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.

From what various pros seem to say, actually competing in APEX isn't that beneficial, as the environment is very different and the schedule is very spread out. Going to Korea for a bootcamp then coming back and competing in Western tournaments seemed to be more popular

Mickie plays DVa how he used to be played back in APEX Season 1, and it's quite a different play style now so it's understandable why he tends to be diving more than staying with his supports

Immortals I think probably are now with the imports.

Selfless without Dafran is t2 at best unfortunately

Maybe the same as Liquid's? I'm not sure what it could be, unless it's for personal reasons.

I dunno about this, Gingerpop has made some crazy plays on Ana and his Mercy is arguably one of the best around at the moment. The only thing I can think of is they want to run more Zen + Lucio comps, but then you're taking away from the Pharmercy combo that they were so good with. I'm sure Custa can play Mercy, but the synergy will take time to build up.

I'm ready to be proved wrong though.

EDIT:

nvm, misread the post

I'm pretty sure Skipjack is still contracted to LK as well, just with permission to seek other offers

Meanwhile Alicus casually adds another player to the roster

My biggest concern about OWL is that Blizzard get too focussed on getting the big sports investors, but forget that the viewers normally support an existing org. Their hope will surely be that the sports orgs will bring in massive viewership of their own, effectively meaning that all the current fans and supporters are negligible.

We must just have to adapt and get used to supporting a traditional sports team's OW team or something, rather than household names like NIP, Fnatic, Liquid, Envyus, etc.

LH without Janus seems much stronger than LWB without WhoRU. I think even if LWB get WhoRU back, it will still be a close match even if LH aren't at full strength

clearly they installed their aimbots in advance Kappa

I could see this going either way, I think nV will be slightly favoured as they now know their style a bit better, but I could easily see this being a 3-2 either way

I would have thought they would keep all QF matches on the same patch, as they have the tournament realm, then move to latest patch for the semis. I could be wrong though

There's a few EU players left who aren't on NA orgs yet, so should be some good games coming up

There's a team called Bazooka Puppiez registered for OW contenders with some big names rostered. Did I miss something else, about them?

https://www.overwatchcontenders.com/teams/details/5931592e626af109d8fbda49

Edit: it looks like the same art style on the logo as well

2nd Edit: I may actually be wrong with a little more research https://twitter.com/BazookaPuppiez
(unless it's a bluff)

Liquid didn't have enough rare flags, so they knew they had to get another one going into OW Contenders

Movistar with the rarer flags, gonna be tough for c9

Whichever team loses has to let them go :(

Is there any hope that orgs are just releasing players so there's a big free agent pool to pick from and form superstar teams with, without having to buy out contracts? Or am I just getting too hopeful?

Taimou has had enough of DVa DM so he's gone Sombra to hack it

Mickie was brought to Apex mid-season as an emergency replacement. They did then take him to MLG before signing him.

I'd imagine whether they sign Lui and Effect will depend on how this season goes, and will also depend on whether they want to stick with a 7 man roster.

Map Rotation

Best of 3: Payload / Control / 2CP
4 Game Set: Hybrid / Control / 2CP / Payload
Best of 5: Control / Payload / 2CP / Control
Best of 7: Control / Payload / 2CP / Control / Payload / Hybrid

Looks like NA and EU teams gotta start learning that 2CP

So from reading the article do I gather there'll be three levels of competition? Top being Overwatch League, then Overwatch Contenders, then Overwatch Open Division? Or am I misunderstanding?

So which one of the many organisations without teams atm is gonna pick up Yikes? These guys seem to be turning into the real deal

It works when you can exploit the map to get good value from zen's discord orbs plus the increased damage from Lucio now. So Zen + Lucio gives you almost the same effective damage from having a dedicated dps while also giving you healing and support ults. It only works on some maps but can be really strong.

So many good players looking for team at the moment, NRG should be able to find someone to fill the spot.

Hope for the best for Ajax though, he seems like a decent guy

I think Lui runs a decent genji, so maybe if they want to run a tracer/genji comp they could sub him in

He looked good in a couple of games of Rivalcade Rumble, but I agree, he's not been as god like as he has been in the past