Overwatch League looks to the future of esports, while London Spitfire goes into history

NEW YORK – When the last hero of Philadelphia was eliminated and left motionless on the animated map, the Players took their hands off the controls, confetti pounded through the air and triumphant music blasted through the public address system at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Fans were on their cheers, waving their smart phones to record the moment: the first championship of the Overwatch League.

The London Spitfire toppled the outsider Philadelphia Fusion on Saturday afternoon, a leading scorer for a freshman league. who started playing in January with drawings on the revolution of how esports is played, structured and consumed. Confetti, costumed fans, noisy atmosphere – it was part of the OWL dream as it was the league plan.

Saturday marked the culmination of the inaugural season, and while the upstart 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," Nate Nanzer, the league's commissioner, said, "and, frankly, as if I knew it would work – for all the reasons that operate in traditional sports, I thought it might take longer. "[19659020] The League (OWL) was not designed to be a fast system, it aims to have the power and popularity of Traditional sports leagues like the NBA or the NFL, connect with communities like the New York Yankees or the New England Patriots and produce income that scramble games and sports. is still a long-term game: a year in a sports league is immaterial, "said Jonathan Kraft, chairman of the Kraft Group, owner of the Boston Uprising franchise of OWL and the New England Patriots. "We did it in order to create long-term asset value."

Long before Saturday's championship formally marked the end of the inaugural season, officials OWL were busy preparing 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 in. courses, each sold for between $ 30 and $ 60 million. And while the most ardent fans of the league are used to following OWL games via the Twitch live video service, the league has also signed 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's basically 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 localized model on this scale has never been attempted before, and if this league succeeds, I think it puts aside a lot of conventional wisdom about esports."

Both teams of players were sitting on a stage at one end of the arena, overshadowed by the giant video dashboard. London Spitfire's favorite team consisted of six Korean players, all of whom would be carded by any bartender in Brooklyn, and the Philadelphia Fusion featured six players from five different countries. None of the actors on the scene were American and none had a tangible connection with the city he had represented in 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

. At OWL, all teams were in the Los Angeles area and playing their matches at the same 450-seat studio in Burbank, California, which had previously hosted "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson". This will be the arrangement of the second year too.

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 really be a force – create the types of monetization you want Kraft said:

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The league has looked for homeowners who have a lot of money. experience in traditional sports, which include cultivating an audience in 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 monitoring groups and tried to elicit the interest of the local media, but the possibilities are inherently limited.

It is estimated that no less than 150 million people watch esports on a global scale. 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 of revenue on an annual basis, but I think we have taken the right steps to start proving the" [19659017] Kraft compares the basic audience of season 1 of the league to a fruit at hand, largely players who do not need a lot of twisting. "

" I think for 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."

"Once it's on the market, these less-than-avid fans then have a reason to start paying attention. I really have to start it, "he continued. "Look, the league has been very successful, no one can dispute it … and we will get stronger next year, but the next big test will be when we enter the market in 2020."

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Overwatch, barely two years old, already has a loyal clientele. Fans who flooded Brooklyn – many of whom lined up hours before the doors of the Barclay Center opened – wore gear representing the 12 teams in the league, many of which 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 presented last month, among them – and seemed to connect to the characters in the game as much only to the players using them.

In the arena, players mostly sat on the stage, their hands doing all the work without being seen, their heads masked by the monitors. 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 attracts fans of Overwatch, League of Legends, Dota, Counter-Strike, all the biggest games that have existed for years, it's not a joke … But I do not do not think it's going to last forever. " 19659017] Fortnite and its Royal Battle format do not lend themselves to a team league, and OWL officials are quick 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 have power.

"From my point of view, the fears of esports and games come in and out of favor is a bit exaggerated," said Whinston. "Of course, there are casual fans who will switch from one game to the other, but I think it's too simplistic to say," Well, a new game will come and Overwatch will not will be more popular "."

The key is evolution. Updates, new maps, new characters, new technology. And unlike traditional sports, esports have the opportunity to polish their games at any time, even in season. Blizzard regularly updates Overwatch and this year even introduced a new character in the middle of the season, forcing 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 the OWL. The Fusion, which slipped into the playoffs with sixth and last place, was found in Brooklyn this weekend.

While baseball or football would never fundamentally change its rules book mid-season, OWL officials "I think there are a lot of traditional sports struggling to keep fans engaged and engaging with young fans because they have not evolved for 100 years, "Nanzer said. "And so I think it's an advantage we have over traditional sports."

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The league stated that it sold the approximately 11,000 spots available for the two-day 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, Jeff Bezos, owns the Washington Post.)

"Your hard core of fans might not go out there, but their parents and friends can make". son of Comcast CEO Brian Roberts.

It could help integrate sport so that the 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," Whinston said. "I basically think that what you need to do, is increase your audience by channeling the same passion as the local fanbase for their sports teams. Think about it, no one would say that you need to play baseball to be a fan of baseball, I think what we're building 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 them for a while.

"Have you met a 12 year old recently?" Nanzer asks . "Because if you have, I guess all they do, is watch other people play video games on Twitch and YouTube, and it will not magically change. when they are 35 years old. "I'm a baseball fan now."

They hope the Barclays Saturday party was only a glimpse of the future: the fans filling the seats, the long lines of waiting on the merchandise stands, a captivating competition on stage

This commitment could only become more common in future generations.

"In the distant future – as in 20 years – I do not think there will be any non-players," Roberts said. "I think children today, they will have kids, and they will play games with their kids. It's like if you know today who is not playing any games. sport? Everyone has at least some familiarity.I think that's where things are "

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 card

The Spitfire is already planning to bring the trophy to London in October, along with its team of all-Korean players.

"We are really excited to meet them face to face," said Spitfire CEO Jack Etienne. "They supported us all season, staying up until 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. "

More than 310,000 were watching the last minutes on Twitch, and the crowd inside the Brooklyn Arena showered the Korean"

"I think it gave us an excellent base 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 previous one and I think it will be a great event to energize us. "

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Mike Hume of the Washington Post contributed to this report.