October was filled with great Overwatch news and content. We'll be taking a look at the results of the most popular polls from our articles and what they could mean for the future of Overwatch! As always, we appreciate all of our readers' time and interest in our articles!
Top 5 News article polls
"How excited are you about this news? [Official OW League]"
11% |B|A: Very! | B: Not so much
A long awaited announcement is met with positive reactions from the Overwatch community. It's crucial that Overwatch has a solid league for the eSports scene to advance and develop further. This will open up a plethora of opportunities for sponsors to be involved and increase the amount of money in the scene. The Overwatch World Cup is employing some new broadcasting features, like discussing player statistics mid-match, and it seems like Blizzard is experimenting for the official league.
"What part of the site interests you the most?"
|Top Choice: Our GosuRankings| 31%
This article discussed the inner workings of the GosuGamers website. Readers indicated that, of several features, the GosuRankings were the most interesting part of the website to them. With Overwatch especially, a team's reputation and claim to fame is heavily reliant on their GosuRanking. Considering the GosuWeeklies started way back in closed beta and are some of the most popular OW tournaments to date, it's not surprising that the GosuRankings come out as the top choice.
"What hero should we feature next in our "best of" highlights series?"
|Top Choice: McCree| 30%
The GosuGamers Youtube channel released an explosive montage video featuring Surefour, Realzx, and AKM on Tracer on October 13th. Over 1000 voices rang out in response to the question of the next hero feature, and the top choice was our favorite Gunslinger. The next top choice was Widowmaker, indicating the masses want to see some more glorious hitscan action.
"What hero should we feature next in our "best of" montage?"
|Top Choice: Zenyatta| 25%
In the next best of highlight, our Gunslinger makes plenty of work for the undertaker in the hands of Surefour, IDDQD, Pine, and more. This poll is equally interesting and is worth including a second time because the results of the poll has your friendly neighborhood Omnic coming out on top. Overlooking Reinhardt, Pharah, Hanzo, and (not surprisingly) Mercy, the masses called in harmony to see Zenyatta discord and destroy enemy Tracers, Genjis, Winstons, and more. With a relatively even distribution except for Mercy, Zenyatta took a 5%-6% lead over the other options.
"Do you think they will invite non-NA teams?"
11% |B|A: They should | B: Will probably remain NA-only
MLG's announcement of a $100,000 invitational tournament in Las Vegas was extremely exciting. Major League Gaming being involved with Overwatch is not too surprising since Activision Blizzard has bought them, but it's important nonetheless. MLG has a huge following for Call of Duty, and taking part in Overwatch could pull some viewers over to our beloved game. The important result of this poll indicates that the Overwatch community is heavily in favor of worldwide tournaments rather than region restricted invitationals. This makes sense because it's honestly tradition to see both EU and NA teams face off against each other in tournaments. From C9 vs Reunited to EnVyUs vs Rogue, rivaliries have been around since closed beta. With major players cropping up in the Asian regions as well, Overwatch stands to have powerful teams from every major region. Its good to see that the community is in favor of cross region competition.
Top 5 Feature article polls
"Will all three of Mendokusaii, ryb, and Wolf become permanent members of Cloud9?"
77% NoCloud 9 was a force to be reckoned with in North America. The GoogleMe roster held high rankings throughout their career, but in October the team lost 3 of its members. Debett, Grego, and Reaver departed the team. We saw announcements that Wolf, ryb, and Mendokusaii would be joining the ranks of Cloud 9. The community majority was correct in their answer that these members would not all be permanent members. We see now that Roolf from Method instead had joined Cloud 9 instead of Wolf. Rhyming names aside, there are key differences between the players. It remains to be seen how long this roster will stick together and how far they will go.
"Would you be interested in more interviews with the Asian teams?"
3% NoScr1be interviewed LunaticHai after their second place finish at the APAC Premier. The interview was well received and the community overwhelmingly wants to hear more from the Asian region. For most of Overwatch's Major LAN tournaments, the focus has been on the NA and EU regions. As bigger players begin to appear in the Asian regions, it'll be more common for them to be part of the Major LAN events. The community definitely shows an interest in the region, and perhaps soon names like LunaticHai and Afreeca Freecs Blue will as common as EnVyUs, fnatic, Misfits, and Rogue.
"Will the World Cup winner come from Europe?"
28% NoA majority of the community seems to favor a European team winning the World Cup. With a plethora of professional players on the European teams, this is not a bad bet by any means. Team Sweden has been receiving a lot of attention and has often been deemed the favorite to win. With the recent results in the World Cup, it definitely seems like a European team could emerge victorious. Which team, however, is definitely uncertain with some key upsets happening thus far.
"Are you excited for OGN's APEX later this week?"
5% |B|A: Heck yeah! | B: Not really
An interview Harsha did with DoA prior to the OGN Apex tournament explored the caster's opinions and thoughts on the game and the scene. Its good to see a continued strong interest in all of the Overwatch tournaments announced. Strong viewership and support will continue to grow the scene and allow bigger companies and sponsors to invest in the teams and tournaments we love to watch play.
"Should tactical pauses be allowed in Overwatch?"
61% NoThis is a very important question. With the introduction of pause functionality in custom games, many disconnect and server woes were alleviated. Unfortunately, every good thing can and will be exploited if people are given the opportunity. With a game as fast paced as Overwatch, tactical pauses could be a huge problem. Everything about Overwatch is run on time. If you implement tactical pauses, you allow teams to discuss strategies in game after seeing an enemy composition. Normally, this requires burning your in-game time bank. This rewards teams that can react faster because they take less time to adapt to unique situations. Implementing tactical pauses would handicap teams that are slow to react. It is, honestly, a game changing aspect that would introduce new balancing issues to the game. How long is a team allowed to pause for? How many pauses do they get? Does the length or number of pauses depend on the type of Map? Are you allowed to pause in Overtime? The community generally seems to disagree with allowing tactical pauses. It very well may be the smartest thing to do - just reserve pauses for disconnects and server issues.
If you enjoyed this recap on the month's popular and interesting poll questions, be sure to let us know! We see that, in general, two option polls have a clear majority. Multiple option polls were, understandably, less extreme. This month had the community speaking in tandem in most cases.
For more competitive Overwatch news, follow us @GosuOverwatch.
