. Good news all around.

Ardeont has looked nothing but dominant since the start of their inaugural run in the OPC, but they've yet to face the top 3 from Season 1. If we compare how each team performed against HKA Ardeont looks like they could take the win here.

The results of this match could shape the rest of the tournament, and FW are going to need to get it together if they don't want to be dethroned as the top dogs going into the 2nd week and later on the playoffs.

I think Ardeont wins 3-1, but let's see who steps up on game day.

Edit: Spelling

Important match for BLANK. A win here could help offset the surprising defeat they suffered at the hands of HKA. The early game is much more important in this new shorter tournament format for the OPC. Right now FW is sporting a 5 game win streak against BLANK, and they're looking to keep it going.

I think FW wins 3-1, but I hope BLANK can find a way to turns things around.

I bought myself an external GPU setup for my Macbook, gives me more power and my GPU temps usually stay below 70C. If you have a 2nd screen you can also monitor you CPU and GPU with CPU-Z and GPU-Z respectively.

I hope they're able to compete even with this temporary, but huge, change. Gigantti isn't a team you can sleep on and I think this might disrupt their synergy enough to cause some issues in clutch moments. Any lack of corrdination when you have Linkzr and Davin on the other side is super dangerous.

I think Gigantti win 3-1, but let's see what goes down.

I missed the first two maps but l can say that maps 3 & 4 were not close, and looking at map 1's score that one also seems to have been relatively one sided. Bunny was able to run around mostly uncontested and get a lot of work done.

I don't expect them to lose a match until they face Seven, but we'll see how that works out for them.

Where's the goat?

I see all these posts about Random Number Generator winning, and I strongly disagree.

You can always try reddit as well, bigger community, not sure this web site is the platform you need.

There will be leaks.

NRG's tweet announcing him:
https://twitter.com/NRGgg/status/905460968020467713

Mega Kappa.

Maybe, but man for man Misfits has a better roster than 123 right now imo. I think it will be an interesting match but I don't think they'd lose.

Also consider that 123 has only played the bottom three teams as of now so it could be a factor in how good they've looked, even though they do seem legit.

That's interesting, I play from Canada and usually get 20-30 ping on average. Honestly ping would be the least of their problems considering the set up they would be in and their lack of effective flexibility.

If Rogue lose it won't be because of arguable ping disadvantage.

As far as I could see Leaf is the super star Doomfist of Contenders the rest of his pool is good but players like Linzr, Tviq or even Nevix seem more well rounded, imo.

And while I appreciate Leaf's insight Misfit also walked all over Gigantti so I'm not quite sure having a better read on them equates to being able to beat them. I think Misfits just have more raw skill in this case, that and Logix is going to eat them alive.

Misfits win 4-0

And a 2nd one today!:
Let's break it down! Singularity trades a man for positioning against Misfits

Planned for Q3, I guess that particular plan got scrapped. That's probably why they stopped specifying which quarter and just started mentioning that it would launch before the end of the year.

Sometime soon(TM) after Blizzcon maybe?

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I think I remember seeing "by the end of this year", but I'm not sure if they mentioned Q3, Q4 or otherwise.

I'm still holding out hope that they manage to grab the KDP DPS duo to match with their Tanks and Supports, but they seems to be a smart bunch of people so I'm not that worried.

Runaway is guaranteed a top two spot regardless of what happens, a win by LH sees the former make it out in 2nd and the latter in 1st, while a LH loss places Runaway in 1st and MVP in 2nd.

I'd argue that Meta Athena has not earned that right this season, not after losing 3-0 to both MVP and Runaway, and possibly facing the same fate against LH. They have some very good players but they obviously haven't been able to adjust since their Season 2 rise. Hopefully they either figure it out, or rebuild and their better players can find success elsewhere.

Similarly I actually believe that MVP wouldn't have gotten the close fought victory against LH had they gotten time to properly practice with and against Doomfist, due to the Katowice group stage. It's a moot point since there's no turning back but I think it's important to put it into context considering the results of this particular match.

Self proclaimed captaincy not withstanding, Mykl needs to go, imo he's under performing and holding them back. Now I'm not sure where Gods slots in here since I don't know how capable he is on Tracer/Doomfist or what ever else they need.

They' re going to need the whole squad to be firing on all cylinders for the rest of their matches since the "weaker" teams are already out of the way.

I think a flexible Tracer player a la Sinatraa. Roster locks for the rest of Contenders are this Wednesday so what ever changes or additions they make will persist for the rest of the tournament, including playoffs.

Interesting, that probably would have helped Runaway out quite a bit, though I'm not quite convinced it would have been enough for them to win. I'm just amazed that they can switch roles around so much and actually make it work.

The only thing I'm worried about is if it will be enough to beat teams like LH or KDP since those two now seem like the heavy favorites to make it to the finals.

Your insight is always appreciated.

Interesting, I think this is the most extensive list of benefits I've seen for a non OWL team. Wouldn't be surprised to see them go all in for a spot in the league with this level of a commitment.

These past few weeks of Overwatch have been full of surprises, but I'm 150% certain we won't see one here. Heck I'll even copy Involv3r and auto downfrag myself for a whole week if LH lose this one.

Meta have looks extremely shaky not being able to win a single map against MVP or Runaway and now they're facing a practiced LH squad that are coming back from absolutely stomping Runaway.

All LH needs to guarantee first place in the group is a win, but I think LH wins 3-0 here. Let's see if I can continue my crusade to no-life my way to my 3rd star or if I need to commit over.gg style seppuku for the next 7 days after this.

LUNATIC HAI FIGHTING!

If you want to know what they'd look like just run the numbers they gained/lost in the WC region and add/subtract them from their respective teams.

They're split because Rogue is France and BLANK is Australia when in the world cup and I believe it should not affect their regional rankings.

It could have been an option if every single OWC team was a full squad but otherwise it skews data for no obvious benefit, imo.

Apparently he left the team house due to personal reasons and they haven't been able to get in contact with him.

Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6y71n7/daily_from_kongdoo_panthera_leaves_his_gaming/

Hopefully he's OK and safe.

Yeah, funny thing is that he's such a strong presence for those guys that he just needs to be in the booth and you can feel the energy he feeds the team.

Truly an amazing leader and probably the best cheerleader you'd ever want to have.

I feel so as well, and I've seen a few threads about it pop up on Reddit but I'm not sure. Things do feel a bit off to me though.

Runaway pull it off, amazing dominance on Control, Hybrid and Payload with MVP only able to take it to them on Assault. Any win by LH will eliminate MVP now so they're in very hot water having to hope for the biggest upset in APEX history.

Really happy for those guys, they're my 2nd favorite team behind LH and I hope they go deep in this one.

Looks like Fahzix might be back in time for this one:
https://twitter.com/Fahzix_/status/904890189641895936

Hoping he's recovered enough so it's not an issue for him.

LH didn't have time to practice anti Doomfist strats because of OWC according to several of their players. I think they would have walked all over MVP had that not been the case.

Runaway looking very good on Control, now onto the more team play and coordination oriented maps. Really hoping they can pull off a clean 3-0 to make it through along with LH.

The game of musical chairs they're playing with hero roles is impressive and quite entertaining to see.

Edit 1: Runaway is absolutely destroying MVP on hybrid right now. It's not pretty.

Looks like you might end up being right. X6 is absolutely dominating right now, Nepal and Numbani have not been close.

Edit: Hanamura is more of the same.

Update:
Let's break it down! Common Doomfist play patterns