Well that was incredibly pointed. As mentioned in our OWL takeaway, Blizzard has fallen flat on its face in terms of presentation. NiP’s announcement only lends more credit to the idea. If Blizzard hopes to run a successful league, they’re going about this in the wrong way. Right now CS:GO is getting more viewers, more money, and more players. More everything is good for a scene while Overwatch has quietly slipped farther in viewership.
In other news, Finnsi left the Spanish team of Movistar Riders with very little explanation. At the worst Google translation, it has something concerning discipline. Upon some digging into the Reddit threads, I was linked to this. That is Logix talking about it at length. Personal issues are not uncommon with players in any sport and if the team suffers for that, there has to be comeuppance.
Besides NiP leaving the scene, Cyclowns disbanded hours after going down with two losses and a draw in Overwatch League. The team lasted five months. Two major players, Meowzassa, the main tank for them joined Laser Kittens in late May, and Boombox, who played Support, is on eUnited. While Meowzassa and Boombox were receiving offers, the remaining teammates did not. This reads that the five of them really wanted to stick together and play. That having been said, it leaves open the potential for the remaining players to fill some gaps in other teams immediately.
Player movement seems to be a lot more chaotic when the talent pool for a game is so vast. I still refer to the quote from my superior editor, Jared MacAdam, “a scene with more talent than teams”. The base sentiment, however, is that a league like this is in flux still. There are a lot of incredible players. The same cannot be said in terms of teams with available spots. It’s a buyers’ market and the easier a player is to get along with, the less of a problem it will be to pick them up for a team. The issue is they’re behind the eight ball to stay in line or they’ll be on the street in months. Finnsi will crop up again without a doubt and the rest of Cyclowns will likely find teams willing to pay them and give them a roster spot.
Call it luck that Cyclowns suddenly dissolves. With Finnsi gone, you can swap in anyone on Cyclowns and lose almost nothing. It is fantasy sports teams in real time with real players. There’s not even a commissioner saying you can’t do it either. In this case, Movistar played a match with former Cyclowns player Destro taking Finnsi’s spot. Is it a try out, a possible roster move?
I just wonder how this continues when Overwatch League is still mid-way through the season. At some point Blizzard has to ask themselves if starting a league when the entire scene has monumental shifts with teams forming and disbanding, players switching teams in mid-season is viable. A perceived lack of steadiness in North America and Europe and that leads to having questions about solvency for a league. Teams are questioning the game’s ability to remain within the public eye and be a pillar for their organization. One only has to look at APEX to get an idea of how a league keeps its teams and players in line, so why is Blizzard struggling? It’ll be something to watch in the future as Overwatch continues barreling forward toward an uncertain future. Especially now with a major team that influenced the meta suddenly being yanked out of contention.
More as this develops.
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