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Michael Funari

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

4/5/18

Overwatch League: The Start of the Mainstream Esport

Watching professional sports is a hobby many people partake in. Most fans have a

favorite team and player that they follow. However, for a sports league such as the NBA or the

NFL to succeed it will need more than just dedicated fans it needs an infrastructure and investors

to support the league. While the sports organizations that were previously listed are based around

traditional sports that almost everyone is familiar with, what if one day esports leagues were as

mainstream as traditional sports leagues? Hamari Juho and Max Sjöblom of Tampere university

classify esports as “competitive (pro and amateur) video gaming that is often coordinated by

different leagues, ladders and tournaments, and where players customarily belong to teams or

other “sporting” organizations which are sponsored by various business organizations” (Juho). A

particular esports league that has the potential to be mainstream and comparable to other

professional sports leagues would be the Overwatch League.

Overwatch is a multiplayer game that was released by Blizzard Entertainment in 2016. It

is a 12-player team based first person shooter. The Overwatch League is an esports league put

together by Blizzard Entertainment, and it is currently in the middle of its very first season. (The

Overwatch League). This paper will be exploring the idea that the Overwatch League is the first

esport that could push esports and the competitive gaming scene into the mainstream. I will be

exploring this idea by comparing the Overwatch League to other professional sports leagues,
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analyzing why people would be interested in esports, and explaining why many celebrities and

businessmen are investing in Overwatch League teams.

Now for a brief history of esports. People have been competing for high scores in

videogames since the 80s. Many websites arose such as Twin Galaxies. These websites would

host leaderboards of high scores. This caused a community of fans for many arcade games who

spend a lot of time competing for highscores. It wasn’t until the 90s when internet was more

prevalent that gamers where able to directly compete against each other and not just compare

high scores. This lead to the popularization of competitive first-person shooters such as Counter

Strike and Quake. These games paved the way for the early esports scene with tournaments with

prize pools worth thousands of dollars. These early tournaments were possible thanks to

sponsorships from companies like Blockbuster. In the 2000s the competitive gaming scene has

continued to grow thanks to games like League of Legends and Dota. In 2017 alone 37565

tournaments awarded a combined total of 110.6 million dollars in prize pool money (Edwards).

Playing video games professionally may have not been a possibility twenty years ago, but now it

is a career for many talented teens and young adulsts. Esports tournaments are common place

now and can viewed by any one with internet access. Some TV channels such as Espn even

broadcast esports now. But even with the recent massive growth in the competitive gaming scene

there is still not a league that has reached the status of being a household name that most

everybody is aware of or has at least heard of.

You may be asking what is the difference between the Overwatch League and already

established esports leagues, and what makes the Overwatch League so special? According to an

article by The Daily Reflector the difference is that Blizzard Entertainment are trying to make the

Overwatch League as big as traditional sports leagues such as the NFL or NBA. They are
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planning on doing this by making the teams city based with their own colors, logo and eventually

stadium. No other esports league has attempted to make city-based teams with each having their

own stadium. As of right now there is only one stadium in Los Angeles in which all the games

take place. However, in following seasons Blizzard is looking to have each team have their own

stadium in the city that they are based in (Beacham). Currently the Overwatch league is in the

middle of its first season. The seasons are made up of five stages each with a final at the end.

Each stage has prize pool of $125,000 with $100,000 going to first place and $25,000 going to

second place. Then after all the stages are complete there is a championship playoff with a prize

pool of $1,700,000 with the winner taking home $1,000,000 (The Overwatch League). As you

can see the scope of this new eports league is massive. It is simply impressive how far they have

been able to come in only the first season.

Yes, the idea of a videogame being as popular as a more traditional sport, such as football

or basketball, may seem farfetched. However, research shows that the reasons people watch

traditional sports are very similar to the reasons why people watch esports. Hamari Juho and

Max Sjöblom of Tampere university in Finland put together a study about the reasons why

people would watch esports as compared to professional sports. First, they put together a list of

reasons as to why people watch sports. The researcher’s reasons include vicarious achievement,

an appreciation of the aesthetic aspect, physical attractiveness of the players, drama, escapism,

acquiring knowledge, appreciation of players skill, social interaction, novelty, and aggressive

behavior associated with competition. The conclusion of the research is that all these aspects can

be found in almost any kind of sport, esports included. This shows that even if you consider

gaming to technically be a sport or not, research shows that people are interested in watching

esports for the same reasons they are interested in watching regular sports. This research
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reinforces the idea that maybe some time in the near future esports could be more widely

accepted as a source of entertainment.

