Overwatching Esports

Welcome back to the newest edition of esports 2017 where we look at different esports and dig into what makes them a successful esports. In today’s post, we are going to be looking at a baby in the esports world compared to many of the games that have spent years building a name and becoming an esport. The game I am talking about is Overwatch which was released not even a year ago in 2016. Overwatch was made by the gaming giant Blizzard which has also made games such as World of Warcraft and hearthstone. Overwatch in a broad sense has a very unique feel to it as a game offering a wide range of types of characters to play and from a first-person perspective. The game is played by picking a character and playing with a team and trying to coordinate with your teammates to win this objective based video game. In the esports world Overwatch caters to a crowd that had not been tapped until Overwatch’s release and has since drawn in 25 million sales of the game but no way to really determine how many people play monthly which is a good basis for a player population within the game. When you try to put this game into a genre it proves to be difficult as it does fit the RTS or real-time strategy ideals very well, but is not necessarily a multiplayer online battlefield arena or MOBA, and you also can’t call it a first-person shooter as not all of the characters possess the ability to wield a ranged weapon. Therefor I will go with the game genre as a first-person team RTS game as the game is so unique that it is very difficult to put in a category.

• Why do people play Overwatch?

Honestly the greatest part about this game is that it brings a unique gameplay to the gaming world. In that it can feel like a first-person shooter at times, but other times you can get the feeling of playing a sword and shield game. Another great feature Overwatch has is that all of the characters are so diverse and unique from one another that every game is vastly different as one game you could have people shooting at each other and then suddenly an explosive tire comes from nowhere and wipes out your whole team. Simply put the uniqueness of the characters in the game are what make it so much fun to play and keep playing. The game does have a ranked ladder to climb, but I feel like in this game it is not as much of a driving feature to want to play the game as many players have mixed feelings about the matchmaking in the game and other problems, but still play it for fun.

• What makes Overwatch an esport?

As previously discussed in my blog posts is that the game embodies a very teamwork heavy game when you get competitive and can be strategic along with the objective based gameplay that people enjoy watching. I think that the game also caters to people that just love the quirkiness of the gameplay and watching events unfold within the gameplay and sometimes just laughing hysterically because of what just happened. I believe that the company that made the game (Blizzard) which has a vast bank account to dip into has pushed for the game to become an esport and get it on its feet quickly when they realized it had potential to be an esport.

• About the esport.

Overwatch has not even been a game for a year and yet is a esport which compared to some of the other games we have dissected on this blog they have been out for close to 10 years. The esport has around 10 professional teams and shares some sister teams with games such as LoL and CS:GO. It has only had 1 world cup as they are calling it and had impressive viewing numbers for such a new game. The esport matches are mostly hosted by Blizzard at its many conventions it holds around the nation and has only a few outside source tournaments so far.

Overall, Overwatch is an impressive youngster in the setting of esports and is only continuing to grow currently. I will be excited to see what the game can bring to the table in the following years as it develops and becomes a mature game that is a fully fledged esport.