Last year Blizzard hosted the first ever Overwatch World Cup (OWC), an exhibition tournament held at Blizzcon. It replaced the traditional esport organisations with teams made up of different nations from across the globe. With the return recently being announced, will Blizzard improve the spectacle?
Last time, Blizzard gave the fans the opportunity to nominate the players of their national team. This was a major factor for the OWC as it involved all kinds of Overwatch fans taking part in Overwatch esports. However, this specific process had some drawbacks. The way the options of the vote were presented resulted in people often voting not for the people who were the best, but instead the most liked. Due to the vote including personalities as well as pro players, multiple YouTubers were chosen to represent their country instead of other pro players.
This area has received the biggest change between this and last year: instead of the public directly voting for who is part of the roster, they will now vote for a national committee whom will then go on to select the country's roster. The committee vote will include analysts, coaches, statisticians, as well as other authorities within the Overwatch community. Each nation’s committee will be a group of trusted individuals who will focus on getting the best possible roster to represent their country.
Another major change is that this year there will be a total of five live events concluding at Blizzcon 2017 for the finals. Four offline events will be held at various locations across America, Europe and Asia for the final rounds of qualifiers during the summer. Viewers will be able to watch more, and get closer to the action. Last year, ESL cast as many of the EU qualifiers as they could, however this meant that the majority of the games played in the qualifiers were not casted and not widely available for people to watch. It is clear that the addition of offline matches will provide us with a better build-up to the finals, allowing even the weaker (but still passionate) regions their time in the spotlight.
Having said this, last year was a great opening gambit for Blizzard, perhaps giving an idea for what the Overwatch League will be like. I personally loved the player and team statistics shown throughout the Blizzcon finals. This gave the viewer more insight into the teams' performance and dynamic. Additionally, I enjoyed Jonathan ‘Reinforce’ Larsson on the analyst desk giving insight to a pro player’s reaction to what was occurring and giving the audience a greater understanding of the significance of certain plays.
The Overwatch World Cup's concept is designed to bring more people into Overwatch Esports,. It has made some major changes for this second edition, and is looking like an event that will continue to be hosted for the foreseeable future.
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