therealist
Member
Spectating OW needs to be more interactive and not as passive. Let the viewer flip between first person viewpoints of every player in the game while also having a overhead view available to them.
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ESPN: Blizzard having trouble recruiting for Overwatch League due to high cost
- Thread starter ZeroGravity
- Start date
Azure Phoenix
Member
The sad part is that all this uncertainty over the Overwatch League has been strangling teams for months, if Blizzard had simply never planned or announced anything then competitive Overwatch would be in a far better position. Seagull was right to step back and focus on streaming while this mess plays out.
Delusibeta
Banned
No, that's what the last League team sold for. And that's an investment that's ready to roll, Blizzard is asking for 10 times just to get in through the door. That's completely unreasonable.
SafeinSound
Member
This is seriously insane. What are they thinking? I know the game just broke 1 billion, but Jesus, give it sometime. Is it even this expensive for LoL?
WaterAstro
Member
I wonder how this works in the Korea scene.
I know OW esports in Korea has taken off in some ways.
I know OW esports in Korea has taken off in some ways.
League's (and Dota's) entry fee is $0.
Delusibeta
Banned
You can probably buy all of the NA LCS teams for that $20 million (and then Riot will force you to sell all of them).
Gentleman Jack
Member
None of this sounds like a good deal for the franchisees or the competitive scene, period. No revshare for four years? The fuck? Naked, shortsighted greed on Blizzard's part. They've learned fucking nothing from decades of what should have been valuable learning experience watching other competitive leagues flourish using their games.
CountAntonius
Member
It's like if they are assuming Popularity=Esports Success. It's a great start but not a shoe in.
Even Blizzrd can't be blind to Overwatch's lack of popularity when it comes to esports.
Hearthstone team league would have been a better idea, but obviously not at that laughable price.
Poohblaster
Member
So I'm guessing that if another organization hosted a Overwatch tournament and broadcast it. Act-Blizz would sue the pants off of them.
This is such a stupid model. The reason real sports franchises work is because they have the $$$ through multiple revenue streams to pay for top talent. They don't own the rights to their game.
Act-Blizz is going about this bass-ackwards. They need to establish a revenue stream before creating franchises.
This is such a stupid model. The reason real sports franchises work is because they have the $$$ through multiple revenue streams to pay for top talent. They don't own the rights to their game.
Act-Blizz is going about this bass-ackwards. They need to establish a revenue stream before creating franchises.
ZeroGravity
Member
None of this is really relevant to being able to follow what's happening in the game. It's like in football when they breakdown offensive and defensive schemes. You like 95% of people watching know what they're talking about? Not a chance. Guy throws a football and another guy catches it? That's all they need.
The complaints about Overwatch being difficult to follow are pretty unfounded if you've actually played the game any decent amount. You don't need to know the meta or team composition to see how a Genji just wiped the entire enemy team with his sword. or the Reinhardt hammered everyone down. A basic understanding of the hero abilities is more than enough.
Maybe they have trouble translating this to people outside of those who play the game, but the game's player base is so big around that they should have a decent enough amount of people to make this a successful esport. And the game's only getting bigger.
Omega Kirby
Member
Game isn't even fun to watch compared to playing, best just pour that money into advertisement and the game itself
TharpDaddy
Member
That's one of the biggest things. Blizzard is asking a $20 million price tag for an uncertainty. With a League of Legends, Counter Strike or Dota team you have a good idea of what you'll get. If you buy an LCS team you can look at viewers and exposure, so when you eat that cost of buying a spot you have a lot more information to work with.
But there's almost nothing known about the Overwatch League. All these buyers have to go off of is that the game has a lot of players and the last Blizzcon tournament had around 200k viewers peak (iirc). Blizzard is taking those and saying "hey this will be the next big thing, trust us!" and charging 20 million for that.
It's not that simple. League of Legends has an absurd amount of players and yet has a low view rate for the amount of players it has. A game like Dota 2 has a lot less players yet more of them engage in watching the game competitively. Overwatch has a large playerbase but there's no guarantee that any significant portion of that audience cares about watching the game competitively.
Dreams-Visions
Member
It really isn't. Not from a competitive perspective where they have to rotate through multiple cameras. It's cool for watching one player (ie Twitch streamers), but watching it in the traditional esports way is just awful.
