A scandal surrounded the Overwatch League yesterday prior to the league restarting matches. One of the players from the Boston Uprising, Walid "Mouffin" Bassal, had sexual allegations towards minors.
Amidst all the news surrounding COVID-19 in esports, fans of the Overwatch League are not going to be thrilled about the news with one of the top teams in the league. New York Excelsior, who is one of the best franchises in the league since the inaugural season, announced they are temporarily stepping back from playing matches in OWL.
After the Homestands for March and April are canceled in the Overwatch League, the league announced they will move to online matches during those months. League officials just put out an official statement following California's statewide "Stay at home" order to postpone this weekend's games.
The Overwatch League announced they'd be playing the rest of their matches online, with a new schedule that both "eliminates the need for travel while maintaining a level playing field for the teams." Read more on the story here:
In the wake of COVID-19 - AKA the coronavirus - Zénith Paris has canceled all scheduled events through April 15th, including the Paris Eternal Homestand. Paris Eternal was set to host their Homestand event on April 11th and 12th, but must now either reschedule or cancel their event. Read more here:
The Overwatch League stepped outside the Blizzard Arena in Burbank, California this season. It also marked the first time a professional esports league took their games to different cities each week. This move not only exposes fans to OWL in different cities, but it also expands esports outside California. In the long term, this progression in esports is going to have a net positive.
The Seoul Dynasty Homestand set to take place in early March has been canceled to help protect the health and safety of Overwatch League players and staff, as well as fans who hoped to attend the event. Read the story here:
Four wins and two losses. That is the record so far for teams hosting their homestands this season. There is a small sample size among homestand crowds affecting matches. Players comment on how home crowds affected their level of play.
Since the new season of the Overwatch League started, people cannot help to see noticeable issues with the broadcast. There is blame towards the league for switching streaming platforms from Twitch to YouTube. These are a few of the issues plaguing OWL so far.
Two weeks surpassed in the Overwatch League. While the meta still needs to be ironed out, these players stood out to be the best for the past two weeks. Carpe, SADO, and Architect are among that group. Read more to find out who else is included.
After cancelling the homestands set for Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou in late January, Blizzard has announced the games will now be played in Seoul, both in studio and as potential extra games for the Seoul Dynasty homestand in Week 5. read more here:
A huge announcement broke the internet last Thursday. Jeff Kaplan, the lead designer of Overwatch, announced several changes to Overwatch. One of those changes is rotating hero pools. Think of it like map pools rotating each season in competitive, except it is on a weekly basis with heroes. Not only are map pools rotating in competitive, but also heroes. As soon as the developer update released, Overwatch League released a blog detailing how hero pools are going to work for the league.
Last weekend was the start of a new season of the Overwatch League. Unlike past seasons, however, this season is a little different. The Blizzard Arena is a relic of the past as it is time to move on to bigger things. Instead of games taking place at the venue located in Burbank, California, the Overwatch League is on the road every week this season. What’s good is that every fan gets to see Overwatch League and esports come to their respective cities. What’s worse is that teams, players, and the media will have to travel as well. After going to New York for the New York Excelsior Homestand last week, the environment of the arena, the atmosphere of the crowd, and the exciting matches are unlike the previous two seasons.
The last part of the Overwatch League power rankings are here before the season starts this season. Let's see who racks up the top of the list. Hint: It's San Francisco Shock, obviously.
The top 10 of the power rankings are here. There are surprising teams to see in the top 10, maybe in the top 5, even. Let's get into it and see how these remaining teams rank as we get to the top.
Time for Part 2 of the 2020 preseason power rankings. Let's round out the bottom half and see what teams rank going into the top half of the rankings.
It is that time of the year again, and I am not talking about Christmas. It is time for another season of the Overwatch League. Previously, on the Overwatch League, New York Excelsior had a heartbreaking semifinal against Vancouver, the Titans had an extraordinary season until they met the San Francisco Shock in the grand finals, and the Shock is your new 2019 Overwatch League champions. Many emotions were felt in the Blizzard Arena from heartache, laughter, cries, and elation.
Orisa, Sigma, and Baptiste are the next heroes to get some tuning in the Overwatch tool shed. Read up on what is being tuned in the next Overwatch patch.
The Overwatch team released new PTR patch notes following the controversy of "power creep." The new patch notes highlighted nerfs and buffs to heroes that will make or break the double shield meta. Read Inven Global's Chris Cuevo's thoughts on the new PTR patch notes and how it affects the current meta.
Blizzard has confirmed to be late on payments for the second season of Overwatch Contenders, totaling to less than 10% of total wages to be paid.
