It’s official everybody. The Overwatch League is officially underway. Every team has played their first matches, and while we’re being left with more questions than answers, Blizzard has definitely impressed. However, on the heels of the massive 90 million dollar streaming deal with Twitch, there’s still a lot of room for improvement. We’re going to take a look at the things that OWL is doing well, and some things they need to improve on as we move forward. But first, let’s look at what Blizzard is doing right with Overwatch League.
What Overwatch League Does Right
The Arena
Coming into the start of the Overwatch League, there were a lot of questions about whether it would have that “sports feel”. Competitions from before had more of an event feeling than like an actual sport league in my opinion. Countries like Korea have a longer history with e-sports, but this is something the West is seriously catching up with. At least from a league perspective if OWL is any indication. A recent CBS News report showed how the Blizzard Arena is different from most sports arenas. Instead of surrounding the teams, it’s configured like a stage for the fans to watch the teams perform. However, it’s absolutely professional. From the broadcasting table, to the giant screen with the action and important info, to the entrances for the players. The scale might seem small compared to the 70,000+ seat arenas, but make no mistake: the fans are there.
The Fans
The fans are here. They’re loud. They’re sweaty. They are nerdy. They are passionate. The interest in the Overwatch League is palpable, and the numbers say the same thing. On opening night there were more than 400,000 viewers on the English broadcast at its height. Right now the numbers afterwords hover in the 100,000 to low 200,000 range. Comparing to other traditional sports it’s encouraging. Their averages are about half of MLS, and are much lower numbers for broadcasts of MLB, NBA, NHL, That being said, as a starting point, this should be considered very good. And with Twitch paying a reported $90 Million for the 2 year broadcast rights, there is a lot of faith here. But, the numbers need to be considered for the future as well. But more on that later.
The Players
Nobody is going to doubt the skill of a lot of the people that are in the Overwatch League. Part of that is just because they’re already legendary to a lot of viewers. Players like Ryujehong, Seagull, and Fleta are just some of the players who had large followings coming in. The other part is because there are a lot of relative unknowns. People who only the most hardcore fans know, but are poised for a breakout. (Watch for Pine on the New York Excelsior.) The players who comprise these teams are a collection of extremely popular streamers on Twitch, long-time professional gamers, and newcomers ready to change the face of the game. The Path-to-Pro System ensures that new Talent is always going to be bubbling just below the surface.
What the Overwatch League needs to Improve
Let me make this clear before I get into my criticisms. It’s all fixable and it’s really early in the first season, I’m not here to spread doomsday messages. I think that the Overwatch League is going to succeed like nothing else we have seen before. But, a lot needs to improve because this is going to be the first true test of professional gaming approaching the mainstream. Some of the things are out of the league’s actual control. Some of it’s not as important as others. But this is what I’ve seen and what I think needs to change for the better. And I’m sure it will happen.
Parity
As exciting as everything was for the first week, the matches rarely were. And that’s because of what could be a parity issue. Nobody’s been doubting that the Seoul Dynasty are the favorites. Most everything else has felt like a question mark. Other teams have been expected to do well, or not so well, but not a lot of concrete ideas. After Week 1 there were four teams undefeated, and four teams at 0-2. Week 2 is under way, and I’m very concerned about Shanghai and Florida right now. They’re losing, and losing bad. It’s very early in the season, but the quality of play is concerning. The whole week there were two close matches in the 12 game docket. The rest? Four matches ended in a 3 to 1 final out of four matches. Worse yet, there were six shutouts. Week 2 had a 2-1 and two 0-4 matches as of this article.
Now, keep in mind, there’s another 6 months before the playoffs, I’m not going to sit here and say that the whole season is ruined because of the first week. What I am saying is that if there are this many blowouts moving forward, that’s concerning. One common reason people cite for the decline in the NFL ratings is the decline in play quality. Everything is a blowout and you can tune out by halftime because you know who would win. Or, it’s just a sloppy mess that is just embarrassing to watch.
As the season progresses there needs to be more parity. When it feels like all the teams are within inches of each other it makes everything more exciting. It takes away garbage time. Everyone’s on the edge of their seat. It’s more thrilling. This is more on the team’s to improve and to play up to what we are seeing the dominant teams like Seoul and and the Los Angeles Valiant are doing right now. (We’ll see how that statement ages in the Stage 1 wrap up.)
Commentary 
I’ll be honest, right now I wish they would fire half of their commentary team. Keep in mind, I said half, because Overwatch League’s commentary switches between matches. Half the time I watch a match the commentators are poised, professional, and informative. The other half seem to be misunderstanding why a lot of people are watching OWL. They’re still in “casting mode” so to speak. They fill things with a lot of anecdotes, jokes, or self-referential humor. Of course there have been colorful color commentators like John Madden. I’m not saying they have to be these robots who just described what’s going on.
But it seems like half the time I’m getting somebody who cares more about being the entertainment than presenting the entertainment people are there to see. Whether it’s telling a joke that is going on for far too long while matches are going on, constantly trying to hype up with crowd when it just feels desperate, or just comes of like a douchebag. It’s infuriating because not everybody on the commentary isn’t bad. Some of the people who are on broadcast are clear, on track and very informative. Others it feels like I’m watching an IRL streamer begging for donations every 30 seconds while they pretend they’re a color commentator.
Viewership
This might come off wrong, I want to preface this again. The numbers so far are encouraging. 400,000+ viewers for a debut, and 100,000 to 200,000 viewers is good for what they’re doing. However, if they want to back up that 90 million dollar contract, and legitimize eSports they need to improve. I mentioned traditional professional sports before, and here’s the thing with that. That only includes American viewers with sports like MLS, NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB. Compared to NHL and MLS the numbers are about half or slightly more than half of average viewership for those sports. That’s pretty good. Compared to the big three? MLB, NBA, and especially NFL positively dwarf them by millions. And this is who they are up against.
If Overwatch League wants to legitimize eSports, they need to go up against traditional sports. Overwatch League has the advantage as it is a truly international league. So they’ll be drawing from the entire world, rather than just America like with the other reports used for comparing. So as Overwatch League continues, it’s numbers should start to tick closer towards the big 3 of MLB, NBA, and NFL if they want to truly reach the mainstream.
Overwatch League is extremely impressive so far. I really enjoy what I’ve been seeing. And I think that these issues ARE fixable, but for the sake of the league and eSports as a whole, I hope they fix them sooner rather than later.