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Overwatch League
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2018 Overwatch League season
File:Overwatch League logo.png
SportOverwatch
Founded2017
Owner(s)Blizzard Entertainment
CommissionerNate Nanzer
No. of teams12
Countries United States (9)
 South Korea (1)
 United Kingdom (1)
 China (1)
Continents
Related
competitions		Overwatch Contenders
Official websiteoverwatchleague.com

The Overwatch League (abbreviated as OWL) is a professional eSports league for the video game Overwatch, developed by Blizzard Entertainment which also oversees the League. The Overwatch League aims to follow the model of traditional North American professional sports, using a set of permanent teams and regular season play, rather than the use of promotion and relegation used commonly in other eSports leagues. Each team franchise is backed by an owner, and players that are signed onto the team are assured a minimum annual salary, benefits, and a portion of winnings and revenue-sharing based on how that team performs in the season.

The League was announced in November 2016, and the first twelve teams were established within a year from that. The first season started regular season play in January 2018, to run through June 2018, followed by post-season playoffs and an All-Star weekend to occur in July. A total prize pool of US$3.5 million is available to teams within the first season.

Format

The Overwatch League plays out similar to most North American professional sports leagues, in which all teams play scheduled games against other teams to vie for position in the season's playoffs, rather than the approach of team promotion and relegation more commonly used in other eSports leagues.[1] The League currently features twelve teams.

In its inaugural season, a series of pre-season games were played in December 2017, regular season games planned from January to June 2018, and then a playoff for the championship scheduled for July 2018. All games in the first season will take place at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, with capacity for 450 spectators.[2]

For the first season, the main season is made up of four 5-week long stages, with three matches played four days a week (Wednesday through Saturday) and a ten-day break between stages. Each team will play 40 normal matches during the season; 20 against teams in their division, and 20 from outside their division. At the end of each stage is a playoff based on the teams' performances in that stage for a solitary winner of that stage for a prize of $125,000.[3] Teams are also paid out based on their overall standings at the end of regular season play, ranging from US$25,000 to US$300,000 within the first season.

The post-season is based on teams' performance across all regular games across all stages of the season. The top team of each division get an automatic bye into the post-season, while the top four teams across both divisions have a play-off match before facing off in the semi-finals and finals. The winning team will receive $1 million, and with the total prize pool across all stages and finals totaling $3.5 million.[3]

Player eligibility and benefits

While Overwatch is played in teams of six, League teams can have up to six additional players that can be swapped between matches.[4] A team's membership is locked at the start of the season, with a mid-season signing period allows teams to bring in new players or trade players between teams.[4] Currently, the League is not region-locked, so teams can use players of any nationality to fill their ranks, as long as the team ownership is based in that city or region. For example, the London Spitfire at the onset of the first season was entirely made up of South Korean players. The only restriction on players is to be of at least 18 years old and ability to travel internationally.[5]

Overwatch League players, while on a team's contract, are paid an annual salary. In the first year, a player's salary was a minimum of US$50,000 set by the League. Additionally, the League offers players with health and retirement benefits, as well as housing and training support. Blizzard required team owners to provide the signed players with bonuses representing at least 50% of the team's winnings and revenue.[6] Players can negotiate for larger amounts with their team's owners and larger portion of the bonus revenue-sharing from tournament winnings and other income. For example, Jay "sinatraa" Won secured the League's highest salary of US$150,000 for his spot on the San Francisco Shock, along with a 50% share of the team's bonuses.[7]

Players are expected to follow a code of conduct set by Blizzard while playing and representing the League, and may face suspension and fines for violating these.[8] A noted incident shortly after the League's launch saw Dallas Fuel's Félix "xQc" Lengyel suspended by the League for four games and fined US$2,000 for making comments about another player that were deemed homophobic; the Dallas Fuel further suspended him for the remainder of the first Stage of play.[9]

Overwatch Open and Overwatch Contenders

Professional teams in the League are given the opportunity to scout for new players through two additional competitive leagues run by Blizzard.

