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

they picked overwatch because for some reason overwatch is the only game that any publisher actually advertises and advertises heavily as an esport

valve doesnt advertise dota 2 or csgo or tf2 at all because they're lazy fucks

who gives a shit about hots, wow, hs, or starcraft esports lmao

smash actually gets some reasonable coverage on local stations (e.g. hbox on his local fox news, and his local fox again) but it's still only a grassroots esport

riot markets league only so much

and every other esport is irrelevant

https://www.hltv.org/team/7701/imperial

nukkye's team is currently ranked #19 in the world

TF2PL

http://ozfortress.com/showthread.php?t=67314

pretty exciting to see a major tf2 league try a new gamemode besides 6v6! lets hope other leagues follow suit

https://clips.twitch.tv/EntertainingBrainyCookieKippa

why

Not a name, but I decided to make a logo for some team named "Downfrag eSports" in Open

I sent it to one of their players and apparently they had just died right when I sent it so rip

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

Wow HiipFire I Can't Believe You've Baited Me Like This

Due to a shortage of writers, this article had to be rushed out due to Copenhagen Games starting today. If you'd like to report any factual errors within the preview, PM me. Sorry about that.

I'm happy to see this enabled for pugs now