1246 looking like they won't be able to continue their amazing run during the Spring Season. Very unfortunate, their finals match vs LGD was quite something to watch.

I'm guessing they will bring in WhoRU if he's been on the Doomfist and they feel conformable enough on it. Teams now have a clear blueprint on how to take these guys down.

This should be an interesting one since Runaway look so much better than last season but LH remains a wild card since they tend to take it to the limit when pushed against the wall.

Also looking forward to what Runaway pull out of their Role Musical Chairs this time around!

Guess I'll be going to bed early again next Monday, gotta see this one.

I'm not sure what I just saw there, but I guess it was another way to introduce the map along with the actual map announcement video.

I was...interesting...

I see, my bad, written sarcasm is often lost on me.

I'll rephrase that, KDP is a much stronger team because they can run the same comps and then some, on top of having a stronger DPS duo than MVP Space.

I think KDP would have been able to win the match against MVP Space in a decisive manner, and more than likely also would have been able to defeat LH given the same situation.

That being said, one match shouldn't be enough to put MVP Space ahead of LH considering the team's history and overall track record. I would be worried if they do end up losing their next match but it remains to be seen of they can bounce back or not.

KDP would be miles ahead of MVP Space, but one loss shouldn't equal the end of the world right now.

Haven't seem in cast anything until this one though, unless I missed something he was on the desk and not actually shout casting for what that's worth.

He brings a lot of flavor but might just need to balance the overtalk with the play currently going on. Mr. X is there to balance him but they seem to be lacking a bit of chemistry, the one thing that may nor may not improve with time.

It's a long format tournament so like teams they have time to review their work and to their best to improve what they perceive as their weak points.

I'm going to assume that he'll get better with time, practice and some constructive criticism.

The match was a bit closer than I expected but then again KDP looked like they messing around and only getting somewhat serious after getting capped. The real test for Foxes will be KDU, it's do or die in the next one.

Like most things he'll improve with more time and practice.

Could be, but more likely that it's because they have to play their bench players and this was probably the best match to do it. Same thing LH did with Gido last season and what they tried to do with LTJ this one.

Like most things he'll improve with more time and practice.

Neither of them are superstars on their own but I wouldn't call them underwhelming. I feel like they've actually done relatively well in the context of their squad. Specially looking at the caliber of opponents they've been able to compete with..

Really nice seeing teams being able to flex to the comps they want. The Rein ones have felt stronger to me since Doomfist seems to really disrupt the tank line. Really hoping we get to enter another multi comp era like the one we had when dive was just starting to resurface.

Feels like Golden Boy is sometimes slow to update his calling when the kill feed lights up in a different direction than the one he was following...or is that just me?

Edit: Note that I'm aware that the job is a very difficult one and that the more practice one gets the better they will more than likely become, I was simply pointing out that sometimes his castmate had to interject on a new development, i.e. the kill feed, since he was still commenting on the previous state of the game.

I'm not sure I understand. Developing the solution, applying the fix, internal integration/regression testing and finally PTR testing doesn't take a few days.

Granted it shouldn't take this long since I 100% agree and it could and should have been implemented by now but I think it's reaching for the low hanging fruit if we're not privy to their development cycles and planning.

Let me re-iterate, I fully agree that it's been a very very long time, but I don't understand the need to apply an arbitrary, and sometimes ridiculous, estimate of how long it should take them. As far as I'm concerned the developing the fix might very well only require one or two days worth of effort but the rest of the chain also needs to be taken into consideration.

Realistically when do you think they actually will bring the long awaited observing QoL changes? I'm thinking it needs, nay has to at least be before OWL. Now, having played Blizz games since D2: LoD, I wouldn't be surprised if they've been holding some of the smaller fixes back to consolidate into bigger ones.

This feels like a relatively frustrating match to watch from both sides. Kinda feels like both of these squads risk being absolutely destroyed by nV and possibly even by the other "top two" teams.

Defensive ult usage is really sketchy on both sides...not really sure what's going on here.

How is Carpe's Tracer? He isn't known for it sine he never played it with BK Stars or in Selfless. I haven't seen it personally so I'm curious if anyone has ans where I could see it for myself.

Edit: He's not game breaking but he's much better than I assumed he'd be. Solid pick.

