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I sincerely hope this sends the message that no game should firmly rely on the expectation of an esports competitive scene. It’s a fantastic thing to have happen, and has occurred even for party game Super Smash Bros with no esport support, but it’s not something you can force.
Sometimes the spectator appeal just isn’t there.
The thing is, it's pretty much Activision Blizzard's fault here. They destroyed the grassroots competitive scene to make way for the Overwatch League, but that took a bit more than a year. They could've found a way to integrate the existing scene instead. And that was just the start of the League. The game itself was mismanaged with the sequel taking way too long and being misunderstood (with good reason).
There were some many mistakes with the Overwatch League, that I don't think we can use it to generalize that much. ESports was a bubble though, no doubt.
OWL biggest mistake, imo, was accepting whatever deal YouTube gave to them. Even if the money allowed for better production value, no esport is gonna take off on YouTube
There were just so, so many mistakes. Avoidable ones too. The pandemic was unavoidable, but the structure of the League made it more difficult to get through.
I don't think it was necessarily a mistake. I regularly watch CSGO/CS2 tournaments on Youtube (as opposed to Twitch) because the viewing experience is just straight up better. Video quality is better, you can rewind back, you can pause and continue where you paused. The only big reason to prefer Twitch over Youtube is the chat, but the majority of time Twitch chat is cancer and I have it off anyway.
No Esports taking off on Youtube isn't the fault of Youtube, it's the fault of viewers who are too ingrained into Twitch.
Let's not act as if this isn't just a rounding error for them
I don’t think that a forced esports league was going to prosper anyway. Things like EVO,l and pre-accusation MLG where the focus is independent of the game are where esports can flourish. It’s important to note that games change and interests shift, these “leagues” don’t have the staying power like traditional sports leagues.
With that said, Microsoft now owns the MLG name and assets, and could build that back up if they had interest.
Probably less than the money they'd lose trying to keep it alive.
Which is the exact reason it got axed. No way they'd let it go if it was profitable
Esports not being profitable is basically a given at this point.
Well deserved. Chop some acti-btard staff too.
Hopefully Microsoft allows for a more community based competitive scene to grow
Can we acknowledge that FPS makes for a terrible esport from a viewer perspective yet?
What about CS? Valorant? They pull in numbers
As someone not playing valorant I think it's really confusing to watch. Not quite to the level of League of Legends or DOTA2 but still.
Counter strike is more straight forward as you don't have multiple heroes with their own powers.
On the other hand street fighter or rocket league are the easiest to watch, followed I feel like by CS.
To be fair, the different powers more or less boil down to the same pieces of utility. The smoke or molly is just a different color each time.
CS is super easy to watch
Cs is a special case. It has a very nice pacing. And requires no storfisk knowledge to be watched, you can almost not have played cs at all and understand what's going on.
I think the finals could also be a very cool esport. With it's very short rounds and tournament format. Although a bit chaotic.
It's less about genre and more about the visual clutter overload, which seems to get exacerbated with each update. Like the last character they teased literally places a giant cylindrical barrier and chains all enemy characters inside or it, plus himself. Now imagine 2 of those
Depends
Apex Legends is great to watch as a spectator, especially when you’re able to get multiple points of view.
I’ve also enjoyed CS esports previously. I’ve actually never been a fan of the LOL/Dota/StarCraft spectating as I find that it makes for a terrible viewing experience, so ymmv.
I don't play games but really enjoy rainbow six siege games from a viewer pov.
ok 👍