BlessRNG Thank you great over.gg community for the plethora of advice BlessRNG

KUROIRYUU TELL ME YOUR SECRETS HOW DID YOU DO IT

I agree with Sideshow PogChamp

Bunny LUL

robokun87 back at it again with the SwiftRage BabyRage

Is that actually how it works?

I'm just wondering how the whole star system works. I just started using over.gg recently and I've been commenting on lots of things (you may have seen me have an argument or two with sideshow as well as backing up KuroiRyuu on his stellar score predictions). Is it just the more you post, you eventually get a star? Just curious :P

And thus begins the rebirth of Overwatch.

#2, just nothing for Europe yet. The article specifically states that they will be revealing more owners soon, which means the first season will not only be 7 teams. It's very likely that there will be a couple EU spots as they announce more teams.

KAFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

They're either going to surprise everyone and maybe come second in their group, or collapse under the pressure of the stellar teams they are facing in the form of Frogue and Dengularity.

They definitely played much better than usual. Custa also seems to be a good addition.

Excited to see how they perform! I think both China and Thailand however, are more of the favorites in group A, while France and Denmark are the favorites of group B.

edit: I screwed up the groups. China and Norway definite favorites for group A (unless Meza surprises us), and France and Denmark for group B.

Oh gosh, please stop being such a downer. I am not over-optimistic, I'm expressing the hope that I have for the scene. I don't expect OW to be on national TV, but I believe that if OWL works it could at least begin pushing eSports to more mainstream exposure with all the big names already involved.
Also, not every pro thinks the scene is dead. Check Kruise's twitter, he just talked about how he's fairly optimistic towards Blizzard. And again, don't be pessimistic, mate.

A lot of the points you make Robokun don't quite make sense.
No one is over-confident in OWL, we're just saying it has the potential to be amazing and there's no reason to call it dead. You can be doubtful, but there's no existing "facts" that Overwatch has died. I'm optimistic because I see how great Overwatch can be, and I'm in general an optimistic person. I'm not going to call OW dead unless OWL miserably fails and everything goes to shit, which it hasn't yet, not even close.
You then say that there's never been an esport that's tried this kind of league before; that's exactly the point. We have to push eSports to new boundaries at some point, and if OWL works, it'll be absolutely revolutionary for the scene in general. I'm happy Blizzard are trying something that no one else has ever tried before. If it works, the benefits will be massive. If it doesn't, then there's that, but let's wait and see until OWL actually comes around before we make judgements.
Your last point about free agents not having any practice is a pretty ridiculous statement to make, because there wouldn't be any reason for a team to not practice. OWL isn't going to set their teams on a Sunday and then have their first match on the upcoming Monday, it's going to take time but rosters will gel with practice.
The reason we've been getting 20k viewers is because Overwatch hasn't been getting enough exposure in an eSports point of view. I guarantee the World Cup will get far more viewership, and if OWL works, more and more people will get interested. Isn't that how everything grows after all?

Robokun87, you forget that Overwatch just barely in its second year. Please, please, give it time. Blizzard's intentions aren't to kill the game, and while they may be going about the communication aspects in the wrong way, they obviously have plans for the future of Overwatch as an esport. The game has not gone to shit, the game is in limbo and in restructuring. Yes, there have not been many LAN events, but we've seen many games lately that prove how good and exciting of an esport Overwatch can be (take last nights IMT vs. Rogue for example). Blizzard just need to create the right infrastructure to support Overwatch as a solid esport, and it's hard to complete that in a little over a year.
Please stop being so pessimistic and at least give the scene time to work its issues out.

I'm not saying that OW is in a strong spot right now, but I feel like a lot of the teams that we're losing aren't necessarily affecting the top competition.
I have faith towards the future of OWL, because I have a strong feeling that it will only be available for the top talent and orgs in the scene (including the massive market of free agents we have right now.) I'm just saying that a lot of people keep jumping to conclusions about how the scene is dead every time an org drops their team. The scene is simply shifting in a different direction, and like you said in your article, we may look at these times a year from now as simply a restructuring.
Maybe I do have some blind optimism, and maybe I'm just hoping for the best because I love Overwatch as an eSport so much, but I think a little optimism is something everything could use right now instead of always berating the scene.

Meza on the flight to Shanghai where he's gonna show off some Romanian strats and then light a :candle: for his fallen enemies PogChamp

Meza where r u

I agree with #10.

In all seriousness though, everyone is overreacting. Blizzards intentions for OWL is to have the biggest possible names. That means they're going to split their league between having the absolute largest real sports names (Patriots, Mets, Dolphins, etc.) and only keep the true giants of endemic eSports orgs. Immortals and NRG as organizations in eSports are significantly larger than Movistar Riders (in terms of eSports, not the actual company), or complexity, or LDLC. OWL is going to have the biggest names in the industry.
Another note is that every team that has been dropped thus far has been struggling as of late; that can't be a coincidence. Movistar may have looked strong for a while, but they've been in a plummet ever since takeover and have failed to regain the form that they displayed during the PIT championship. Their "recent LAN win" was against Tier 3 Spanish teams.
There hasn't been a single top tier 2 or tier 1 team dropped yet, which goes to show that OWL is going to be for the best and only for the best.
I expect to see maybe Misfits dropped soon, as well as maybe even CLG and LGE if they don't up their performance.
Please, please everyone, have a little faith.

