Would be fun if they imported non-Korean players to the KO scene... Yeh yeh I know will never happen, still. :D

Really nice match, that 1st point hold on Rialto thou... POGGERS

Let's go CAG!

Basically KO Contenders for T2 teams...

I would be lying if I said I didn't see this coming, a loss for both Dallas and OWL, luckily he'll still be streaming the game.

This thou makes again relevant the discussion about how much pro player get paid in the OWL, of course it's harder career than streaming, but then if you get a lot more money doing the latter...

Eh is gonna get "worse", like Pacific Contenders, teams don't give a cent about the nationality of the players, not even with their academy teams.

Since they invested a bunch of money, they want to have something back, immediately, so they go for the easy picks, Koreans.

Again can't really blame a rich dude who invested bunch of money in esports to wish to make some profit out of it, they don't really care about the scene or anything, it's just about money, and at the moment if you wanna have a chance win you gotta have Koreans.

A pity imo 'cause even if matches MIGHT look better, this leads to the end of local scenes, and the moment Koreans will start "jumping" to a different esport, OW will be in deep waters.

CAG Japan's pride!!!

I think they want to win, and considering there's now officially a second Chinese team, I have the feeling this second one will pick up the best free agents?

Good luck to the CIS guys, it's good to see orgs picking these talented teams up.

So another NA city, could't have at least picked a Canadian one?

The problem I have with OW are the same I have with any online game, mainly the community, but again is more me than the community itself.

I'm 40 and being the manager of an office get enough drama every day to come back home and have enough patience to deal with trolls, dramaqueens, or "being forced" to team up with friends to avoid it (my RL friends either don't play games or have families).

I understand how you feel, and the solution I found is to take breaks, even prolonged ones from the game (not only competitive matches).

Or again, this might be a shocker, why don't they make different leagues? With 12 teams is difficult of course, but with more?

Make an NA OWL, an EU OWL, an Asian OWL, etc... Relatively shorter seasons, and then the top 3-4 (depending of how many regions they have) fly over to LA and play somme longer playoffs.

Or even better, they change region for the playoffs year by year.

Blizzard wants a global esport, NFL, NBA, NHL are not really global, yes there are some (a lot in some cases) non NA players, and sure they are watched also by people outside of NA, but for example, there is more people in Italy watching Italian basket than NBA and the reasons are multiple, despite being obviously a vastly inferior experience: Time zone, easy to go and watch live, but most of all people can cheer for the players and teams of their city.

Eh and 1/2 of the team comes from the Open division as well, Caspere Leodeddz and Lateks (from Northern Lights).

What should be taken into account is how Koreans want their Korean friends in their team (can't really blame them btw), if a team has a Korean coach (a good one, with actual power inside the team) and at least 1 good Korean player, chances are very high some of the noon Korean players will have to leave (or sit on the bench) to allow the arrival of the other Koreans.

No idea about a possible Berlin team, but I really believe there FR players that are not yet in OWL that are better than other players already in.

I would be honestly quite baffled if a French team will end up with no FR player at all, personally I'd try Asking, the guy has been popping off like crazy for the past 2-3 months in the Trials and then in Contenders.

Florida Mayhem: Even if all the people praised Sayaplayer he actually destroyed the FM momentum. They had some good results then Saya join and all come back as before or even worse. People say trade Saya cause Saya doesnt deserve that, i say trade Saya cause he destroyed your season.

Damn Poi and I was sure to be the only one, or one of the few thinking this, and not because Saya is a bad player, on the contrary he's amazing, but they were starting to work well with Logix (who isn't worse than Saya, and more of a team player if you ask me).

San Francisco Shock: [cut]....While iddqd is the most likely i think he wil stay since is the most complete hitscan/tracer on the roster even if he his a worst tracer than Danteh and a worst hitscan than Babybay.

I really don't see iddqd staying, unless there's some weird clause in his contract (which is what I think happened for this first season), they'll probably get rid of him, problem is that after 12 months of no competitive play, who will ever pick him up as a player?

I honestly think it's a matter of culture, when we speak of EU we consider all countries alltogether...

Italy which has more population then all the nordic nations together (50-60mills), and yet barely manages to field 1 tier 2-3 team, why is that? Because videogames as a whole are still considered not an actual field of work, trust me I work with videogames and even now that I'm 40 people keep reacting like "really you work with videogames?!?! Haha that must be so cool, basically playing, not even a real job!".

On the other hand you have Sweden, Norway, Finnland and Denmark, which pump out esport players like if it rains

I have some NA friends and have been in the States and Canada a couple of times (holidays and work), but I get the impression that the society still doesn't really consider gaming like an "actual" profession, unlike they do for classic sports.

Hurricanes trying the London streak?

Yep totally agree on the part about providing more support to Contenders.

