Overwatch
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Pro Overwatch player receives game’s first permanent ban
Olivia Richman
Blizzard has given out its first ever permanent ban from competitive Overwatch. Team Stop Feeding support “tuxouxi” received a permanent ban during a recent boosting crackdown in Contenders Trials China. The rest of Team Stop Feeding, which placed first in the Trials competition, received suspensions ranging from one season to one year. This resulted in the team being disqualified from Contenders Season 1 despite not having dropped a single map. …
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New Overwatch hero Baptiste now available on PTR
Olivia Richman
Baptise’s origin story reveal had fans speculating what abilities this new support hero would have. Luckily, developer Jeff Kaplan made his first appearance since November to reveal the test kit just a day later. “We heard your pleas for more support hero variety,” Kaplan said as he introduced the 30th Overwatch hero. Baptise’s main weapon is the Medic SMG, a mid-range gun that shoots in three-round bursts. It also has …
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New support hero Baptiste revealed for Overwatch
gabhernandez
Just a few days after Blizzard released a teaser hinting at a new hero, that hero’s face and origin story have been revealed. Fans were correct in guessing that Baptiste, the focus of the original teaser, was Overwatch’s newest hero. In the teaser, Baptiste is described as being hunted by the Talon organization. Baptiste is described as adaptable, a medic, and a good shot. In his video origin story, Baptiste …
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LA Gladiators’ Bischu opens up about chronic illness
Olivia Richman
The Los Angeles Gladiator’s Aaron “Bischu” Kim was unable to participate in the first week of the Overwatch League’s second season due to chronic illness. A few weeks before the Gladiator’s first match of the season versus Seoul Dynasty, Bischu tweeted out that he was having ulcerative colitis flare-ups. He later opened up to GINX Esports TV’s Amanda Stevens about the symptoms he’s had for the past four years and …
Boston Uprising owner accused of soliciting prostitution
Olivia Richman
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Boston Uprising’s billionaire owner Robert Kraft was charged with soliciting another to commit prostitution as part of the Martin County Sheriff Department’s major human trafficking investigation. Kraft faces two charges after visiting the Orchids of Asia day spa twice, according to Detective Andrew Sharp. This was one of five day spas targeted as part of the investigation, which resulted in the arrest of 100 men. The allegations are supported by …
Shanghai Dragons break losing streak, get first OWL win
Olivia Richman
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The longest losing streak in Overwatch’s history is finally over. The Shanghai Dragons defeated Boston Uprising in a one-sided 3-1 match, breaking the team’s infamous 0-42 losing streak record. It was an emotional victory for the Dragons, and Se-yeon “Geguri” Kim could be seen crying tears of joy soon after leaving the stage. Despite a shaky start to the season, former Boston Uprising tank Young-jin “Gamsu” Noh appeared to become …
Blizzard art contest brings wild new Overwatch skin designs
Olivia Richman
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Blizzard is celebrating Overwatch fan art with an SEA Fan Art Contest. After calling all content creators to come up with skin concept art for their favorite heroes, submissions were shared on Facebook for people to vote on. Ending March 8, the fan vote makes up 20% of each design’s final score. Judged creativity accounts for another 35%, visual presentation for 25%, and the remaining 20% of the score is …
Blizzard hints at the 30th hero coming to Overwatch
gabhernandez
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Overwatch hero 30 was hinted at via the Overwatch Twitter account, which linked to a short letter giving some context to the new character’s identity. A string of commands run across the screen in a video supplied by Overwatch as if Sombra were hacking into Talon to retrieve documents. Those documents include a letter with a subject of “Cuerva Strike Team – Log Recovered”. An analyst named Trung Le Nguyen …
Hasbro to produce new line of Overwatch figures
gabhernandez
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Collectors are rejoicing after an announcement from Hasbro that they are teaming up with Blizzard to release new Overwatch action figures. The popular shooter is getting figures featuring nine of the game’s characters, including Lucio, Sombra, Tracer, Reinhardt, Anna, Soldier 76, Pharah, Mercy, and Blackwatch Reaper. The figures will have posable appendages and stand six inches tall. All the props you’d expect from each character will also be included. Pricing …
Latest Overwatch patch makes Paris live, changes damage orders
Fariha Bhatti
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A new Overwatch patch is now live across all platforms. Patch 1.33 officially introduces the new assault map set in Paris. There are also some minor changes to the order that various health types take damage when more than one type of damage is applied to a hero. The new map follows the same style as other 2CP maps such as Temple of Anubis and Hanamura. Attackers begin in the …
Carpe flashes Widowmaker skills in Fusion victory
Olivia Richman
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Philadelphia Fusion may have defeated Atlanta Reign 3-2, but the team’s biggest moment was on a map they didn’t even win. After losing the first point on control map Nepal, Fusion decided to break away from the standard GOATS composition and bring out Jae-hyeok “Carpe” Lee’s signature Widowmaker. Both teams came out of the spawn with double snipers, but it soon became clear who the dominate sharpshooter was as Carpe …
Twitch reverses controversial ban on Overwatch streamer
Olivia Richman
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Popular Overwatch streamer Fareeha Andersen is already back on Twitch after causing some controversy that the streaming service labeled as “hate speech.” Twitch had initially banned Fareeha’s account for 30 days after she called South American Overwatch players “shit” during a February 7 stream. After a public outcry and an ensuing apology by Fareeha, Twitch lessened the length of the ban, allowing her back on the platform after just seven …