The "Overwatch Open" division, first started in June 2017, allows amateur teams pulled from the best players in the game's normal competitive mode (those that qualify at the end of the game's competitive season into top two tiers) to compete in a structured season and post-season format with intra-regional matches. Players that complete all non-playoff games for their team can earn a small amount of credit to Blizzard's digital storefront, while regional winning teams can earn higher prize payouts. The Open division is played across seven different regions: Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, Latin American Spanish Speaking Countries, Brazil, Australia/New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.[10]

Teams can then move up from the Open Division into the Overwatch Contenders league, considered a minor league to the Overwatch League. The Contenders League was used to bring existing regional tournaments (Overwatch Apex for South Korea, Overwatch Premier Series for China, and Overwatch Pacific Championship for other Asian-Pacific countries) under the same banner and expand out to other regions, specifically adding North America and European series to bring a total of five regions. Teams that participate can be amateur or sponsored teams, and the tournament is structured similar to the Overwatch World Cup events, including a structured cash-payout for highest-placing teams in each region.[11] The 2018 Contenders season will see additional two regions, Australia and South America, will be added in the Contenders 2018 season. Further, within 2018, the top eight teams from the Open division within each region will be invited to a Contenders Trials, to take place in a promotion-relegation tournament at the end of a Contenders season for the chance to compete in the next Contenders season.[12]

Rules

See also: Gameplay of Overwatch

Overwatch is a six-versus-six team-based first-person shooter video game. Broadly, the goal is to work with team members to eliminate or repel opponents as to make an attack on an objective, or to defend an objective. Players select from the game's roster of more than 25 heroes, each with their own pre-designed set of weapons and skill kits, though each player on a team must play a unique hero. A player can switch to an available hero if they are eliminated prior to respawning, or if they return to their current spawn point, which allows for teams to adjust their composition dynamically based on the current situation.

Within League play, a match features two teams (one selected as the home team, the other as the visiting team) playing at least four games, with each game featuring a predetermined map type (Escort, Assault, Control, and Hybrid). The specific maps from the standard Overwatch rotation are determined along with the regular play schedule at the start of the season, allowing the teams to determine their player lineups and strategy. The team that won the most games wins the match. If teams are tied after four games, a tiebreaker game played on a Control map (which cannot end in a tie) is used to break the tie and determine the match winner. League standings are based primarily on the overall match win/loss record, but ties are broken based on the total game win/loss record; as such, all four games in a match are played even if one team has already secured three wins for the match.

Control maps are played in a best-of-three matchup, with teams vying to take a central control point. Once a team takes control of a point, by clearing all opponents from the point for a short period of time, they must defend the point as their percentage of control of the point slowly increases towards 100%. If the opposing team can clear the defenders and keep the point clear, they then take control, though the original team retains its percentage of control it had. Once a team reaches 99% of the control needed, they must clear the opposing team from the point to complete 100% capture and take the round.

The other three map types, Assault, Escort, and Hybrid, are based on one team attacking to take control points and/or move a payload through checkpoints within a limited amount of time, while the other team defends against these. For League and other competitive play, games on these maps are played in at least two rounds, with teams switching roles between the attacking and defending teams between these rounds. For League play, the visiting team plays offense first, and is scored based on how many checkpoints they have captured/passed and if they cannot completely capture the next checkpoint or escort the payload, how close they were to their next objective. This latter is based on the maximum percentage of control they had of the control point or the farthest the payload was moved; however, teams must take at least one-third of a control point to get credit for that, otherwise their score is treated as if they had not taken any of it. If the team successfully completes all objectives, then the time remaining is recorded.

In the second round, the home team must try to match or beat the visiting team's score. If the first attacking team completed all objectives, the second team must do so as well to at least tie up the match. Otherwise, the new attacking team is shown the score they must beat via the game's interface and on the map. If they succeed, they win the match, and failure to at least match that score is a loss. If both teams end up with the same score but with no time remaining for either team, the match is considered a draw. Otherwise, additional sudden death matches are played to try to break the tie. The tiebreaker rules depend on the map type, but generally, these have each team have an opportunity to play as the attacking team, starting with their time remaining, to attempt to get the best score possible; in these sudden death rounds, no time bonus is granted when reaching any checkpoint. Multiple series of sudden death rounds may be needed if both teams succeed in completing all objectives while still having time remaining.