Any good professional sport needs star players that fans can follow. So, could Overwatch

League players really be as marketable and well known as Michael Jordan or Ronaldo? Well

Blizzard Entertainment has taken some measures to ensure that their players can be stars. For

starters each player must be guaranteed at least $50,000 a year by their team. While it has been

revealed that the average yearly earning for an Overwatch League player is $120,000 there are

some players that are exceptions to that rule. For example, one player who goes by the name

Sinatra received a $150,000 yearly contract to be a part of the San Francisco Shock. This is

extremely impressive considering Sinatra is currently only 17 years old and won’t even be able

to compete in the league immediately due to age restrictions (Fortson). These high salaries make

spots on teams very sought after and drive competition. The Overwatch League isn’t the only

source of income or exposure for these esports athletes either. Most professional Overwatch

players live stream themselves practicing on Twitch.tv. Twitch.tv is video streaming service that

allows gamers to livestream their gameplay to an audience. Viewers can interact with the

streamer through the chat and even donate money to them if they are a big fan. While it can be

hard to say how much money these players could be making from twitch, some professional

players such as A_Seagull have around 10,000 concurrent viewers at a time while they stream.

This is important because these large fanbases that are made by professional players are just

more viewers for the Overwatch League matches. (Beacham). All things considered I think it is

safe to say most Overwatch League pros are pretty well off in terms of money and are also able

to form a strong fanbase through their Twitch streams and online presence. You could say that
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eventually there might not be much separating sports stars from esports stars in terms of fame

and wealth.

For a sports league of any kind to be successful there has to be rules and regulations put

in place in order to keep professional players in line. Blizzard Entertainment has always zero

tolerance policy towards online harassment in their games. That is why everyone of their games

has a mute and report feature that can be used on misbehaving players. It seems that Blizzard is

holding their Overwatch League pros to a high standard as well. Blizzard has been dishing out

fines and game suspensions to many players who are acting out. For example, the player xQc of

the Dallas fuel has been fined $4,000 and suspended for 4 games for multiple instances of

harassment towards other Overwatch League members. Also, players like TaiRong of the

Houston Outlaws has been fined after he made an offensive post on social media. From this

example it is important to note that blizzard is paying attention to what their pros are doing

outside of the league. Blizzard’s motto has always been “play nice, play fair” so it is not

surprising that they are holding their players to such a high standard. Especially, when so much

money is being involved in the league (The Overwatch League). Many people say that Blizzard

is being too strict with their fines, but the fact that they are taking their players actions so

seriously is a sign that they are really looking to expand the league in the future.

In order to form a team in the Overwatch League Blizzard requires a 20 million dollar

buy in from the team owner. You may be asking who would value an esports team at such a

ridiculous price. Well you would be surprised. Many well-known celebrities have invested in

Overwatch League teams such as owner of the Arsenal soccer team and the Denver Nuggets Stan

Kroenke. Kroenke formed the LA Gladiators Overwatch League team in November of 2017.

Even Shaquille O’Neil and Jenifer Lopez are co-owners of the San Francisco Shock. Currently
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there are twelve teams across the globe that have been formed for season one of the Overwatch

League. That is over 250 million dollars’ worth of buy ins. But how could these celebrities see

this as a wise investment? Well Jack Ettienne, owner of the London Spitfire, was asked that same

question. He said, “Millennials don't differentiate between esports and traditional sports in the

way my generation would" (Fortson). Ettienne makes a good point he and many other investors

are aware of the interest that young adults and teens are showing towards the esports scene, and

they are capitalizing on this interest with their investments.

The website Twitch.tv paid blizzard 90 million dollars for the exclusive right to be the

host of Overwatch League games. On the opening day of the Overwatch league this investment

paid off. James Dator of SBNation,com reported that there was a peak viewership of 437,000

concurrent viewers and 10 million unique viewers that night. Compared to Thursday night

football, which was happening at the same time, the Overwatch League had greater viewership in

terms of streaming. The NFL only had a peak viewership of 372,000 on Amazon and 243,000 on

Twitter (Dator). While this obviously excludes television views and Thursday is the NFL’s worst

night in terms of viewership, this is still quite an impressive feat for an esport. Keep in mind that

this is Overwatch’s inaugural season and down the line these numbers could go up when more

teams are introduced in subsequent seasons.

