Besides all, the new colors aren't so great, the red ones thou!

Honestly believe it won't be so onesided, your "biased feels" might be more accurate, at least I hope. :)

Sad part for me is, there's no real team I care about, I'll be watching whatever match falls into my timezone (not many I fear), as I like the game and its comp aspect, but the only team I could have felt close to was London, now it's "just" a full Korean team, meh.

p.s. Spitfires thou are sexy birds

Same here, wasn't easy for me rooting for Rogue, but can't deny the level they almost always brought to their games for such a long time and across different metas.

GG Sweden!
Cya soon France, and thank you for all the amazing matches you gifted us with.

For not wanting to pay all that money to get a spot while being forced to relocate to the states? Sure 'cause e-sport orgs can clearly drop as much money as some of the mammoths that got involved.

Everyone can have his/her own opinion, imo this isn't the way to organize competitive esports, as it's just the same decades old and stale way standard sports utilize, but meh.

Well it's the kind of resiliance you get from experienced/seasoned pros.
But damn so sorry OWL destroyed so many great teams, let's hope the new ones are up to par.

Matches were so close, gj to both teams.
A sign of hope for western teams? These koreans can be pretty arrogant (e.g. Hanamura).

p.s. find a friggin OWL team for AKM!

Never give-up, gl in your future matches!

So yes gratz to both! A pity we coudn't watch you play.

Can I ask how you managed to do it while no one was able to cast the final of the EU one?
Annyway if you manage, thanks a lot!

Wait, is it really Blizzard? What the actual...
Sorry Mate, gl with the match.

Dammit, we almost have more casters than teams and nobody willing to cast at least the final? :(

The point is, sorry if this sounds blunt, Blizzard doesn't actually give a cent about the world scene, they never had and never will.

What do you think is the reason for EnvyUS to get Seagull? Having an NA player on an NA roster that had none (and a very highy marketable one at that)..

Rogue? Not really, they wished to go in as an all FR team, not gonna happen, not with an NA spot.

But yes please speak again about OWL wanting to be global.

Sad day if you ask me, one more reason (together with time ozne, limited EU spots, etc...) not to watch OWL. :(
Good luck to all Rogue players left without a team.

I don't see OW bigger than 1 year ago, maybe is just me, but see less people watching it online, more and more guys I know quit playing it.

OWL might very well change everything and be the winning bet Blizzard is hoping it to be, but there's something down below I don't like and I honestly think they do not understand: They do their own stuff they don't care too much about the actual community.

Who do you think are the best casters? I honestly don't think it's Doa and Monte, they are good, but no way close to the be the best.
Do you think the EU scene was dead before the announcement of an NA-only OWL 1st season? Nope it was the healthier of the 2 (NA and US).
Did Blizzard care at all for community/Esport known fanchises? Nope they went straight looking for the big money spenders/investors.

The real issue I see is, what will happen IF OWL doesn't achieve the goals of these non-esport investors?

GG Aus!
Honestly not the best Italy we could have had, but wouldn't have change much I fear.

Don't you also have thou your local championships? Meaning that if you just want to relax watching a football match you are not forced to do it at 3-4-5AM.

I love basket, so I used to stay up to watch live some NBA matches, then I simply started not to bear it anymore, but lucky me, although at a completely different level and way less spectacular in Italy we have our own leagues of baskets (and not just 1), so when I want my basket fix I can go either to watch a match in person, or simply watch it online/on TV.

How many OW tournaments have been held in EU since the announcement of OWL? Do you think that's gonna change? I hope it will, but highlly doubt it.

Sideshow, why should an European/Russian stay up late into the night to watch a western coast match?

The good of ESPORTS is that's not bound (well not too much) to time zones, you'll sooner or later have nice tournaments in your timezone, being forced to only have 2 major events, but not like this.

I'm not just sad that Blizzard crippled the EU scene because I play in EU timezone, but also 'cause being me a worker staying online at 3-4 AM to watch an intresting match... well doesn''t cut.

I think they are gambling way too high on OW being able to work like a traditional sport (NA sport at it), but the other issue is, where are the feeder leagues? Each major sport scene and major league is supported by less competitive but more pervasive (on the territory) leagues, and I don't see them here, yet.

If we are lucky.

With all the respect I have for esports as proper sports you can't hope to get them running like classic sports, all this "you'll have your own home teamm" doesn't apply well to esports imo.

I'm from Italy and I love my town's footbal (call it soccer if you wish) team, yes it's been around since 1906, and whenever I want to go and look for it, it's 10 minutes away from my place.

The point is, it's a relatively small team, but players in it are still paid (quite a lot considering it's in serie A), and the stadium on nice games is full to its 24k potential of viewers.

Classic sports can have their "OWL" (e.g. Champions' league) because they already have minor/local leagues running months every year and never missing games (from 1 to 4 games/week depending on the sport and level of the league).

Esports can have something similar (Dota 2 is an example), but Blizzard decided to butcher it.

Yes, in a month and a half thou.

Honestly announcing your league (OWL) 2 years ahead of time, forcing loads of esport organizations to drop out of competitive OW, which leads to less and less streamed competitive games... well doesns't sound too smart.

But we'll see, maybe in a year OW will be more popular than year ago.