Overwatch League games are played on a custom server controlled by Blizzard; this server is also available to League players for practice skirmishes between games. This version of the game will receive similar updates to the main commercial game, adding new maps and heroes, and altering the various hero abilities based on testing within the Public Test Servers. However, these updates will not be applied immediately as they are for the commercial game, but instead no more frequent than once every six weeks, effectively between the stages of each season, a natural placement according to Nanzer. For example, a late January 2018 patch, which has significant effects on characters like Mercy and thus have potential to upset the metagame, will not be applied to the League until mid-February, after the first stage will be completed.[13][14] For matches, each player is provided with an identical desktop computer, monitor, and noise-cancelling headphones to play on to eliminate any handicaps related to computational or graphics processing, but players may use their preferred keyboard and mouse.[15]

History

Concept

Overwatch's development started around 2013, near the same time that eSports and spectator-driven video gaming were starting to gain wide popularity due to accessibility of live streaming platforms.[15] However, the game's development was not dedicated towards eSports; according to the lead producer Jeff Kaplan, "it's dangerous to be overly committed to eSport too early in the lifespan of the game" based on past experiences Blizzard had had in eSports, and instead planned any eSports-related goals by observing the game's player community.[16] During Overwatch's beta period, between late 2015 and mid-2016, Blizzard observed that players were already forming ad hoc competitions and tournaments for the game. According to Nanzer, who was Blizzard's global director of research and consumer insights prior to taking on the League's commissioner role, Blizzard considered the potential if they were the ones in charge of setting up these competitions. Nanzer stated: "If we structure a league the right way and put the right investment behind it, we can actually monetize it in a way that’s not too dissimilar from traditional sports."[15] Building from this insight, Blizzard started crafting the basis for the Overwatch League.[15] In October 2016, Bobby Kotick, CEO of Blizzard's parent company Activision Blizzard, first mentioned the Overwatch League, describing how viewership of user-generated eSports content was around 100 million, exceeding viewership for the professional NFL and NBA games, and saw the potential to provide "professional content" through the Overwatch League to tap into that viewership.[17]

The Overwatch League was formally announced at the November 2016 Blizzcon.[1][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] The announcement stated that the League would feature franchised teams that will hire Overwatch gamers to compete in live arenas and via video streaming. Teams would provide competitors with salaries and benefits and would help "cultivate team and player development".[25][1] Rather than following the format of other eSports that use relegation and promotion as in the League of Legends Championship Series, Blizzard wanted to follow the American model used in more traditional physical sports.[1][26] Kotick believed that "nothing like this has ever really been done before" in eSports.[1][25]

For Blizzard, the costs of running the League would be offset by traditional revenue streams that professional sports league have, such as promotion and advertisement, and physical League merchandise. Kotick also said that due to the digital nature of the eSport, Blizzard can also obtain revenue from virtual League items to fans, and additional sales of Overwatch and other games, and they are able to include more lucrative "over-the-top advertising opportunities that wouldn't exist in traditional sports".[27] Kotick said, just prior to the start of the inaugural season, "It's a ways before you're going to see certain revenue streams, but we're already seeing a lot of traction and enthusiasm from fans."[27]

Buildout

Blizzard sought out potential team owners, aiming to include teams that were localized to a geographic area. Blizzard believed having such local teams would spark more interest in eSports from spectators and potential sponsors through new activities around supporting their team.[25] A first meeting for prospective team owners was held at Blizzcon 2016 after League's announcement, with New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke among the attendees.[25] During the formulative period, Blizzard hired Steve Bornstein, former president of ABC Sports and CEO of NFL Network, to serve as the company's eSports chair, with particular emphasis on the broadcast and presentation of games played in the Overwatch League.[15]

Blizzard anticipated the Overwatch League will have a seven-figure payoff for the winning team at the end of a season.[26] The first, shortened season of the League was expected to start in Q3 2017, with full seasons starting in 2018, with the League having half-year long seasonal breaks starting in Q4 of that year.[26] Prior to starting the League, Blizzard planned to run a "combine," where players are invited to try out for guaranteed team contracts.[28]