They should do it equally for all the regions (except Korea that's on another level by itself) thou, 'cause if they start investing only in the NA Contenders what you'll have is another version of the OWL.

All the best non-OWL players will be picked up by these teams, which means more Koreans and Europeans, not a better NA scene (the same goes for all scense of course).

Of course they are in for the money, so the wins, and to win you need obviously the strongest players, which at the moment means mainly Koreans, and if nothing changes will be Koreans forever.

Follows a wall of imo of course

They should have structured Contenders better in 2017, forcing NA teams to only have NA players, EU and KO the same.

Launching OWL only after a serious season of Contenders, and put in place some sort of limits to foreign (not just Koreans) players, let's say being forced to field at least 2-3 NA players in each match.

Would the quality have been lower? Yes, but you would have had some sort of a scene, and let's not joke about it, people would have watched it anyway.

Come year 2, with new teams, you'd have had more Koreans anyway, and so on and so forth, but eh what's done is done, the season was nice, the finals poggers, but stil...

Asking popping off, again.

Eh More NA teams than NA players, let's hope Atlanta could change that... I doubt it but eh.

GG London, well deserved (and I'm a Phillie fan), 1st OWL Champion!

And again Sado jumping in alone with his teams still spawning...

EDIT: GG London I guess? Phillie simply ins't there, while London keeps popping off.

Profit still damn hot today, Sado lowkey feeding (not reallly just his fault but eh)

Damn Goldenboy knows how to hype a crowd

Wth player of the match Gesture? Yes he played great, but without Profit they would have lost Volskaya.

GG London!

And as much as I love Neptuno's offensive Mercy... if they keep playing without Boombox he should be a bit more careful, died first twice on 2nd point Volskaya, that lost them the map.

Damn you Scrubasaurus if you go on like this, we'll lose you too to OWL!
As usual great article mate.

Sigh, even when they play on East Coast they start at 1AM. :(

Btw damn HYPE!

EU: Paris + a Scandinavian Capital (most likely Stockholm)
NA: Toronto (or Montreal/Vancouver)
Asia: Guangzhou, Probably Busan and one in either Australia or Thailand.

You are forgetting what's probably atm the hottest FR player not in OWL, Asking, I don't know if he's already of age, but fi he is, he0's already an OWL capable player.

How many UK (or even just EU) players are in London Spitfire and NA players in NYXL or Florida Mayhem?

As others have pointed out only some of the FR players, let's list them again: Soon, aKm, unKOE, Poko, NiCOgdh, Benbest, Asking, Hqardest, Leaf, Winz, Knoxxx, Lilbow, Hayko, Kolsti, and there are others.

Are they all top tier OWL players? Of course not, but do you honestly believ FR doesn't have enough talent to field a mixed team with some FR players in it?

Damn gone are the days of me looking decent on a toon which should actually reward good aim...
Yes I was making strages with Hanzo and I have a damn potato aim, was about time they fixed it imo.

https://youtu.be/My2FRPA3Gf8

No idea why, considering i hate her music, she's not what I look for as a sex interest, but the moment they announced this character and displayed his ablities, this came to my mind.

Ok Torb + Ana on first point Gibraltar defense? And it actually works?!?
I guess GG FU

Right now? Well they are not the best team around, so is good SK also added other players.
In a month? Nobody can tell, so eh.

Get the Kaiser a team!

Ok guys watch this, even if just for Asking, charging an Hanzo ulti each and every single fight. :O
But both teams are great, really nice match so far.

Well that's great! So it's just our SA friends "left out"? :(

Our lord Enigma, thanks for merging them mate!

Eh I don't know, if the play the NYXL roster and they don't wake up...

Finnland is basically again Gigantti, just with more top tier experience, Russia looks strong as well.

Of course Koreans are the favs, but if they just slightly underperform they might indeed not pass the turn.

:D

Isn't he also playing with bad ping?

All in all I'd say that as much as I like Pine (how can someone not like him), and I think Jjonak is probably the most talented player in OWL, SBB is the real NYXL carry, if you have him "cold"...

Oh yes downvote it, np, Phillie was the better team (except on 2CP).
No sandbagging involved, and Poko the last map was on fire the whole friggin match, both attack and defense.

Yes!!!
GG Phillie!

EDIT:
Hotba 0-2
Poko 3-0

57-8 in kills on King's Road... Doesn't even look like NYXL...

I mean yes Carpe is a monster, EQO is playing great etc... but is NYXL underperforming like crazy :/

Wooo, c'mon "just" other 2 maps Phillie!

:(

I agree, there are for sure positive aspects to it, but for each positive one I find more negative ones.

Yes you increase the spectators for Contenders matches, but only for 2 teams (instead of 4, which were imo already way too few)

Considering 80-90% of OW tournaments are owned by Blizzard, why couldn't they slot the Contenders finals at a different time? Yes would require some long-term planning, but ehi if you care about the PathToPro...