He's come in 2nd place roughly 15 times.

For comparison, rando came in 2nd only 12 times.

R6 has large tournaments and T1 orgs because Ubisoft is really dedicated to supporting their game as an esport. Every notable tournament is organized by ESL and is supported by Ubisoft. Pretty crazy how big a game can be when it's developer actually gives a shit.

https://i.imgur.com/mPC3JSQ.png

Feels bad for Bdonski

gandhi would like a word with you

https://i.imgur.com/gPlNZNq.png

SK last place monkaS

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/001/248/330/675.jpg

youtuber: "oh man the tf2 community was so nice i cant wait to play more competitive it's great to see such a welcoming community"

tftv: acktualllyy

https://twitter.com/madjackrabbit/status/986385897619972096

We Live In A Society.

bully_hunter 2.0

who's the first to break six figures in hl

wtf who doesnt use ublock origin in 2018

Blizzard wants the best of both worlds with esports and sports. They want the cheap and young talent and production from esports and the "professionalism" you see in traditional sports. You saw this best of both worlds mentality when Overwatch first released where Blizzard said they were "astonished" by the amount of support Overwatch got as a "competitive game" and as a "grassroots esport" (LOL), whilst also working with Turner to sponsor the ELEAGUE Overwatch Open, which got OW instantly onto television and solidifying OW not as a grassroots esport, but a developer-produced esport, not unlike almost every one of Blizzard's other "esports".

The reason they want this isn't to attract the attention of the normal viewer, because they already advertise Overwatch League heavily and stay in the news due to the fact it's an esport and "wow these young people are being paid to play video games competitively!" circulates heavily amongst news outlets. By providing a clean and professionalTM space that's inclusive, they also bring in sponsors, advertisers, and investors who can all make a safe bet that Overwatch League will be big because Blizzard is very proactive about pumping money into their esports, it's gaining a lot of viewership amongst millenialsTM, and Blizzard is boasting that OWL is going to "change esports and sports forever!!!!!!!".

And all of this brings in dough for Blizzard. Blizzard makes fucking BANK off of Overwatch League because player costs are almost entirely on the orgs (including the $20 million they got from the orgs for the OWL spot), production is super cheap, and they have a shitload of other methods to monetize the Overwatch League. They sell tickets for people to watch the games live in the studios, they have in-game Overwatch League skins with some of the profit going straight to Blizzard, they get a chunk of the profit of all real life merchandise of the OWL Teams (e.g. Dallas Fuel shirts), they make money off ads on Twitch, they have a bunch of sponsors and investors, they have exclusivity deals with companies like Twitch, and they just recently launched a subscription service for the Overwatch League that includes stats and shit that you'd see for free in other scenes like with HLTV except less in-depth. All of this while Overwatch continues to sell copies because Overwatch League in of itself is a marketing gimmick, as Overwatch continues to stay in the news with outlets posting about happenings within the scene.

Overwatch League is such a meticulously crafted marketing gimmick and it's amazing how much money Blizzard has managed to get out of people and corporations with a mechanically shallow esport that's horrible to watch if you don't play the game yourself. The thing I worry most is how other companies will follow Blizzard's example, such as the Clash Royale League (yes this is a real thing...), and what effect this will have on esports.

https://twitter.com/Quake/status/982717186732187649

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DaNQEmKW4AEKX_7.jpg

neat