Little information about the League came out of Blizzard following the initial November 2016 announcement, leading to some speculation that the League was having trouble. However, during this time, Blizzard was working behind-the-scenes to engage potential team owners, wanting to hold back as to provide large comprehensive announcements rather than trickles of information.[29] In May 2017, ESPN reported that the League had been having difficulties in signing franchises, which ESPN ascribed to two issues. The first was the high base cost of starting a franchise, starting at $20 million with higher costs in more urban markets like New York City and Los Angeles, and much higher than other eSports league buy-ins. Second, there would be no revenue sharing until 2021, making recovery of the franchise costs difficult.[30] These difficulties lead to a delay for the start of the first season. According to ESPN, once the Kraft Group agreed to support a Boston-based team (later named the Boston Uprising), this had a snowball effect towards establishing of six other teams.[31]

The first seven teams were revealed in July 2017, and additional teams announced in the months following.[32] With its first twelve teams set by mid-December, Blizzard announced that its first season will run from January to June 2018, with a pre-season in December 2017 and a championship tournament in July 2018.[33]

Blizzard announced in September 2017 it had acquired a former facility used by The Tonight Show at The Burbank Studios in Burbank, California which it converted into the "Blizzard Arena", an eSports venue which was initially used for both the Overwatch Contenders and the Overwatch League games, and eventually planned for use by other Blizzard eSports.[34] Having a dedicated arena was seen to help establish the Overwatch League as a more orchestrated event compared to other eSports tournaments, and to better connects players with their fans.[35] Blizzard operated the first Overwatch Contenders in the Blizzard Arena in October 2017 as a means to test the facility's capabilities and make modifications to improve both the players' and audiences' experience in time for the pre-season of the Overwatch League in December 2017.[35]

In July 2017, it was discovered that the Major League Baseball association had issued a trademark dispute for the logo that Blizzard registered for the League, stating in their complaint to the United States Patent and Trademark Office that they felt Blizzard's logo was too similar to their own and may cause confusion.[36] However, no further filings were made by Major League Baseball within the required dispute period, indicating that either the association had decided to drop the dispute, or that the association and the Overwatch League came to an undisclosed understanding to allow the League to continue to use the logo.[37]

Launch

To support spectating on broadcast and streaming media, Blizzard has implemented cosmetic modifications to the game. Each of the teams have been given a unique color scheme, and character skins with those colors and team names/logos have been added for these matches.[38] Players of Overwatch outside of the League will be able to purchase a character's team skin using a special in-game currency, added to the game a day before the launch of the first regular season, that will require real-world funds to purchase, but which assures that teams get a portion of the revenue of their team's skins.[39][40]

Blizzard has also worked to create an AI-based cameraman that can follow the action of the game as well as select key instant replays.[38] During regular season matches, Blizzard employs a team of about 80 to 100 people to manage the game and its broadcast; this includes on-screen hosts and interviewers, play-by-play announcers or "shoutcasters", "overseers" who use the AI cameraman and monitor a match from several different angles to present the best view for audiences, and broadcasting and technical support.[15] Among those Blizzard has brought on to shoutcast matches include Christopher "MonteCristo" Mykles, Erik "DoA" Lonnquist, Matt "Mr. X" Morello, and Mitchell "Uber" Leslie.[41] Blizzard released a special Overwatch League app in early January 2018, just prior to the start of the first season, to provide schedules, results, highlights, and other details about the League's progress.[42]

During the first season's pre-season, the games were only streamed through Blizzard's website and through its subsidiary Major League Gaming. Just prior to the launch of the regular season, Blizzard and Twitch established a two-year deal for Twitch to be the sole third-party stream broadcaster for the Overwatch League in the world, excluding China. Twitch will provide these streams in English, French, and Korean, and will incentivize viewers to watch these streams with in-game items for Overwatch.[43] The deal was reported to be worth at least $90 million.[44]

Future growth

Blizzard plans to expand its geographic reach to have more teams, and establish worldwide stadiums and implement home/away team formats with teams travelling between these locations, similar to professional leagues; this approach is not expected to be used until the third season of the League.[33]

While the first season saw all players under contract, Blizzard does not rule out the potential for players to form trade unions or to otherwise become free agents; Nanzer says that such decisions would be left to players.[8]

