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Fans line up in front of the Barclays Center before the grand finale of # Overwatch League. (Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment)
NEW YORK – When Philadelphia's last hero was eliminated and left motionless on the animated map, the players removed their hands from the controls, confetti floated in the air and triumphant music system at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Fans were on their cheers, brandishing their smartphones to record the moment: the first League Overwatch League
The London Spitfire toppled the underdog Philadelphia Fusion on Saturday afternoon, a leading scorer for a Premier League year. who started playing in January with drawings on the revolution of how esports is played, structured and consumed. Confetti, costumed fans, rowdy atmosphere – it was part of the OWL dream as well as the league plan.
Saturday marked the culmination of the inaugural season, and while the up-and-coming league touted it as a huge success, it was only one step away. The imminent transition to local markets will ultimately define the success not only of the league, but also whether its ambitious model can really reshape the landscape of esports.
"The city-based format really took off in a bigger one," said Nate Nanzer, the league's commissioner, "and, frankly, as if I knew it would work – for all the reasons that work in traditional sports.I just thought it might take longer. "
The league (OWL) was not designed to be a fast system. It aims to have the power and popularity of traditional sports leagues such as the NBA or the NFL, connect with communities like the New York Yankees or the New England Patriots, and generate revenue that blurs games. and sports. With the Overwatch League Grand Finals, the esports take over Brooklyn to the sound of applause.
"I think it's still a long-term game.A year in a sports league is unimportant," said Jonathan Kraft, chairman of the Kraft Group, owner of the Boston Uprising franchise of the company. OWL and New England Patriots. "We did it with the goal of building long-term asset value."
Long before Saturday's championship officially marks By the end of the inaugural season, OWL officials were busy preparing for season 2 and up. "ESPN recently reported that the league is finalizing deals with three expansion franchises – one in Atlanta. one in Paris and another in Guangzhou, China – and up to three others could be underway, each sold for between $ 30 and $ 60 million, and while the most ardent fans of the league are used to follow the OWL matches via the Twitch live video service, the league also has There's a broadcast agreement this month that will put the next games on ESPN and Disney. exceeded expectations for many team leaders – broadcasts averaged between 80,000 and 170,000 simultaneous viewers – team and league officials are confident that their first-year successes are that a foretaste of what awaits them. They think the league continues to roll on the track, and although there are some potential obstacles ahead, they think they're following a plan that will revolutionize the esports.
"If Overwatch League is successful, it is fundamentally changed the publisher model, for every league and for every team that exists in the world," said Noah Whinston, general manager of the Los Angeles Valiant franchise. "Having a model located at this scale has never been attempted before.If this league is successful, I think it throws much of the conventional wisdom on the esports."
Local vision of a world league
The two teams of Players were sitting on a stage at one end of the arena, eclipsed by the giant video dashboard.Spitfire London's favorite team consisted of six Korean players, all of whom would be patented by any bartender in Brooklyn, and the Philadelphia Fusion featured six players from five different countries None of the actors on the A scene was American and none had a tangible connection with the city that it represented for the past four months.
The novelty of OWL is its geolocation model in which the 12 franchises are tied to specific cities, just like the traditional sports leagues. This is an original formula and based on the first returns, Blizzard, the game 's publisher, could possibly use the same approach with other titles, including Call of Duty, a title. popular esports for a dozen years
[ESPN secures Overwatch League broadcast rights, continuing esports’ mainstream surge]
. At OWL, all teams were in the Los Angeles area and playing their matches at the same 450-seat studio in Burbank, California, which once hosted "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson".
But the owners hope that in the third year – 2020 – the teams will move to their current cities, which will open up new sources of revenue. A report from the Newzoo market research firm earlier this year suggested that global income from esports will exceed $ 900 million this year and will almost double over the next three years. The OWL teams know that money is available, which is why the franchise rights of the original 12 teams have sold for $ 20 million each.
"In the end, to be really a force – create the types of monetization you want the team to be more regularly present on the market," says Kraft
. a local market. Owners of the OWL are the Kraft family, Fred Wilpon, owner of New York Mets, and Stan Kroenke, owner of Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Rams. But with squads representing only name cities, there are so many things that they can do with this knowledge. The teams have organized observational nights and attempted to elicit the interest of local media, but the possibilities are inherently limited.
It is estimated that 150 million people are looking at esports worldwide, a figure that is expected to increase in the coming years. But the league wants a particularly greedy audience to flourish in the handpicked cities of the league. They can then take advantage of this fandom and create revenue streams: ticket sales, merchandising, local sponsorships, community partnerships.
"I think monetization is the central issue in business," said Whinston. "We all know how big the public is … We are still far from generating tens of millions of dollars on an annual basis, but I think we have taken the right steps to start proving the different Model Pieces. "
[ The Overwatch League Grand Finales Provide a Critical Lesson on Esports: Adapt or Die]
Kraft Compares Season 1 League Audience to a Fruit at hand, mainly players who do not need a lot of arms.
"I think that start attracting and educating casual hobbyists and establishing a geographic connection – I think of people who do not like hockey but who say," The Bruins are my team because They live in Boston, "he said. "I think you have to be in the market to take full advantage of this situation."
"Once on the market, these less than alpine fans then have a reason to start paying attention.That's when we really need to move up a gear," he said. he continued. "Look, the league has launched with great success, no one can dispute it. … and we will become stronger next year. But the next big test will be when we enter the market in 2020. "
(Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment)
Can A Game Become A Hobby?