The issue is that it's not based on team color but the perspective of friendly/opponent skills based on who's being observed and what ever defaults they have. They did mention work being done for observing but I don't remember specifics on situations like these.

And yes, it;s been a while, yes it should have been fixed earlier, but no, it doesn't take a few days to develop, test and implement. Hopefully it gets deployed sooner rather than later but it's not their biggest issue at the moment imo.

Yeah, I was thinking the EU matches were probably going to be around 10k ish because the teams playing didn't have that much hype but maybe the upsets from yesterday gave them a small boost of a couple thousand more peeps, specially for that GO vs BP match.

I'm thinking we might be able to hit 15k with the RNG vs KUN and FaZe vs FNRGFE matches but we'll see shortly.

I dunno wut u mean, I see no mistake that got edited out in that previous comment cough cough

Aye, but it's a necessary evil, since you know, he's decent. Kappa

GO brought their baguettes and aren't afraid to use them another underdog really showing up and proving that Overwatch doesn't care about your well though out and deeply analysed prediction.

It's savage season.

Clearly this is a Canada vs Puerto Rico match, the other 5 members are their groupies and support staff. Mangachu's got this, he gives away sweaty Team Canada OWC jerseys.

Hafficool, no longer mid tier? In all seriousness Snillo's been doing an insane job replacing Mistakes on the Tracer and Finnsi also seems to be right at home with this team.

Another surprise from Contenders S1, the gift that keeps on giving.

Sounds like the average number of viewers throughout the day stayed relatively consistently over 15k. I think that's pretty good for the first day, though I'm not sure tomorrow's numbers will be able to keep up given the relative lack of big names but you never know.

Given today's results we might end up seeing more people be interested in more matches since the expected stomps didn't happen and we even got some upsets.

True but what matters most is the win in the end. The fact that they were always able to pull through, sometimes even reverse sweeping their opponents is what made them look so strong.

Sometimes faltering, but never breaking. Today they broke, big moment.

Well damn, eV really bringing the fire. Looks like Contenders might really end up being much more competitive than first imagined. This could end up being an insane 6 weeks!!

ma boyz eV, taking a 2-1 lead. Absolutely insane. Now, with Rogue looking absolutely mortal and nV destroying IMT...what the hell is the nV vs Rogue match going to look like?

Might we end up crowing new Kings of NA?

This tournament is bloody nuts, eV taking a map? Wonderful stuff!

Time for IMT to go bootcamp in Korea? nV looked so good with their engages, strats in general and the potency of their comps. Very impressive, they made IMT look very lost.

I'm biased but I don't believe I did, just iterating on why I didn't believe the thread as-is wasn't contributing to the conversation that could be had.

And you're right, 11k is a low number overall but unfortunately it's in line or higher with what most Overwatch tournaments get.

robokun [#18] Do that all you want but at least stick to the topic, the guy made a thread talking about viewership yet all the replies are about his lack of effort, I mean what the fuck? I talked about Liquid selling a spot in a thread about the said league and people cried like babies yet turn into hypocrites here when it suits them?

I think it would have been quite fine had he actually talked about the topic, possibly given some comparison to provide more context into why he thought it was sad.

It looks like viewership is north of 16k, possibly on it's way to 20. More OW to be had though, cheers.

And again, he is free to post it, and we are free to comment on it.

Hopefully future posts will have a bit more thought and content to them.

My point exactly, there was no initial discussion, just a one word one liner with no context to explain the reason for thi thread.

And again, he is free to post it, and we are free to comment on it. Your tantrums won't change that.

It's not much different from previous online tournaments, in NA no less. If your expectations were different you may need to adjust them.

We're free to comment on a post he put out on a public forum just as he's free to post it, not sure what your issue on the matter is either.

The thread itself bring no insight, no value, nothing.

A thread that examines the viewer count of a match is something, but your title and comment only show a negative bias so it's almost impossible to take this for anything more than "Overwatch hate".

Right now I see this just looks like a low value, no effort thread.

Flexibility in the roles they play is what's going on. Both winning teams not only had more flexibility but some seriously skilled players on those roles.

eUnited might have the same problem as Rogue is liekely to be having with no proper flex tank/dps. Zappis on D.Va or Zarya just give GiG so much more flexibility and Linkzr is an absolute beast.

Loving the shake ups in the scene right now!

