Blizzard is considering ending the Overwatch League

The common consensus among gamers around the world currently is that Blizzard is terrible at handling their IPs. They have the makings of a great studio/publisher and all that was thrown out the window. Now, one of their biggest fields, the Overwatch League, is on the verge of collapse and they are offering severance pay to teams worldwide. 

Overwatch 2 esports had a disastrous reputation that Blizzard is working hard and diligently to save. Unfortunately, that is an attempt that they are admittedly struggling with. The decision to stop the Overwatch League, albeit temporarily, is one of the strategies they proposed to make their goal more achievable. 

The current state of parties involved
 

Blizzard acknowledges that this decision is not theirs to make alone. There are affiliate teams with professional gamers and staff as well as a full department dedicated to that scene that will be laid off if it continues. They put it down to a vote among clubs to decide the fate of the Overwatch League. It is up to them whether the esports game should end in the season. 

Overwatch 2 overall reception

The average player base has spoken and they demand that Blizzard fulfil their promises when Overwatch 2 was first announced. One of the biggest ones is the player-versus-entity (PvE) content as the game’s core focus. When Blizzard decided to remove it or decided to stop working on it, the game became just a worse version of its predecessor released in 2016.

Players are admittedly upset because of a variety of factors. The first is that Blizzard already shut down servers for Overwatch 2016 so it’s unplayable in the present. Second, Overwatch 2 is missing a lot of key features including level progressions, voting, and cosmetic assets. Third, the esports scene is poorly handled from how teams are paid to how they promote it. 

Overall, there is a negative perception towards the game that is immediately affecting the viewership of Overwatch 2 leagues. This is seen in both international and domestic rates with only 29.7k average concurrent viewers on Twitch. That is barely in the top 10 of the streaming platform’s most streamed games. 

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Overwatch League as an esports scene

As of August 2023, there is confidence among esports clubs and fans that Overwatch League 2024 is happening. Teams were given a window to opt out of the esports with a $6,000,000 separation pay from Activision Blizzard. All they have to do is put a majority vote on ending the league in Overwatch 2 season 2023 but the odds are now in favour of the next one happening. 

This is a gamble for both Blizzard and Overwatch League teams. They are still struggling in viewership and there are no clear solutions to ensure profitability for everyone involved. The only hope that they’re clinging onto is the dev’s investment in earning back player interest in Overwatch 2 through the PvE project that they are releasing. 

That isn’t to say that the competitive scene should be abandoned altogether. Overwatch 2 is inherently a player-versus-player (PvP) game but it stands on a foundation built by a diverse community. Blizzard now understands that catering only to the PvP side is not their only responsibility. They also need to support fans who love Overwatch for its world and characters. 

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Blizzard as a company

Blizzard is currently in hot water as a result of many disappointments. They’ve botched the long-awaited release of Warcraft III: Reforged because of missing features and the slow degradation of Diablo IV with every patch. Overwatch is right there among the list of disappointments such as the broken PvE promise and still missing features from the first game.

Every news outlet online and channels on YouTube are tuned in to the next bad decision Blizzard makes. Fans are watching them because there is still faith that there will be good news coming from one of the most influential companies in gaming history. Fortunately, they are backed by Microsoft after the acquisition in January 2022. 

Why is Overwatch 2’s League ending?
 

Overwatch won Game of the Year in 2016 and it amassed a massive following thanks to both its revolutionary PvP as well as its engaging world-building. It created a community fanbase of both competitive gamers and casual enjoyers alike that set up Overwatch esports for success. 

Nowadays, people have to ask ‘will Overwatch be an esport in 2024?’ because Activision Blizzard is struggling to make it work. They announced that they are offering all Overwatch League teams $6,000,000 severance in July 2023. That was the middle of the 2023 season which shows their lack of confidence in the following years because of low esports viewership.

The reason behind Overwatch League cancellation proposal

Pro players from various Overwatch teams have also come out to talk about how esports is not as profitable compared to other video games. The most notable points of comparison are VALORANT and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). There’s also the issue that Blizzard is purposefully hiding roadmaps for 2024. 

Activision Blizzard has already started laying off staff working in the esports department in preparation for the company’s departure from the competitive scene. It was announced also in July at the same time as when the severance pay was offered to teams. Even if parties voted for the continuation of the esports league, the layoffs still show a massive change in the scene.

The implications of Overwatch League’s disappearance in esports

Right now, the Overwatch League is considered one of the most missable major events in the competitive scene. Esports fans will likely forget about it in a short time because VALORANT and CS:GO will continue to lead the industry. Book   makers will also eventually stop covering its markets because most platforms only cover major events. 

It’s possible that Overwatch 2 will still have an esports scene but organised by a separate entity. That is the case with both CS:GO and StarCraft II which are both handled by Electronic Sports League (ESL). When that happens, there will still be high-tier esports events covered by Gamdom for Bitcoin betting. The scope will vary because ESL operates differently from Blizzard. 

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