Teams

Twelve teams, each based in a global city, will compete in the League's inaugural 2018 season. They are divided into two divisions: the Pacific Division with the teams on the American West Coast and Asia-based teams, and the Atlantic Division, with the American East Coast and European teams.[45][3]

Division[46][3] Team[47] City Owner
Pacific Division Dallas Fuel United States Dallas Team Envy[48]
Los Angeles Gladiators United States Los Angeles Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, owner of Arsenal F.C., the Los Angeles Rams, the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche[49]
Los Angeles Valiant United States Los Angeles Immortals[50]
San Francisco Shock United States San Francisco NRG eSports[50]
Seoul Dynasty South Korea Seoul Kevin Chou[50] of North American video game company Kabam[49]
Shanghai Dragons China Shanghai NetEase, Chinese internet company and Blizzard regional partner[50]
Atlantic Division Boston Uprising United States Boston Kraft Group,[51] owner of the New England Patriots[50]
Houston Outlaws United States Houston OpTic Gaming[48]
London Spitfire United Kingdom London Cloud9[52]
Florida Mayhem United States Miami–Orlando Misfits[50]
New York Excelsior United States New York City Jeff Wilpon, COO of the New York Mets and son of the owner[50]
Philadelphia Fusion United States Philadelphia Comcast Spectacor, owner of the Philadelphia Flyers[48]

Season 1

Main article: 2018 Overwatch League Season

Pre-season play for the inaugural season began on December 6, 2017. The official season began January 10 and will continue through the finals in July 2018. Teams played at the Blizzard Arena in Los Angeles, though Blizzard hopes that teams will eventually travel to compete in each other's home cities in future seasons.[48] Intel and HP were the league's first sponsors, in multiyear agreements including the provision of HP gaming computers and Intel processors.[53] After the first week, Blizzard announced that Toyota was a sponsor, with the car company providing support and running contests for viewers, in exchange for advertising space during matches and in Blizzard Arena.[54]

After the second week of play, Blizzard made a change to the order of maps played in a match based on player and viewer feedback. Originally, the four games were played in order of Escort, Assault, Control, and Hybrid. During the first two weeks, some matches had entered 2-1 into the final Hybrid map, but due to the nature of this map type, it is very easy to achieve ties compared to the other map types, which significantly reduces the chances of the losing team entering this last map of being able to tie the match; this also makes for unexciting conclusion to a match for viewers. Starting in the season's 3rd week, Blizzard swapped the Escort and Hybrid map order, with Escort maps less likely to end in a tie and to make for more tense finales.[55]

Viewership of the first night of play through the English broadcast of Twitch reached over 415,000 viewers, while never dropping below 285,000 once play started, exceeding typical Twitch viewership numbers; additional viewers not included in this include those watching the other language broadcasts on Twitch, and MLG's own streaming media.[56] Blizzard reported that over the first week, over 10 million viewers across all streaming formats watched League play, and that the Blizzard Arena was sold-out all four days of the week.[57] According to Kevin Chou, the CEO of KSV Esports which manages the Seoul Dynasty, the owners had considered consistent viewership over 50,000 during regular system to be a success for their investments.[58]

Reception

Some commentators observed that of the more than 100 players selected for teams for the first season, none of them were female.[59][60] Some noted the absence of Kim "Geguri" Se-yeon, a teenager South Korean female player who is recognized as one of the highest-skilled Zarya players and who was the first female to play in the Overwatch APEX league.[61] During the press day event prior to the start of the season, teams acknowledged they had considered signing on Geguri but noted issues with such an action. The Houston Outlaws said that there would have been a language barrier issue with her potential teammates, and complications related to co-ed housing for teams. The team also claimed that if they had brought her on board, there would have been issues from external commentators about whether it was a press stunt or an otherwise legitimate reason, and the nature of this legitimacy would shadow her career. Other teams like the London Spitfire and the New York Excelsior had looked to Geguri as a free agent but in the end desired to work from an established set of players that had already worked in leagues in the past. Team owners recognized that they want to make the player roster more diverse, but this in part requires making the community around Overwatch less toxic and more inviting.[61] Nanzer also said he would like to see further diversity in players in the League, but was aware that there are cultures where there is a social stimga against professional video game players that can be a barrier to achieve this.[8]

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