As far as I'm concerned Tviq's never been overrated, him being stuck on the Tracer, even though he's a very good one, was a problem but now they get to let him flex all he wants and with Logix being as potent as he is they are very scary.

I think if they have one weakness it might be Cwoosh, we'll get to see how he deals with teams that might know to target him first and work their way from there.

Really looking forward to the eUnited vs Misfits match now.

Nothing surprising there, only difference being that the stronger countries are actually good now so the playoffs should be much more competitive.

Tviq being able to flex to what ever he wants is a really scary prospect.

I'd be very OK with this if it was to happen tbh. Makes more sense to me then the LK squad since eUnited are currently the kings of EU and would more than likely be much more competitive for OWL.

Our friendly neighbourhood hero TISrobin311 translated a short explanation by Zunba of why he believes they had so much trouble against MVP Space, and that their coach told Miro not to chose them in the group selection.

Reddit thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6uphzr/zunba_briefly_explains_about_their_match_against/

Korea
The LH lost was a shocker but then again they seem to have the same issue that Rogue does in that they lack flexibility in their viable comps are usually aren't willing to adjust on the fly. I till think they'll make it out of groups and redeem themselves to appear in the SF at the very least. KDP, LWB and AF should round out the other three teams vying for a spot in the finals imo.

NA/EU
Contenders NA should be an absolute gem of a competition and I fully believe the three teams listed here will deliver some very high level games. Now, call me crazy but I also would have loved to see the top 4 of each region qualify for a cross region LAN tournament, after both Contenders Playoffs are completed, to crown a "Best in the West" of sorts.

China
The LGD vs MY match is one I'm REALLY looking forward to, both teams are looking solid and, baring mishaps, should dominate the summer season. I'm relatively convinced both will make it to APAC and do their best to show the world that, like Winter, China has come.

It looks like the next few months are going to be jam packed with plenty of OW to enjoy regardless of region.

Mega Thunder 123 (New Name Confirmed), showing that all they need is time to gel and get their communication and strats up to par. HKA actually finished higher than Machi last season, though unlike the latter they did go through a roster change.

This could be an indication of things to come as I hope they can challenge the apparent top 4 of ahq, Ardeont, BLANK and FW.

Ardeont looking more like they didd during the preseason qualifiers, but then again Libalent are probably the weakest team in this tournament right now.

Hopefully they can polish their play and bring the pain to the top half of the group.

Will Hafficool and Finnsi be able to bring the same fire their predecessors did? I have nothing to base a prediction on but my gut feeling tells me TS will walk away with the win. They looked stronger than I expected them to be a the OWC and could even end up challenging some of the other teams for the 2-4 spots in the playoffs.

I'm not quite sure about 123 since Mistakes was such a beast and a real catalyst for their insurgence into the top teams of Contenders S0.

This is another match I've looking very forward to. Not having seen either revised teams play yet I feel like these guys are probably the closest in apparent strength and could very well be battling for the 3rd and 4th playoff spots.

the match is still a ways off so we'll have plenty of time to see how each fair before they get here but I hope this turns out to be a hype/slug fest of a match.

Edit 1 : After week 1 GiG is clearly ahead but with some recent roster additions we'll see if C9 if back in form in time for this one.

Edit 2: After even MORE roster changes from C9 GiG looks to be the heavy favorite to win this one, will depend on what squad C9 will field on the day of.

One of the first matches I'm really looking forward to in this tournament. Time to see if FW pick up where they left off last season or if ahq have figured out a way to deal with them and replicate the results of their first encounter.

I remember watching WC3 and having the ability to watch whatever I wanted

One of the reasons he points out about this being more difficult to spectate is the true 3D nature of the game. WC3 wouldn't have the same issues because it's would arguably be much easier to follow the overall action imo.

You'd think with Blizzard trying to make tens of millions out of the OWL and have it in major cities across the world this wouldn't be a problem at this stage of OW and in 2017 yet they don't seem to give a shit do they, I mean honestly how hard could it be?

I can only assume they do give a shit given their interaction with the community, even through frustrated, but justified, cries for improvement. the dev cycle is certainly much slower than I'd like it to be but I think it would require a change of philosophy by Blizz to see faster iterations. HotS seems to have a similar problem since they've always been a quality over quantity type of company, good or bad.

Now if you equate that with them not giving a shit there's not much I can say but I do find it hard to believe.