Overwatch, Elderly Just two years ago has already gone in. The fans who flooded Brooklyn – many of whom lined up hours before the doors of the Barclay Center opened – wore gear representing the 12 teams of the league, many of whom sported the names of specific players on their shoulders.Many others came dressed in costumes as the heroes of the game – Sombra, Zarya, Widowmaker and even Wrecking Ball, a new hamster character introduced last month, among them – and seemed to connect to the characters in the game as much as to the players using them.
In the arena, players mostly sat on the stage, their hands doing all the work invisible, the head masked by the moniteu Most of the actions took place on the gigantic videoboard. Overwatch is a six-on-six shooting game, a futuristic adventure that is both the reason for the instant success of the league and perhaps a slight cause of trepidation
Even though the league took off this spring, many players have climbed this year to another title. Fortnite undoubtedly became the game of the moment, reaching 125 million players and raising $ 1 million a day
"What Fortnite has done is absolutely incredible," said Tucker Roberts, president of the Fusion franchise. "This is attracting fans of Overwatch, League of Legends, Dota, Counter-Strike, all the biggest games that have been around for years – it's not a joke. do not think this will persist forever. "
Fortnite and his Royal Battle format do not lend themselves to a team league, and OWL officials do not hesitate to point out that There are always new titles. Even if some siphon players temporarily, good games – think: StarCraft, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, Warcraft – tend to stay in place.
[ Are professional athletes playing too much Fortnite? Some teams worry.]
"From my point of view, the fears of the hordes of esports and games that come in and out of favors are a little exaggerated," said Whinston. "Of course, there are casual fans who will go from one game to another, but I think it's too simplistic to say," Well, a new game will come and Overwatch will lose its popularity . ""
The key is evolution – updates, new maps, new characters, new technology – unlike traditional sports, esports have the opportunity to tweak their games anytime, even in the season. regular updates and this year even introduced a new character in the middle of the season, which forced the teams to change strategy and improve the league hierarchy.As a result, the best team of the regular season, the New York Excelsior, was eliminated in the semifinals of OWL.The Fusion, which snuck into the playoffs with sixth and last place, was found in Brooklyn this week
While baseball or football would never fundamentally change its rules book at mid-season, OWL officials "
" I think there are a lot of sports traditional people who struggle keep fans engaged and engage with young fans because they have not evolved for 100 years, "said Nanzer. "So I think it's an advantage we have over traditional sports."
(Courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment)
Building on Base
The league reported selling the approximately 11,000 spaces available for both days. finals. All fans looking on the secondary market for tickets last week were paying at least $ 125 to enter the arena. DJ Khaled played before the main event of the day and for the next 75 minutes, all eyes were glued to the videoboard. At the bottom, the cameras were fluttering, zooming in on the players. It was broadcast live on Twitch and should be broadcast in prime time on ESPN2
The linear broadcast agreement is considered a big step for the young league. It has not only validated the place of esports in the North American sports landscape, but it also has the potential to expand the reach of OWL. Team leaders know that players are comfortable turning to Twitch, but think that there is also a potential audience more accustomed to traditional cable. (Twitch is owned by Amazon, whose founder, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns the Washington Post.)
"Your core of fans might not go out there, but their parents and their friends and family "who is the son of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.
It could potentially help integrate sport in a way where discussion is not relegated to online portals, college dormitories or school hallways. It could be discussed on sports talk radio, featured on SportsCenter and debated at the desktop water cooler. His audience would not be just those who play Overwatch themselves.
"I do not necessarily think that there is a mainstream mainstream non-gaming audience that we need to make breakthroughs," said Whinston. "I think basically what you need to do is develop your audience by channeling the same passion as the local fan base for their sports teams, so think of it this way, no one would say that you need to play baseball for to be a baseball fan, I think what we build is kind of a social and cultural movement. "
From the way the team and league leaders see it, they started in a company where the market was already in place for an attractive product and OWL officials rely on their presence for some time
"Have you met a 12 year old recently?" Nanzer. "Because if you have, I guess all they do is watch other people play video games on Twitch and YouTube. And it will not change like magic when they are 35 years old. It's not like they were going to be 35 and say, "Well, I'm a baseball fan now."
They hope the party will be held on Saturday at Barclays C's was just a glimpse of the future: fans filling the seats, waiting long lines on merchandise stands, a captivating competition taking place on stage. The Spitfire is already planning to win the trophy in London in October, along with his team of Korean players
"We are really ready to meet fans face to face," said Jack Etienne, CEO of Spitfire. "They supported us all season, being forced to stay up until 3 or 4 in the morning."
This commitment could only become more common in future generations.
"In the distant future – like 20 years from now – I do not think there will be any non-players," Roberts said. "I think children today are not going to be able to do that. They will have children and play with their children.Is like who today do you know who does not play any sport? Everyone has at least some familiarity. is where things are headed. "
The Barclays crowd certainly knew what they were looking at. They waved placards, encouraged their favorite players and got an exciting finale. London came in the day after winning three straight games, including a 3-1 win on Friday. Led by 18-year-old Joon-yeong Park, a world-renowned injury specialist known as "Profit", the Spitfire won the Junkertown card, crossed the Lijiang Tower and sealed the title by fighting and overthrowing the Fusion on King Row, a London-inspired map
More than 310,000 people were watching the last few minutes on Twitch, and the crowd inside the Brooklyn Arena praised it Champions built at the Korean, London
We are an excellent foundation to build in 2019, "said Commissioner Nanzer. "And you know, I think one of our guiding principles as a league is to make sure that each season is better than the last and I think it will be a great event to energize us."
Mike Hume contributed to this report.
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