Immortals look slightly better with Envy. I just hope that Envy can also play Zarya by the time doomfist comes around.

PYYOURR was a great Lucio player and a great coach. Looking forward to seeing how he does!

FLAGS ARE CORRECT, IMMORTALS WILL WIN

熊貓人春日- his name actually means "panda people spring day"

As long as Architect stays I think the team can go places, or at least he can go places. He's an extremely talented player.

LETS DO IT TEMPO CMON

Where where WHERE IS JASON KAPLAN???

Otherwise, good stuff.

I think I'll have to see it in action first.

Time for an upset Kappa

Ez for my boys Muma and CoolMatt

This is... surprising. Jake is losing his form a bit, I really hope he steps it up for the World Cup, I want to see USA do well with the potential that the roster has.

Really unfortunate. At least this wasn't just Overwatch-responsible, but the org as a whole with all games that they participated in. I really hope the best for Sinatraa, and hope he finds a team to settle in after the World Cup. Also best of luck to Carpe, he's a talented player who hopefully gets picked up by a western team before he has to return to Korea. Hope for the best for the rest of the roster as well!

Immortals will lose in the upper finals against Rogue, but will fight back through the lower bracket, make it to the grand finals, and then best Rogue in the BO7.

That's right, I think that Immortals will take the tournament. You heard it here first.

This explains how DF is going to fit in, according to Koreans (such as WhoRU and Meta Athena). Looks like we're actually in for a very versatile and flexible meta.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/6lr5q4/why_doomfist_would_counter_dive_according_to/

TISrobin311 PogChamp

I think many Western teams should try bootcamping in Korea and then returning back West. They get exposed to higher levels of competition and is overall beneficial for the team; we've seen what results these can get already from eUnited, and just now Laser Kittenz as well.

#11, these aren't the only North American teams. There will be at least 4 more NA spots, and then maybe 2 European spots to make a total of 12. There could also always be more. I'd love to see a 16-20 team league.

Everything is starting to heat up in the OW scene.

Finally some news. Here's hoping that NRG finds a roster. Also pumped that Immortals is set in stone to be in the league. Interested to see who the Boston and New York spots belong to.

edit: I realize Boston and NY already have owners, but I'm interested to see what teams are going to be representing them. Will they be pre-existing like C9 and Liquid or a brand new team of free agents from the currently massive market?

Relax, EnVyUs will remain in Overwatch. They are one of the teams that Blizzard needs in the Overwatch League and the future, simply because of their name, size, and their achievements. You couldn't have OWL or any Overwatch eSports world without EnVyUs, C9, Rogue, Immortals, Lunatic-Hai, etc.

Possibly, NV may change up the roster. I could see Taimou making an exit and NV picking up a talented projectile player (seagull plz), importing a Korean, or something along those lines. Effect will stay because he's a Korean talent that would not want to leave one of the largest Western organizations, even with his complaints about the game the other day. I could also see NV possibly dropping a majority of the roster and building something around Effect.

Regardless though, EnVyUs isn't going anywhere.

Alicus PogChamp

He makes great points, I really hope blizzard is listening.
Reinforce also made some great points, I hope the community is listening.
The only way we're gonna elevate Overwatch is if we all communicate like this together. Positive outlook ftw!

PogChamp MY BOY MEZA PogChamp WILL BRING HOPE PogChamp TO ROMANIA PogChamp WITH A :CANDLE: PogChamp

Hopefully EnVyUs didn't lose their spirit. Envy at their best I believe will be able to take down AF Blue, but i don't think EnVyUs are feeling at their best right now. :(

I think Jkw definitely lost his tempo over time.

Excited for this, hopefully we see invites for LK, eUnited, etc. Maybe 1-2 or NA teams as well in the spirit of TakeOver?

#6 is either a Dafran fan or the biggest pessimist out there. Yes, blizzard hasn't announced much, and while that may be painstakingly annoying to you and all the pros, it's very likely that Blizzard has something great planned and will all turn out very well. They've obviously secured investors already, which means the only thing left is to get announcements going. Give it time, it'll all work out. The more pessimistic we are, the more the scene will die. If we stay optimistic and remain hopeful that Overwatch will turn out as a big eSport, then it's much more likely that OWL will be a success.

Or, he's just a Dafran fan and is throwing for him.

A great tradition but also a big FeelsBadMan that it happens so much

12 more hours hype!!!!
But seriously, this is a really, really, hyped match. If EnVyUs wins this, then they prove a lot, but Kongdoo Panthera isn't as good as we thought they were. If Kongdoo wins, then they're Tier 1 for sure, which makes EnVyUs maybe not as good as we thought. Either way, undoubtedly going to be a intense match with (hopefully) more than 4 maps.

KuroiRyuu9625 early again with the predictions PogChamp