Overwatch Hero Pools, Valorant, and COVID-19 are just some of the reasons why fans were dissatisfied and many players turned their backs on Overwatch. Is Overwatch itself the reason for the decline of the Overwatch League?

Prologue

The Overwatch League and Overwatch haven’t exactly had the best start to 2020. In early February, the Overwatch League was forced to cancel all live events and postpone its schedule. With teams being asked to relocate countless times, coaches being stressed, and players being pushed to the limit, Overwatch itself is quickly becoming the reason why the Overwatch League isn’t doing so well right now.

It became very confusing pretty quickly for players, fans, and coaches who were struggling to keep up with Blizzard’s ever-changing schedule. Players are exhausted from constant travel, teams have to keep looking for new players, and even fans end up not understanding where the Overwatch League is actually going.

Even though people are reluctant to bash the dying OWL any further, we still need to talk about Overwatch’s exclusive deal with YouTube as well. Activision Blizzard has signed a deal that cedes full streaming rights for both Overwatch and Call of Duty Esports events to YouTube. Even though this was a massive win for YouTube, which has been constantly fighting to make YouTube Gaming attractive for Esports, Overwatch has lost the core of its viewership from Twitch as a result.

Things have improved and they still do! Despite full YouTube streams of the Overwatch League attracting some viewers (though not incredibly many), Overwatch still lacks Twitch’s old core community, who still refuse to acknowledge YouTube Gaming, let alone would watch the Overwatch League there.

Digression

A little detour away from the Overwatch League. Overwatch, the game, is just over four years old. Overwatch was released on May 24, 2016. Activision Blizzard has had plenty of time to mold and develop Overwatch into a long-lasting game like MOBA giant League of Legends. Yes, I’m fully aware that these are two completely different genres and games, but Riot Games has something that Overwatch needed from the start.

Openness.

It was a lack of openness that became a pretty big problem and led to a lot of players leaving, casters turning their backs on the game, and fans just getting annoyed with changes that weren’t necessary in the first place. It’s no surprise that Overwatch isn’t doing so well when, for example, even world-class talent Jay “Sinatraa” Won moved to a game that doesn’t even have an Esports scene yet.

Curtain up

Overwatch suffers from the fate of change. With companies like Riot Games expanding rapidly, Blizzard is struggling to keep Overwatch going long enough to finally release Overwatch 2. And even then, the biggest new feature in Overwatch 2 is a single-player campaign. Questionable whether that will help the Overwatch League in a big way.

The Overwatch League will still keep its dedicated fanbase on YouTube, but it looks like the stars aren’t aligning too well for Overwatch. We will continue to keep an eye on developments and eagerly await the day when the Overwatch League recovers.

Overwatch

Overwatch is a computer game by Blizzard Entertainment (Diablo 3, World of Warcraft) and a first-person shooter with individual fantasy elements. The game was released in May 2016.

In Overwatch, the player must choose between 21 unique characters, which can be freely selected in a loosely held classification system (offensive and defensive class, support unit and tanks).

A character’s three to four different abilities can be controlled and activated through the mouse and keyboard. The game modes already vary from scoring points to cargo hauling. Team play is required in both modes, as each character takes on a specific role in the battlefield (e.g. heal teammates, provide backup, or secure defensive lines).

The name Overwatch derives itself from a fictional elite military unit that came together when robots tried to subjugate humanity in a near future. Individual characters are associated with this unit in the game, while others oppose it. It is not yet known whether the storyline will continue in multiplayer.

Brawl

Brawl is a game mode in which time-limited rule variations of the well-known modes are drawn. Sometimes completely new game modes are used in Brawls.

Rule variations include, for example, the restriction to certain heroes or classes, changes to the cool-down times or certain cards. New game modes that have been playable so far include a soccer game and a PvE mode.

Usually, Brawls are restarted as Brawl of the Week every Tuesday at 22:00 UTC and are then playable for a week. On certain occasions, such as – Season al events, Brawls may also be playable for a longer or shorter period of time.

The game mode is comparable to the card chaos from Hearthstone and was activated for the first time in the beta phase on March 22, 2016 through a patch.

Actions

• Arcade: More health, shorter skill and ultimate cooldowns, and faster resurrection after death.
• Girl Power: Female heroes only.
• Head’s Up!: McCree, Genji, Hanzo, and Widowmaker. Only head hits count.
• High Noon: High Noon on Route 66, only head hits with McCree count.
• Highly Offensive: Only offensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Junkenstein’s Revenge: Soldier, Hanzo, Ana, Mc Cree only (1 each). The first co-op PVE mode in Overwatch. Part of the – Season al event Halloween Horror.
• Justice rains from Above: Only Mercy and Pharah playable.
• Moba Watch: Only unique heroes per team. No hero switching allowed.
• Mystery Heroes: Upon death, you will be resurrected as a randomly selected Hero.
• Overly Defensive: Only defensive heroes. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• Show Your Support: Support Heroes only. The limit is two of the same Hero per team.
• Super Shimada Bros: Welcome to Hanamura. Only Hanzo and Genji are playable. Shorter skill cooldowns, longer ultimate cooldowns.
• Tanks A Lot: Tank heroes only. Limit is two of the same hero per team.
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Only McCree, Reaper and Roadhog playable.
• We’re all Soldiers now: Only Soldier: 76 playable on control cards.
• Lucioball: Lucio only: Soccer mode, 3 vs 3.
• Yeti Hunt: Five meis against a yeti that has the characteristics of Winston.

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