Triple ultimate combo extends NYXL winning streak
Olivia Richman
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The New York Excelsior are delivering on their promise to fans by winning their second game of Season 2, defeating expansion team Washington Justice 3-1. The NYXL are starting the second Overwatch League season out strong, with two consecutive wins over the Justice and Boston Uprising. This comes after a heartbreaking semifinal elimination in Season 1 that left the team in tears. Despite a great start to its first season, …
Atlanta Reign fans upset over poor quality replica jerseys
Fariha Bhatti
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Fans of Overwatch League team Atlanta Reign were left disappointed this month after buying merchandise from the newly opened Fanatics store. The jersey were hard to read if players had purchased named variants of the design in support of particular players. This was due to the coloring of text not matching that of the official uniform. The multi-year deal with Fanatics was first announced in December 2018 and seemed to …
Guard’s Sombra not enough to break Spitfire’s winless start
Olivia Richman
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The London Spitfire had a secret weapon going into their second match of the season, but it wasn’t enough to beat expansion team Paris Eternal. After Spitfire couldn’t manage even one percent on control map Illios, the Season 1 champions brought out Overwatch League newcomer Hee-dong “Guard” Lee. London knew they had to break away from the GOATS meta if they wanted to keep up with Paris Eternal, and Sombra …
Surefour makes Overwatch League history with Symmetra
William Davis
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We’ve now officially seen it all in the Overwatch League. The Los Angeles Gladiators’ Lane “Surefour” Roberts pulled out Symmetra and became the first player to ever deal damage with the hero. Several times players have trolled the crowd by selecting Symmetra in the spawn room, then immediately switching to other, more viable heroes when it’s time for the fighting to start. But Surefour stuck with the hero and put …
Overwatch has become a mainstay in competitive gaming, though the Blizzard creation hasn’t always had a smooth road to travel. From massive peaks of success to major controversies and dips in popularity, the Overwatch franchise has proved resilient, still playing host to legions of players and fans.
Along the way, the game served as host to one of the most ambitious projects in the growing history of esports, and saw the release of a sequel that changed in form and function multiple times before finally releasing to the public.
What is Overwatch?
Overwatch is a prototypical “hero shooter,” a game that combines first-person shooting gameplay with heroic abilities that are unique to each of the game’s diverse cast of characters. One character might swing a giant hammer and wield a protective shield behind which teammate can take cover, while another might zip around the game’s world with twin guns blazing, warping time and space at will.
That variety of characters and playing styles is a big reason for Overwatch’s success. When no two characters play exactly alike, the sheer variety available in the game becomes a draw. Throw in colorful visuals, dynamic and responsive gameplay, and action-packed battles between teams of opposing players all combining their different abilities together, and you can begin to understand the popularity of Overwatch.
When developers at Blizzard first released Overwatch, there was nothing else quite like it. The closest any major release had come was likely Team Fortress 2, which also featured teams of opposing characters wielding varied abilities in prolonged battles. But Overwatch leaned even further into the unique qualities of its characters, including their presentation. Across PCs and consoles alike, the game proved to be a sensation upon its 2016 release.
What happened to the Overwatch League?
Originally founded in 2017, the Overwatch League was meant to serve as a long-term competitive hub for the game’s professional teams and players prior to its official shutdown in 2024. The league was created with big ambitions in mind, as Blizzard, by then partnered with massive publisher Activision, planned to seed local teams in a variety of cities spread across the world. The idea was to emulate traditional professional sports by rooting pro teams in certain cities and regions in the hopes of cultivating local fan followings.
This was a big change compared what had become the standard in esports, with esports organizations representing themselves to their fans regardless of region. At most, broad regions such as North America or Europe were most often marketed to by individual teams. To hone that in on a specific city was a significant change.
Activision-Blizzard also took the step of making pro Overwatch a closed system; that is, high-level tournaments were broadly restricted outside of official OWL events. While this exclusivity offered theoretical opportunity for the OWL through scarcity, it was also a different approach relevant to the established norm in esports, which traditionally saw smaller grass-roots events feed into a game’s highest levels as tournaments gradually scaled up in prominence and prize offerings.
Demanding tens of millions of dollars from investors who sought to own an OWL team and signing big-money exclusive broadcast deals with streaming platforms, the OWL got itself off to a hot start. But concerns over flagging viewership and overall revenue struggles persisted as the league marched forward. Its intended model proved unsustainable, and the league was eventually shut down.
Do people still play Overwatch?
Despite the fate of OWL, Overwatch remains broadly popular in its current form: Overwatch 2. The game remains under active development at Activision-Blizzard, regularly receiving new in-game events and more unique heroes with special abilities that allow the game to be played in different ways.
The release of Overwatch 2 was itself not without some controversy, as Blizzard’s plans for its contents changed and shifted through the sequel’s development cycle, and the final version of OW2 released as more of a continuation of the original game than a distinctly different sequel. But that continuation still preserved the gameplay and overall experience so many players had come to love about OW. For them, getting more of the same ultimately was not an issue.
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