Overwatch
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April Fools comes early to Overwatch, brings googly eyes to heroes
gabhernandez
It’s already April 1 in some parts of the world and that means that April Fools jokes are circulating. Overwatch is no exception. Last year, Reinhardt players were in for a surprise when they typed in chat. Instead of normal text, players would submit their text in all caps, several exclamation points, and a random Reinhardt phrase to follow. This year, the prank is much more noticeable. The developers have …
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All Overwatch League 2020 homestands have been cancelled
gabhernandez
Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Blizzard has announced that all remaining games in the Overwatch League 2020 season will be played online. This means that all remaining homestands have been cancelled. This is a disappointing decision for fans who were excited for the new homestand format in OWL’s third season. The league was looking to establish OWL as a global series of events, with each franchise hosting shows in their …
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Here’s who to play in Valorant, based on Overwatch and Apex mains
Olivia Richman
Riot’s new first person shooter, Valorant, borrows heavily from a number of other esports titles. The gameplay itself, including maps, rounds, and purchasing weapons is clearly something that comes from tactical shooter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. But the addition of abilities has former Overwatch League pro Félix “xQc” Lengyel saying that CSGO players won’t stand a chance in the game once it comes out. He likely expects Valorant to be a game where …
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More changes hit OWL S3 online matches just before play begins
gabhernandez
Due to the health concerns related to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Overwatch League continues to make decisions to keep the season alive, including most recently moving to an online-only competitive format. Although this is OWL’s third season, this was supposed to be the first year for the league’s matches to be hosted primarily in host cities. US-based fans were able to get a glimpse of what homestands were like in …
Overwatch League returns this weekend with a packed schedule
William Davis
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The Overwatch League is coming back on March 28 with a packed schedule. The Overwatch League is ready to resume activities after a prolonged hiatus. Earlier this year, the Overwatch League was forced to cancel homestands in China and South Korea. As the coronavirus spread to the rest of the world, Blizzard decided to transition into an online format and cancel all scheduled homestands. The show must go on, so …
San Francisco Shock championship skin Thunder debuts for Doomfist
gabhernandez
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Blizzard has finally released the San Francisco Shock’s Championship skin, which debuted in a Tweet with a short animation of Doomfist, the hero that received the special skin. The San Francisco Shock won the Season 2 Grand Finals championship in 2019 over the Vancouver Titans. The Shock and Titans had feuded throughout the season for the top spot in the league. Vancouver had appeared an early favorite, but San Francisco …
These are the best compositions for Echo, Overwatch’s new hero
Olivia Richman
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The Overwatch League teams had a bit of fun with Echo over the weekend, streaming friendly matches on YouTube for fans in lieu of homestand matches. While it was a chance for fans to get to see their favorite players as they await the season to start back up, it also gave some competitive insight into new DPS hero Echo. Seoul Dynasty started out the stream using Wrecking Ball and Ana …
Blizzard says Echo is the last new hero in Overwatch for 2020
Olivia Richman
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Echo is the final Overwatch hero. At least, in the year 2020. Overwatch’s lead designer Jeff Kaplan has revealed to multiple sources that the much-awaited omnic is the last hero players will receive this year. “I don’t think we’ll be seeing more heroes this year for Overwatch. We’re heavily focused on Overwatch 2 at this point. We know how much people love new heroes. We’re making a bunch of new …
Blizzard reveals Echo’s abilities, teases release date on Twitter
gabhernandez
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With the release of Echo, the Overwatch community is finally enjoying some fresh content after the longest layover between new heroes in the game’s history. Across a number of social media posts and streams, Blizzard has given fans a look into the 32nd Overwatch hero. They confirmed Echo will be a DPS character, and also delved into her background and place within the game’s lore. Echo was a product of …
Overwatch League cancels online matches after latest rescheduling
gabhernandez
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Blizzard has announced today that this weekend’s scheduled Overwatch League online matches are cancelled due to a “Safer at Home” emergency order entered by the City of Los Angeles. This is the latest in a series of upsets which has been caused by the COVID-19 outbreak around the world. The vast majority of live esports events have already been cancelled due to the virus, but this is one of the …
Echo confirmed as 32nd Overwatch hero, origin story revealed
Olivia Richman
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Echo has been officially revealed as Overwatch’s 32nd hero. “Introducing Echo. An evolutionary robot programmed with a rapidly adapting artificial intelligence, Echo represents the cutting edge of technology,” Overwatch tweeted. The android’s origin story was dropped on Wednesday morning, with the title “New Hero – Coming Soon.” It starts with Dr. Liao looking back on her life moments before her death, wondering if she did the right thing by helping …
32nd Overwatch hero likely teased in series of Twitter posts
gabhernandez
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The 32nd Overwatch hero may be arriving in the near future. The last time players got a new hero was over seven months ago on August 13, 2019. With the announcement of Overwatch 2, many have been wondering what the developer’s plans were for releasing a new hero. Blizzard developers have been hard at work on the sequel, which is the reason for the lack of fresh Overwatch content. So …
Everything we know about Blizzard’s Overwatch 2 so far
Olivia Richman
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Ever since Overwatch 2 was officially announced at BlizzCon in 2019, fans of the original title have been anxiously awaiting more information on the new heroes, game modes, features, and even the game’s release date. Will it be worth purchasing an entirely new game? Will it be used in the Overwatch League? Since we’ve been following the game’s development closely, we’ve put every detail we’ve discovered so far in one …
Overwatch League returns this weekend, reveals match schedule
Steven Rondina
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Many people are stuck at home during the ongoing coronavirus crisis and are looking for some entertainment, and the Overwatch League is finally returning to help fill that void. The league announced that it was looking to return to action in an online setting, and the first games for this return have been announced. On the weekend of March 21, the Seoul Dynasty, Los Angeles Gladiators, Los Angeles Valiant, and …
Overwatch patch 2.84 brings new skins, return of Archives missions
Olivia Richman
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Archives are back in Overwatch’s 2.84 patch. Overwatch players won’t be shocked to discover that Archives did not come with any new game modes or campaigns, but Blizzard has some new twists on old Challenge Missions to spice up your weekend, including Molten Cores and Close Quarters. Molten Cores sees eliminated opponents erupt into molten lava, a la Torbjorn’s ultimate. In Close Quarters, enemies are only vulnerable when you’re up …
Overwatch League working on online schedule after homestand shutdowns
Steven Rondina
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Overwatch League’s pivot to a homestand format has been utterly disastrous due to the spread of the coronavirus. Now the league is looking to get things back on track by taking things online. Blizzard has announced that it is currently putting together a schedule that would see the OWL played out online over the coming months. This will allow the league to both catch up on the games that have …
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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