“Overwatch” can easily be deemed as one of the hottest games in the eSports scene right now. But in reality, there is a lot of things that most regular viewers and/or fans do not know about. The game’s popularity in eSports competition is actually on a steady decline.
It is clear that Blizzard wants “Overwatch” to be a staple in the eSports community. Otherwise, they would not go beyond introducing “Overwatch League.” However, it seems the studio is having difficulty making things work.
The underlying problem
According to VentureBeat, the game barely has a pulse in the scene it is trying to dominate.
Sure, last year paved the way for some exciting competitions and tournaments involving the title. There were even millions of viewers who watch the live tournaments, cheering for their favorite squads. Fast forward to today, though, this hardly seems to be the case.
Major eSports organizations are dropping their teams, airing out their concerns about the fate of “Overwatch” eSports as a whole. If Blizzard wants to set the record straight, this cannot surely be happening. Not now that “Overwatch League” has been set and launched. First and foremost, there is completely nothing wrong with the game itself. It has every potential and charm to make an appealing eSports staple. The problem, however, is with Blizzard: the studio does not seem to have a concrete plan of making the League plausible.
What the pro teams are saying
A perfect example for this would be the Ninjas in Pyjamas, a Europe-based eSports organization that features one of the best “Overwatch” teams in the world. The group expressed their concerns towards the game’s influence in the scene, iterating that it has not evolved ever since. The viewership, in particular, has dropped significantly, with the current numbers proving to be relatively far from last year.
Another organization by the name of Splyce shared the same sentiments, stating how difficult it was to grow and maintain a fanbase around the game.
All eSports organizations that left suggested one thing: the “Overwatch” developer has no clear idea of what should be done, most especially with the newly announced “Overwatch League.” Last year proved to be a successful year for the game and its existence in the scene, but since January 2017, its popularity gradually decreased.
Most pro teams already doubt Blizzard, which, until today, has no clear outline of what the League will be about. Sure, the studio released its own statements, assuring the community that everything is under control. But to say that is quite different from actually doing that.
