A Future Without Progress
A lot of people are going to write about this (and they should). About the death of Apex, the death of LAN, the nerf of South Korea. I’m sure a lot of people will use math and shit.( https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/aevmdw/owl_players_nationality_and_region_statistics/ )
But I’m here to talk about more emotional stuff.
-What would happen to Winston players without Miro?
-Where would Team Envy go without a tournament to play in?
-What would the players of Runaway be doing after they quit Overwatch?
The destruction and deletion of Korean LAN is one of the greatest mistakes that Blizzard should of never had the control of. Over half the players in Overwatch League come from South Korea for a reason and there is no shame in how they develop high level players.
It must of been too hard for Blizzard to run LAN for Korean Contenders. Oh wait.
“ It was thought that OGN, as founder of the Apex tournament, would continue to play a major part in it, but it appears to have been bypassed by Blizzard.”
https://www.pcgamer.com/ogn-drops-overwatch-apex-tournament-after-contenders-league-snub/
Oh, just bypassed the people who made this possible?
Just so they could run things like. (No hate in what NA OWL teams are doing but they pale in comparison to the pre OWL LANs.)
And also tournaments like.
Wait.
I don’t have a picture for online only tournaments. (RIP Monthly Melee)
OGN offered to run Korean Contenders past APEX. Offered to continue help Blizzard with the region. Blizzard refused. The same way they refused to let pros make money for a year leading up to Overwatch League. The same league that limited orgs and tournament hosters from running anything resembling success with Overwatch.
I guess.
When you see all that shitty Fanatics merch. Watch streams of online only tournaments without talent desks (rip left guy). Watch your yearly dose of goats meta. Maybe you’ll care when there isn’t a next Carpe. When EU can no longer produce a pro. When the NA region stops playing the game altogether. And 50k people are watching a dying league full of nobodies. Its like if Major League Baseball got rid of its minor league system and only allowed potential pro players to play in church softball leagues.
Blizzard, Activision, Nate Nanzer and the decision makes for Overwatch league are actively hurting and killing the overwatch esports scene.
I (and many others) found love for this game at 4 AM watching a Whoru dragon blade. A Ryujehong sleep dart. Taimou hitting a pixel perfect heashot on a genji or tracer about to kill him. These moments are gone and destroyed by people trying to build a business of them.
Crazy how some of the best western Overwatch players are the western players with the most LAN experience leading up to Overwatch league.
The removal of the 3rd party LAN scene from Overwatch was the biggest mistake any esport has ever made.
We as fans have so many favorite talent members and casters (shout out to left guy) but they just tell us they aren’t wanted by us. WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN. We want ZP. We want Reinforce. We want the talent we grew up on and love. WE KEEP TELLING YOU THIS BUT YOU NEVER LISTEN.
You never listen.
You take your horrible ideas you came up with and try them for so long that half the pro scene gives up on you.
The most Activision Blizzard move possible was refusing to hire freelancers as full time staff and not having a photographer for when the Shanghai Dragons won there first game. You forgot to take a picture of history because you mite have to give someone health care and money. Nice one.
Why we loved. Why we love the production of Overwatch.
Your best friend sits on a couch in front of you with some of your favorite players. Talks to you personally about a tournament you just invested a whole weekend into. And they spend genuine time having a discussion about the coolest thing you just watched. They don’t pretend to interact with the fans. They love talking to us. They love casting for us. They love running tournaments for us.
And we love them.
But you?
Blizzard.
You hate them.
You hate the players.
And you hate us.
All we want is to love you. Stop making it so hard.