It's laughable that Blizzard thinks a pro scene would be worth anywhere near what they're thinking it is. They seem to misunderstand the game and its appeal entirely.
Teknopathetic
Member
I mean Blizzard's arrogance destroyed Starcraft's comp scene, this is par for the course.
And their spectator system is not nearly as robust as what Valve made for CS:GO and that game doesn't have lots of abilities flying out and filling the screen with effects.
veloxStrix
Banned
I keep hearing this over and over but no one seems to want to mention KESPA or simply the fact that RTS' aren't anywhere near as popular as they used to be and barely a blip on the radar of MOBAs.
As much as I hover on the border of trust with Neogaf's knowledge on games, I have no degree of trust for Neogaf's business sense. Blizzard is asking for a price. That price has already been met by at least two large organizations and fairly quickly at that. If people are biting at all, that means that they stand something to gain AND it means that other investors know that someone felt the risk was worth taking.
The game is still the most popular game in Korea, the Korean competitive scene for it is huge and investors like SK Telecom and Samsung won't have an issue buying in at these prices.
It's funny because he stepped back and started streaming specifically to keep his options open for the Overwatch League.
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And besides all that, various "sources" said that slots were going up to $20 million dollars - in particular, mentioning high value slots like New York and Los Angeles - when news first started coming out about the OWL. Now we have sources saying they start at $20 million. I wish Blizzard would just release a statement on everything, but that has it's own issues as far as investors and on-going transactions go.
AnathemicOne
Banned
Blizzard I love you but come on lawl.
Diablohead
Member
way too high of a price, jeeze.
I love me some Overwatch and I enjoy watching pros play. I just don't think theres enough money in ad revenue to justify the $20m team tag.
I like what Psyonix did with the RLCS. Overwatch League is the future i would like to see for Overwatch but i don't think it's the next step it needs.
Right now e-sports are kinda a joke with how they're run (except for a few big tournaments here and there) compared to what the NBA, NFL, and MLB are doing. but each of those leagues have had decades to build upon and improve. they weren't built overnight.
I like what Psyonix did with the RLCS. Overwatch League is the future i would like to see for Overwatch but i don't think it's the next step it needs.
Right now e-sports are kinda a joke with how they're run (except for a few big tournaments here and there) compared to what the NBA, NFL, and MLB are doing. but each of those leagues have had decades to build upon and improve. they weren't built overnight.
The Hamburglar
Banned
It's hilarious they are asking for this much as 20million is nothing to blizzard. It's change.
Ricerocket
Member
$20,000,000 for a fuckin team. You are aiming way too big Blizzard...
D
Deleted member 325805
Unconfirmed Member
Well Blizzard always overcharge for everything, just look at the price of WoW services.
Psychoward
Banned
as if the 1 billion wasn't enough, this is completely asinine
That's a big problem imo. What happens when the bottom inevitably falls out of this league? They've already really hurt the Overwatch competitive scene just by announcing the league but then taking ages to even plan anything.
You just can't trust Blizzard to nurture a competitive scene around their games. They are pretty useless.
A lot of existing esports organizations are already connected to sports team owners mostly from the NBA. Immortals, NRG, Echo Fox, Renegades, Dignitas, Flyquest, Team Liquid, and Misfits all have ties to the NBA. Turner Sports who runs NBATV started televising CS:GO and are currently in the middle of SFV Eleague. The NBA is starting it's own location based 2k league. The fact that they don't seem to be in the conversation about Overwatch despite Rick Fox teasing some on Twitter is a red flag.
After that awful World Cup they did last year I'm not surprised Blizzard continues to completely mismanage Owatch. This really sucks because a lot of tournaments won't come be back because this shitty league is supposed to replace them. This is going to kill the competitive scene in the west.
I've never watched competitive overwatch but if I'm right none of those terms are likely to be that complicated to explain. Certainly nothing on a moba.
Purple Cheeto
Member
Sure 20 years ago before World of Warcraft came out, that hasn't been their MO in forever though.
clockworkinyou
Banned
Kaplan behind this price tag, or at least have his hands in it?
I mean, I know he thinks he's the greatest, but gtfo here with that kind of valuation, if he is involved.
I mean, I know he thinks he's the greatest, but gtfo here with that kind of valuation, if he is involved.
Nah, this would be an upper executive move for sure
Lol someone is salty. Why would Kaplan be involved in this?