I love eSports. I’ve been watching StarCraft since 2011, and have followed Counter Strike, Rocket League, Halo and various other eSports casually over the years. I feel like I have a well-rounded perspective what makes a good eSport. I watched 3 nights of Overwatch League in the last 2 weeks, and I have some thoughts about it as an eSport, and as a production.

I think the most standout feature of Overwatch League thus far has been the production. There have been very few technical issues with the games, the wait time between live content has been minimal, and the transitions from analyst deck, to interview, to the games are smooth and professional. This attention to production quality really has done a lot to make it feel like a professional sports broadcast. I can’t overstate how important this is. StarCraft and Counter Strike have had issues with long waits between matches, which really kills the momentum and hype of a broadcast. The live replays are fantastic too. Overwatch League is truly among the best eSports production I’ve seen, and it’s only in it’s opening weeks.… It is then even more disappointing that the talent can’t quite match the quality of the production. While there are standouts in the commentating such as Semmler and DoA, the quality of the casting has ranged from very good, to grating and annoying. The hosts, particularly Soe also don’t stand up to the level that is required of a sports broadcast. It’s unfortunate because the cringe-inducing interviews stand out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the show. The memes sprinkled into the commentating and interviews are uncomfortable and awkward to watch, and not only hurt the show as a whole, but also massively reduce its mainstream appeal. Much like the talent, the arena is also a mixed bag: the stage looks great, but the audience size isn’t massive. It’s a small complaint, but it can feel weird to see a small audience when the stakes are so high.

Let’s talk about my biggest issue with Overwatch League thus far… The game. It’s not easy to watch, both from a readability standpoint and from a camera perspective. The game is fast-paced enough that it’s not easy to follow the game from a strategic perspective. Unlike Counterstrike where there is breaks in the action in which strategy is the important thing for the viewer to understand and the commentators have time to address the metagame, the action in Overwatch never really stops. This makes it hard to understand what strategic decisions important, and what moments in the action are standout in terms of their significance to the match and their skill to execute. Even as a player of Overwatch, I really did have a tough time following the action. The casters did a decent job of mitigating this by explaining the strategy in a digestible way, but getting 200 words per minute rapped at you about strategy for minutes straight isn’t exactly enjoyable. The most significant problem with the spectating, however, is the camera. Some characters are unwatchable in first person (such as Winston), as the players jerk the camera around in a dizzying, twitchy, sickening blur. The 3^rd person camera is absolutely terrible and makes it impossible to follow the players actions. Some characters are actually super enjoyable to watch in 1^st person, such as Widowmaker, but the viewing experience is seriously marred by the confusing and nauseating camera.

It’s a shame that I find Overwatch so difficult to watch, given the obvious effort, budget and quality of the production and (most) of the talent. I think the potential mainstream watchability of Overwatch is way lower than they seem to think it is - a casual watcher certainly will not have any idea what is going on, and the cringe-inducing “gamer” talk and geeky interviews won’t be turning any heads. It’s unfortunate that Valve didn’t have the vision to make a cohesive league, because I think that Counter Strike deserves the public eye more than Overwatch does. The talent in Counter Strike is generally the best in eSports, and the game is way easier to follow in terms of both the strategy and moment to moment action. That said, I have a lot of hope for the future of Overwatch League. Once the viewing tools are improved, and the talent finds their groove, I have no doubt that Overwatch League will be among the best spectator experiences.

Aiomon

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