Thumbnail image courtesy of theScore esports / Blizzard Entertainment
For the first BlizzCon where Overwatch will be played competitively, Activision Blizzard has decided to use a World Cup format, featuring national teams assembled by fan vote rather than rosters put together by professional organizations that esports fans will recognize.
In the competitive community, the decision has been controversial. Though many of the world's top teams hoped this would be a coming out party for Overwatch esports, it seems the game's publisher (and number one sponsor) had other ideas. Yet it's not hard to see the benefits of the format, chief among them how accessible it is for newcomers.
Here to debate the merits of the unusual event ahead of BlizzCon Opening Week are theScore esports' Preston Dosza and Josh Bury.
Dozsa: To build the scene, show us the best competition
Overwatch has been out for less than six months, but in that time, the competitive scene has already grown beyond weekly online cups to global events worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Esports organizations have gotten past the initial toe-in-the-water phase and have signed contracts with top rosters that they expect to go far.
That's what makes it so odd that Blizzard chose now to forgo their more typical approach to fostering esports. At the first BlizzCon tournaments for StarCraft 2 and Heroes of the Storm, the company invited professional teams and players to face off in a prestigious event on the global tournament circuit. But the Overwatch World Cup will instead feature Olympics-style national teams from sixteen countries competing solely for bragging rights — there will be no prize pool.
A World Cup of Overwatch is not a bad idea in itself, even though that kind of competition hasn't seen great success in esports. E-Frag has held a similar event for CS:GO, The World Championships, for the past two years, but the national pickup teams that form for the event haven't gotten the same kind of fan support that top pro teams get.
Blizzard's gone a step further, however, allowing fans to decide which players will represent their country with a popular vote. That's meant the rosters that went to the qualifiers were not composed of the best of the best, but players who were popular for streaming or fan outreach.
Not that there are no top players headed to BlizzCon. Team Sweden, for example, is stacked with pro talent, from Rogue's Kevyn "TviQ" Lindström to Misfits' Sebastian "Zebbosai" Olsson. But not every team has been so lucky, and we likely won't see the highest level of competition possible in Overwatch — which is what BlizzCon has become known for in HotS, SC2, Hearthstone and World of Warcraft.
It's a shame, too, because the national team format excels in creating exciting, easy-to-follow narratives. Viewers not yet familiar with the Overwatch scene can tune into the World Cup and cheer for their own country. Unfortunately, it’s a lot harder to get behind your national team knowing that better players were left out of the vote, such as Fnatic's Casey "buds" McIlwaine, who didn't receive enough support to make it on Team USA.
It doesn't help that Blizzard has so far kept fans in the dark about its future plans for Overwatch. As the biggest stage yet where the game will be played, BlizzCon is a big opportunity to draw in new fans and keep the esports snowball rolling. Yet, without knowing the details of Blizzard's plans for an online league in 2017, it's not clear how — or if — the company plans to capitalize on the attention that competitive Overwatch will get at the event.
Contrast that with what Blizzard could have done at BlizzCon. It could well have been the centerpiece of competitive Overwatch, featuring the best teams from around the world fighting at the highest level of play. It would have set the tone for all future events, demonstrating that Blizzard is serious about a proper structure for Overwatch. It would have introduced more casual viewers to top teams like EnVyUs, Rogue and Misfits.
Instead, Blizzard took the more short-sighted option, the one that will get more eyeballs but won’t turn viewers into long-term fans. The uniqueness of the event's format is its biggest weakness, as it neither builds upon the existing competitive scene nor lays the groundwork for a new one. BlizzCon 2016 could have been the stage where a solid foundation for competitive Overwatch was built. Instead, it will be a missed opportunity that does little to establish the game as a premier esports title.
It’s hard to even imagine Blizzard continuing with this format next year. It seems more likely to be a one-off that does little for the professional scene beyond delaying its development.
Bury: You won't forget it, and neither will anyone watching for the first time
Overwatch's reveal trailer at BlizzCon 2014 described the titular organization as “an elite international task force charged with ending the war and restoring liberty to all nations.”
The nature of international cooperation and national pride are factors that figure prominently within the world of Overwatch. Its heroes all represent their countries in the organization; some, like Aleksandra "Zarya" Zaryanova, are figures of national importance. It’s only fitting that those same themes be built into the game's first competitive event at BlizzCon.
When players take to the stage at BlizzCon, new viewers will have baked-in allegiances. When you see Team USA take on Team Russia, you instinctively know the stakes. You know what it means when the crowd chants the team's name over and over. Compare that to watching Misfits take on Lunatic-Hai with no prior knowledge of the competitive scene — you'll be relying on the broadcast team to get you up to speed on the storylines involved, and even then it'll take some time for you to feel the same sense of enthusiasm.
The naysayers have pointed to other esports events that have attempted the World Cup format without success. It is of course unworkable for titles like League of Legends, whose premier league expressly forbids player from participating in non-league-sanctioned events. Other games, like CS:GO, have so many events that it's unrealistic to expect top players to take time off from their teams to play in a national league.
But Overwatch is in a unique position where those conditions don't apply, and it has a golden opportunity to set these past mistakes right. BlizzCon is the top event in the sport, and other leagues like APEX Overwatch in South Korea can accept scheduling around it. Many of the game's best players are set to participate — for example, all of Team EnVyUs will be competing on behalf of their home countries. This will be among the most competitive events we have seen.
This is not the first time Blizzard has experimented with non-traditional formats for new esports at BlizzCon. Heroes of the Storm, still in closed alpha at BlizzCon 2014, invited four teams to attend an exhibition tournament. StarCraft 2, released for less than three months at BlizzCon 2010, invited 16 players to do battle on the newest iteration of the sci-fi RTS. Early on in a game's life, they appear to focus on showcasing competitive play and drawing in new viewership, as opposed to providing a platform for organizations and players looking to show off their skill.
And while Overwatch has moved faster than most, it’s still got room to grow, particularly in the viewership department. BlizzCon 2016 has done that: the fan voting process has brought in players that people want to see, and involving streamers and other popular community figures is one way to broaden the event's appeal beyond what is still a niche audience for Overwatch esports.
Fan voting should also increase viewers' investment in the event. By choosing their country's representatives, fans have become part of the process, and ultimately part of their team's fate.
Critics have also complained that the event will not have a prize pool. That leaves out that BlizzCon will pay every player attending an appearance fee and give them a free trip to BlizzCon. Though that may arguably mean the stakes are lower for some players, providing them with a guaranteed cash infusion at a time when salaries and winnings are still very unreliable can never be a bad thing.
We don't know exactly what 2017 will bring for Overwatch esports, but ― like so many of the formats at inaugural BlizzCon appearances ― the World Cup is unlikely to be repeated. You'll probably get to see REUNITED and Rogue face off dozens of times in the years to come, but how many opportunities will you have to see Russia and the United States go toe-to-toe? In five years, which will be more memorable: another meeting between two EU teams that have already fought dozens of times and likely will dozens more, or a clash of nations that stands alone in the game's history?
Preston Dosza is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.
Josh "Gauntlet" Bury is a news editor for theScore esports. You can follow him on Twitter.