One might wonder what the production quality of an Overwatch League match compared

to any other broadcast. You would be surprised as there is a lot that goes into the broadcasting of

an Overwatch League match. For example, the matches take place in Blizzard stadium in Los

Angeles. There is a live crowd at every match who are always cheering and holding up signs.

The two teams play on opposite sides of the stage facing the audience. The wall behind the

stadium is a massive monitor that displays the match. To help keep track of what is going on
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there is a team of professional casters who themselves are very experienced with the game. They

can be heard throughout the entire match by the audience and help guide the viewer along with

what is happening. These casters jobs are very important as a match with 12 different plays can

be very cluttered and confusing to watch and the audience isn’t told what to look at. To further

lessen the confusion each player’s in game character is in matching team colors. The perspective

of the match is controlled by the production crew and is swapped between first person view from

a specific players perspective and third person view of the entire match, depending on what is

currently going on in the game. Between rounds highlights of particularly impressive plays are

shown and the team of castors discuss the match. After each game there are interviews with

some of the players (The Overwatch League). Considering that this is the first season the amount

of production put into each match is impressive. While there is still a lot of room for

improvement it is still impressive that the production quality of each math is comparable to that

of an NBA or NFL game.

While the Overwatch League may seem successful so far there is the possibility that this

could all be a flash in the pan. While Overwatch does have 30 million registered players there is

no guarantee that these players are going to translate to viewers of the Overwatch League

(Beacham). There is always the possibility that the fanbase could die off and the league could

end in the next couple of years. Currently one of the main problems for the Overwatch league is

that it can be a very hard game to follow for the viewer. Following twelve players at a time can

be difficult. While there are casters and the production of the games is professional viewability is

still a problem especially for viewers who may not play the game. It is important to keep in mind

that this is still the inaugural season and there is still a lot of growth and improvement that can be
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had for the league. Only time will tell if Overwatch will continue to be the successful esport that

it currently is.

The Overwatch League is a Marvel. It is simply impressive how much trust investors

have in Blizzard for making the League a success. It is nice to see young professional players

have a chance to show the public what gaming is about and have the opportunity to grow their

community. It is a huge deal for many fans of the game as it is their first introduction to

competitive esports. The Overwatch League is a huge deal for gamers as a whole because, it

could be the start of videogames being taken seriously as e-sports. Being a gamer has always had

a negative connotation to it. People often debate that gaming has countless negative side effects

such as increased aggression. The truth of the matter is that gaming is a hobby that many people

cherish and would only like to see grow. The Overwatch League has the opportunity to prove

that competitive gaming is something that people want to see. Hopefully through Blizzard’s

efforts, the interest from investors, and support from the many fans the Overwatch League will

be successful. Or at least show that gaming and professional esports is something that deserves to

be more widely accepted.

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Works Cited

Beacham, Greg. "The future of esports arrives with Overwatch League launch - The Overwatch

League has been launched in an audacious attempt to showcase esports within a

traditional sports structure." The Daily Reflector, 12 Jan. 2018, Local, p. 4. NewsBank,

infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/169616DDB2F33A68?p=WORLDNEW

S. Accessed 9 Mar. 2018.

Dator, James. “The Overwatch League Claims Higher Ratings than 'Thursday Night Football' ...

but It's Complicated.” SBNation.com, 18 Jan. 2018,

www.sbnation.com/lookit/2018/1/18/16905420/overwatch-league-ratings-nfl-thursday-

night-football. Accessed 3 April 2018.

Edwards, Tyler. “ESports: A Brief History Gaming.” ADANAI, 30 Apr. 2013, adanai.

http://adanai.com/esports/. Accessed 2 May. 2018,

Fortson, Danny. "Tycoons line up to turn teen gaming into a spectator sport." The Sunday Times,

14 Jan. 2018, 01 - eire, News, p. 7. NewsBank,

infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/1696E107A3AAD818?p=WORLDNEW

S. Accessed 10 Mar. 2018.

Juho, Hamari and Sjöblom, Max. "What Is Esports and Why Do People Watch It?." Internet

Research, vol. 27, no. 2, Mar. 2017, pp. 211-232. AcademicSearchComplete, www-

emeraldinsight-com.librarylink.uncc.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.1108/IntR-04-2016-0085.

Accessed 10 Mar. 2018.

The Overwatch League, Blizzard Entertainment, overwatchleague.com/en-us/. Accessed 08

March 2018.
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