The Overwatch League is a global league, though it is split into two regions of NA and APAC for the broadcasts. Currently, there are many casters from previous seasons who are speaking out on the communication from the League. Jack ‘Jaws’ Wright, Victoria ‘Vikkikitty’ Perez, Andrew ‘ZP’ Rush, Seth ‘Achilios’ King, Erik ‘DoA’ Lonnquist, and Kevin ‘AVRL’ Walker were all regulars during the APAC streams in Season 4. This offseason has shown a continued pattern of disregard for APAC casting talent.
The community has already seen in past seasons the lack of prioritizing of the APAC region. With both the Chengdu Hunters and the Shanghai Dragons in the Season 4 Grand Finals there were no APAC casters’ insight to give their takes on the action. Last season it was very much split into those who cast APAC and those who were able to cast the NA matches, with a little cross-over. This is was partially because of some of the casters’ locations.
It was disappointing to see no representation of the APAC casters who were knowledgeable about the progression of these two teams throughout the season not being shown on the main broadcast. AVRL was briefly brought into the broadcast call and showed how much he had to add but was cut off quickly. Not only does this highlight the League’s negligible forethought on the issue but also the disservice to the community withholding APAC casters from the playoff broadcast.
This is not the only instance of the Overwatch League not accommodating to better represent the APAC region. Wolf ‘Wolf’ Schröder, who famously cast with Achilios during APEX as well as Korean contenders was not back for Season 4, though he and Riot were willing to work around to make the Overwatch League work. Wolf at the time was one of the most knowledgable individuals in the Korean Overwatch scene. This lack of APAC knowledge was a big hit to the community, but it wasn’t the last time it would happen.
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The casters are going to social media to talk about the lack of communication and transparency from the Overwatch League. Bren and Sideshow announced that were not going to be returning to the Overwatch League in Season 5. They started a domino effect among the casters who spoke out on the lack of an offer or information on Season 5 of the League. Many of these casters were the casters for the APAC region. VikkiKitty, ZP, and DoA have now all spoken out on the lack of an offer and or communication. Who will be the APAC region casters? Or the large question, who will be the casters in general.
There has been an outrage not only at the disrespect of the treatment of these casters. Some like DoA have been in the esport community since the beginning. Sean Miller, who is the head of the Overwatch League, did tweet that he recognized that this is an issue and is going to personally include people in an explanation of the direction the league is going. He acknowledged that it was late, but is stepping up to make things right.
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At the same time, Wolf brought up that Sean Miller’s statement about going in a different direction should not have been a public social media post, but instead a private message to the individuals that would be affected by it. A major point that keeps being brought up is that the talent has given many years of their lives to esports and specifically the Overwatch League. To see these individuals who just want to help this league grow being treated like this is not a good look for the brand. Of course, this is only one side of the narrative, and there are most definitely other pieces behind the scene that create these situations.
There is still hope. Achilios as well as AVRL has not spoken out on this issue. This may mean that they have received offers for the 2022 season. It could also just mean they haven’t spoken out yet on it. The announcements being done by the casters after getting no communication from the League leave the community wondering if there is a plan for the talent. The casters are the voices that are associated with amazing in-game moments. They both weave a narrative and are the Virgil to the viewers’ experience. As this is a multimillion-dollar league that is global it would be assumed that Blizzard would want the very best talent to represent them. With only Mitch ‘Uber’ Leslie confirmed, hopefully soon more information will be announced about who will be the voice of the 2022 Overwatch League games in the APAC region.
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